June 1, 2015

North Carolina Day Six - Drive up and Virginia Beach

After being so sick last night I was a little worried about today’s drive.  We had to do all our packing this morning and since I was still moving slowly we didn’t make it out of the hotel until almost 11:30.  My fever had broken in the night and I was much better but I still felt weak and sick, the way you do after a stomach bug.  James was starting to feel sick too and some discomfort.  But we were determined to make it as far as we could.

We hit a small snag right off when the highway suddenly ended miles from our exit.  It was very strange, the road went on but all four lanes were completely closed by construction cones.  There was no easy way to get to the road we wanted so we ended up changing our route and heading east instead of north.  Since we were going that direction anyway we decided to stop by Virginia Beach and drive up the coast via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

It was pretty slow going out to Virginia Beach.  We had at least a hundred miles on a freeway rather than on the interstate highway but the real trouble was that everyone else had begun to get sick.  We had to stop many times.  I was finally feeling better although I had a lot of sympathy for the affected parties. 

It was six o’clock by the time we arrived at Virginia Beach and there was a fair amount of traffic.  We considered getting a hotel there but they were very expensive.  We did find parking though for a short stop at the beach.

Me and my boys at Virginia Beach
Will runs from the waves
The boys were very happy to get out and play on the sand.  Colin immediately made friends with a group of kids and joined in their football game.  He can make friends so easily and loves to be in the center of a crowd.  Charlie too found a friend, a little girl around two years old with curls and a cute dress followed him around the playground.  It was absolutely adorable. 

Colin makes friends quickly
Playing in the water
Running in the waves
We went down to the water too and the boys had fun running in and out of the waves.  Jon was so happy.  He loves running in the water and despite our warnings about wet clothes he got completely soaked.  It brings me joy to watch him play.

Enjoying a break from our drive
Me and James on Virginia Beach
We spent a few more minutes back in the dry sand and Charlie, Jon and Will enjoyed chasing seagulls up and down the beach.  Will and Charlie went off for a bit and played in the sand.  I love watching these soon-to-be brothers play together.

Will plays in the sand
We were back in the car and headed out of town by seven-thirty.   The sun was setting as we crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and we stopped part of the way across to enjoy the view.  There was a pier with a lot of fishermen and Charlie was very upset when he saw a ray that one of them had caught. “Oh no!  That’s bad!  They have to go back in the water.”  I tried to explain about fishing but he was adamant that people had to leave the fish in the water.

All of us on the pier in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge
James and his boys
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is astoundingly long.  I thought I could see the other side but no, it was just more of the bridge.  The boys enjoyed it although they wished that the two underwater tunnels were made of glass so that they could see out.

The soon-to-be five Freitags
After the bridge we had a bit of trouble when Charlie started to get sick again.  When I was sick last night he tried to comfort me with the story of how he had thrown up blue and then felt better but now he was really worried about throwing up again.  Thankfully he didn’t! 

It was time for us to find a place to stay but the first five hotels we passed were all full.  There were not a lot of options on this road but eventually we found an vacancy around ten-thirty.  The boys were all exhausted and fell asleep pretty quickly.  I’m hoping for an early start tomorrow.  When we are traveling though I pack a duffle bag with all our overnight things so we only have to bring one back in instead of unpacking the whole car.  It makes a huge difference for our time in and out.

Jon held tight to Daddy's arm as he was falling asleep.
Everyone is sleeping and I am off to join them.
Goodnight!

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