Beachin' it - Virginia Style

From time to time, JD is asked to teach conference sessions for web coding in accordance with his published book.  I am so proud of him and all the he has accomplished professionally.  When I have the free time, I like to travel with him to these conferences.  When he mentioned a beach location, I was game.

He only needed to teach one day, so I thought a five-day stay would suffice for a mini Graffam vacation.  We stayed a beautiful hotel, the Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront.  Our room had a wonderful balcony overlooking the sandy beaches and ocean waves.

The first night, we went to dinner with a few of the hosts for the conference.  On Saturday, I shopped and strolled around while JD was teaching.  At 5 p.m., we were officially on vacation.  Saturday night, we ate at Mahi Mah's, a seafood restaurant on the boardwalk.  The food was fantastic.

Here's JD opinion of the oysters:

On Sunday, we decided to cram as much as possible into one day.  Not really sure why, but this seemed like a good idea at the time.  After a run along the boardwalk, we headed over to Norfolk to see the Battleship Wisconsin.  Not only can you explore this hulking ship which sits in the harbor, there is a really neat museum adjacent to the ship that explains the history of this boat.  Here we are on the ship:

I'm pretty sure I could be a Navy captain, right?

JD paid $2 to get the "hurricane wind" experience in this booth.  He thought it would at least dry his hair from standing out in the rain, but he was disappointed:

And here is what I am pretty sure I would look like as a mermaid:

After the tour, we headed over to the Botanical Gardens because I am a nerd who loves flowers.  Seeing as how it was actively raining at the time, we had the grounds to ourselves.  I don't get to travel to Virginia often, so we made the best of it:

Monday was spent at the aquarium in the morning, and on the beach that afternoon.  The aquarium had all sorts of sea life, with exhibits for all ages:

It was fairly chilly most of the time we were at Virginia Beach, but the temps approached 80 on Monday and the skies cleared up.  We had a blast jumping in the waves and walking along the beach.  I was surprised how sandy the beaches were - I thought they would be rocky or hard surfaces.  After a full day at the beach, we ate at one of the best restaurants on the boardwalk - in our very own hotel:

On Tuesday, we explored Colonial Williamsburg and hit up an outlet mall.  Colonial Williamsburg was really quaint and very historical.  However, I have very little patience for "guided tours."  After the first incredibly slow and poorly executed reenactment of the Virginia governor vacating his post, I was ready to go crazy.  We broke off from the group and explored the town.  Hence, no pictures.

We had a wonderful time.  As far as beaches go, this is definitely a top destination for a family getaway.  I hope to visit again soon!