Memorial Day Weekend

It may not feel like summer in many areas of the country, but here in Virginia, summer got off to a roaring start!  After our arrival at Davis Lakes Resort, we got all settled into our site for the next couple of months,

and we saw Nicolas’s new site that he had moved into at the end of last summer.  It’s a lot bigger than his old site, and he’s got some decent shade for at least part of the day.

He was at work during the day, but home most evenings for dinner with us – we were happy to have him over, and he was happy not to cook!

Summer had definitely arrived, as the temperatures that week rose well into the 90s every afternoon!  Our air conditioners were getting a workout, and we discovered that the middle A/C was not working at all – it would try to start several times, but eventually just shut down.  Luckily, we had two others, and we never run more than 2 at one time anyway.  One afternoon there was a local RV Repairman in the park, so he stopped to take a look and determined that our start capacitor on that unit was burned up.  Tom called around a few places, and found a shop to order a new part for us from Dometic.  It arrived a week later, and Tom replaced it – now we have three working A/C’s again!

Memorial Day weekend arrived, and the campground filled up – it was going to be a beautiful weekend, but HOT!  Nicolas had duty on Friday, but then he was off Saturday – Tuesday for a nice long weekend!

When he got home from work on Saturday morning, we decided to take a drive down to Virginia Beach for the Pungo Village Strawberry Festival. 

There were cars on display,

typical rides, fair food, and craft booths,

multiple stages for music,

and delicious-smelling food!

One booth was selling strawberry tacos, which sounded interesting, so we tried a couple.

They were waffle cones in the shape of a taco shell, filled with strawberries and topped with whipped cream and candy sprinkles.  YUM!

After our snack, it was time for the next pig race, and we grabbed seats on the bleachers.

It was pretty hokey – several pig races and a couple of weiner dog races – but it was cute and fun, so we watched and cheered!

After the festival, we headed back to the campground.  Saturday was the Memorial Day potluck dinner, so we joined the rest of the campers for dinner and then Nicolas went out with friends in the evening.

Sunday was forecast to be hot and sunny, so we made plans to go to Virginia Beach for the day, and then Nicolas was taking Tom & I out to dinner in Norfolk for our birthdays.

It was a beautiful day at the beach!

 

There are many beaches to choose from – the Boardwalk in downtown Virginia Beach, Chic’s Beach on the Chesapeake Bay, Croatan Beach which is a little south of Virginia Beach, in a residential area near the Navy bases, and then Sandbridge Beach which is the most remote, near the North Carolina border.  We decided to go to Croatan Beach because Nick said that parking is free and easier to find, and it’s a little less crowded than the Boardwalk area.

Tom and I walked along the beach, almost to the Boardwalk, but there’s a channel that separates the two beaches, so you can’t get from one to the other without crossing a bridge.  There were lots of people fishing near the channel, and the Boardwalk looked crowded.

We could see tour boats, jet ski tours, and parasailers – it was definitely a great day to enjoy the beach!

Walking back towards where we were sitting, it was less crowded and a little calmer.

There are lots of beautiful houses on the beach.

There was a group of young guys with their skim boards, jumping the waves.  They moved into the area right in front of us (I guess the waves were good there), and they were fun to watch.

Nicolas went for a swim (brave soul!) . . . and he said it was COLD, but Tom thought he needed to see for himself . . .

Yep, that’s cold!!

It was a wonderful day, and after a few hours we were getting a little crispy!  We headed home to clean up and go to dinner.

We found a restaurant online that looked pretty good – Freemason Abbey – and Nicolas said that he had heard good things about it and had been wanting to try it.  It was in downtown Norfolk in an old church.

All of our meals were excellent, and we greatly enjoyed Nicolas’ company!  Thanks for the birthday dinner, Nick!!

We even got a couple of beer glasses for our birthdays . . . we let Nicolas keep those!

On Monday, we stuck around the campground and helped Nicolas take care of some projects on his camper, and on Tuesday he hung out with some of his friends.  It was a really nice weekend, and we loved spending all that time with him!  A great kickoff to summer!