Virginia
I’ve been fortunate in my life to of been to a lot of places. Not as many as some but more than others. I’ve seen a lot of historical locations. I’ve seen a lot of tourist areas, and I’ve seen a lot of ‘must haves’. This vacation, by far has topped them all.
I’m a little uncertain as to why this has been the best vacation. Is it the company I kept? Is it being in control of what I wanted to do? Is it the fact that everything went exactly as planned? Or is it the fact that at the end of the day, I was in a hotel room all by myself not having to share my much deserved off time with anyone? That really has got to be the most selfish statement ever made, I know. And really, with thoughts like that, how is someone supposed to ever find love?
So, to pick up where I left off in my last blog entry. I did indeed go back to Paddy’s pub Friday night. Bill’s friend Stephanie from the night before met me there and we hung out. The guys were right; it was really packed in there. I’m a little claustrophobic in crowds, but we were lucky enough to get a table up front and didn’t even notice all the people. I met a really nice guy. We hit it off right away because I overheard him telling someone he was a travel writer. Being that my dream job would be a travel photographer, I couldn’t help but jump into his conversation. We hit it off and talked the entire rest of the night. Figures I find a really nice guy and at the end of the day he chooses to never come to the mid-west. It’s his least favorite area of the country. Oh well, he was a great guy all the same.
I left Saturday morning, with only a tiny bit of a hang over. My contacts were on strike, so I was extremely glad I brought my glasses along! This time I was able to see I-95 and Hwy 58 in the daytime. I really think I-95 is the most beautiful Hwy I’ve ever been on. Although the trip felt longer this time, probably since I had a remote idea of where I was going, the landscape was so pretty to look at. I wished I’d had the time and opportunity to pull over and snap some photos. One thing I did discover, is NC and Virginia are really particular when it comes to who they allow to pull over on the shoulder and where! Side note, NC may have the most beautiful hwy, but Virginia had the most confusing! Ugh!
I was instructed to call my Navy friend as soon as I hit the outskirts of Norfolk. He stays off the ship with friends on the weekends. I did just that and by good timing on his part, I ended up following him the last 20 or 30 miles into town and to my hotel. By doing this, I didn’t get to drive through the cool tunnel again. Oh well, it made it all the more worth being stuck in traffic on the way out of town that Friday night. I was starving so as soon as I dropped my bags off we went to eat, then headed for my tour of the beach.
I didn’t realize it would be such a distance to the beach. Not that it was a long ways away; I just thought it was down the road so to speak. The Chief pulled into a parking spot facing the beach, took in a deep breath and said "well..here’s the ocean, now let’s go" ala Chevy Chase. I didn’t let him off that easy. We got out and started walking down the boardwalk. Holy Smokes it was cold!!! February is not the most ideal time to visit Virginia Beach, but timing couldn’t be helped and all be darned if I was going to come this far and not actually see the beach! We stayed about 30 minutes or so, long enough to snap a few pictures, and then it was time for driving tour of Norfolk. We went through one of the other Naval bases; the name escapes me right now. It’s where all the pilots were and finished at his favorite spot in the entire city. The Pick-n-Pull. ha! Yes, I’m serious. If given the option, the Chief would build a vehicle piece by piece all from parts found at the Pick-n-Pull. Boys will be boys… The evening ended with drinks at the hotel bar and lots of reminiscing. The Chief was my first boyfriend…I couldn’t of asked for a better one.
Sunday started a little later than planned. Although the Chief was on time picking me up, I was on the phone with a friend taking a computer tech support call. Over 800 miles away and I still get the panicked phone calls. Oh well, I do what I can. Turns out I couldn’t help her-but I sure gave it a try.
We headed straight to his ship-The Theodore Roosevelt. Although I call him ‘The Chief’, I tend to forget there’s meaning behind that title. I certainly remembered when we hit the gate of that base. He showed his ID and he’s called Sir and saluted. My ID isn’t even checked because of who I was with. Wow. When we got to the dock (at least that’s what I call it) I started taking pictures of the ship and someone hollered down that I couldn’t do that. Ahh crap, I’d only been 15 minutes and I’d already gotten in trouble! The Chief asked why and the sailor said he didn’t know, he was just told it was against the rules. The Chief then asks someone else, superior to himself. This man said he hadn’t heard that either but he’d find out. By the time we climbed the [very] steep stairs to the ship there were count them FIVE security officers waiting for us! Oh my Gosh, I only took 3 pictures!!! The security officers said pictures were fine, I just wasn’t allowed to take photos of security personnel. Whew, no problem. Hadn’t taken any pictures of them.
The tour of the ship was awesome. I was surprised at exactly how much of the ship I was allowed to see. When we boarded, I was asked for my ID this time, in fact they kept it and exchanged it for a visitors pass. Then there were more exchanges of Sir and salutes between the sailors and the Chief when they saw his ID. I know it’s completely normal, but this is the guy I’ve known since he was 17 years old, it’s just so strange…but I digress. Once I was forced to climb 10 flights of stairs, oh not just any stairs but extremely steep metal stairs, we started at the top of the ship and worked our way down. He was an outstanding tour guide, I only wish I could have retained a fraction of the information he pumped into my ear. Everything from when they are out at sea and in prime operating mode a plane can depart from their flight deck every 15 seconds, to how much toilet paper they use in one day.
I got to see the Bridge, this really did surprise me. I didn’t expect to have access to that area. What struck me in there? All this fancy navigation equipment and what did they have? This gigantic Garmin GPS system. Hey way to represent the home town!
The tour ended with lunch in the mess hall. The food wasn’t bad. Best part? Free ice cream! yumm! Worst part? The realization that my friend really was being sent to Iraq in just a few short weeks. He’s explained in great detail the job he’ll be doing and how safe he’ll be. I believe him. However, I always counter with the fact that there is no place in that country that is completely safe…
So that’s it. For anyone who’s still hanging in there, thank you. I’m really just writing this for me as a record of my trip so I don’t forget anything. The rest of my trip was fairly uneventful. A visit to the Navy Exchange, a movie, an extremely overcrowded flight home-one portion next to a woman who coughed and sneezed the entire time, at one point asked the flight attended for reassurance that there was a motion sickness bag near by. Oh guess what, did I mention I have cold now? Humm, wonder how I got that? ha!
Well, back to the grind. This means I get to go from this to my reports for work just like every other weekend.
Side note. It has been gorgeous here this weekend. I took Katie out to the lake yesterday for a run (she ran-not me. I’m not crazy!), she ran straight into the lake! She didn’t even act like it was cold. Mind you on another section of the same lake still had ice on it. Guess it pays to have two coats. We went out again today with my brother and my niece for a nice long walk. We’re guessing maybe 3 miles or so. I let her off leash in several areas today and she ran straight into the creek for a quick swim. I guess in her world the water is always just fine.
Thanks for always coming by to see me....