Virginia Beach

Pat and I drove to Virginia Beach (in Virginia) over the 4th of July week to visit her father Oscar and his wife Pat. The elder Pat has a coffee cup that says "Pat with a Capital P", so to avoid confusion we have come to refer to her as Capital P Pat. Similarly, since I have the same first name as lowercase p Pat's ex, they just called me Ted for the duration of our visit. Ted was the name of one of Pat's boyfriends when she was in college. I dunno, it makes sense on some planet.

We drove down the Delaware/Maryland/Virginia Peninsula (called the Delmarva Peninsula by those in the know). Lots of fruit stands and dense forest.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is a pretty impressive structure. It spans about 17 miles.

There is a fishing pier about 3 miles from the end of the bridge (and from Virginia Beach). We stopped to check out the scene.

We watched fireworks at a park that they call Mount Trashmore. Formerly a municipal landfill, it's now one of the largest hills in the area.

One thing that kinda ruined the experience for us was that the fireworks scared the heck out of the ducks and geese that live at the lake. They clustered together into a huge swarm and swam up and down the shore looking for shelter. It was pretty clear that some of the babies had been separated from their mothers.

An extra treat of the trip was that we got to visit our old friend Mike Willis on the way home. Mike now lives in Washington, DC.