Day 8 Travel Home

Day 8

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Traveling back home.

We started the day waking up before the alarm went off at 3:10am
The alarm went off at 3:20am.

Here we are at 3:40am filling up for the last time.

It's going to be a long day.

We finally arrived at Atlanta.
Had to change terminals.
Took this train to try to catch our transfer plane.

We are currently sitting at Atlanta International Airport.

We've been here since 4:30am this morning.

The flights are all full until 7pm tonight. We may not get home until 12:45am  tomorrow morning.

That all changed when we were called at the last minute to board the 1:15pm flight.

Here are a few shots of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline in our descent to O'Hare

We landed safe and sound.
Dad and Mom picked us up at Arrivals at 3:30pm.
Took us to Al's for some much needed eats.

We made it home by 5pm.

Look what we found when we got home:

That's BEN! Painting the brick grey.

It's all good!

We're safe and sound back home sweet home!

Ahhh Yes!

Day 7 Jamestown

Day 7

Friday, October 9, 2015

I didn't realize how full today was until now when I looked through all these pictures.

They tell the story...

We started the day in Jamestown. Here is a Powhatan Indian Village.

Lots of educational groups today.

 

 Went down to see the ships.

 Jan wanted to take this photo. I obliged.

 Jan did not want me to take this photo, but I did anyway.
She'll be mad this is on the blog site.

 Now, that's much better.

 Jan training to be the next historian story teller.

More pictures of the ships.

We watched as a colonist showed us what it takes to load a musket.
Watch Jan jump.

 Preaching to the choir.

 Plaques in front of the Episcopal Church.

 Right side.

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360 video of Fort James

 The Main Church in Fort James.

 We ate our lunch outside the park at this display of flags.
The Illinois flag is 5th from the left second row.

If you look closely you'll see the ships at the dock.
The pier runs on the horizon to the left (see next picture)...

...where the ferry approaches the end of the dock visible 1/3 of the way in from the right.

We enjoyed driving Colonial Parkway.
Here are a few more pictures of this fine drive.

I liked the rock cuts so I took one more picture.

This is the only tunnel on Colonial Parkway which goes directly below Colonial Williamsburg.

We visited Colonial Williamsburg one last time.

 Of the three large buildings in Williamsburg, this Episcopal Church is the only original building.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other famous families attended this church.

 One more look at the Governor's Palace.

 Our last stop at Williamsburg before heading to home was at the Trellis restaurant.
The AVIS ticket agent mentioned this place, so we took him up on his recommendation.

 We were already stuffed, but why not get dessert?
We did. It was called "Death by Chocolate"
This is the BEFORE picture.


This is the AFTER picture.
Had we finished we would have been victims of the title.

One last stop before our home arrival was at Yankee Candle where we bought some gifts.

Day 6 Virginia Beach

Day 6

Thursday, October 8, 2015

We started today at Williamsburg. 

We missed the plantation because it was closed due to weather the last time we visited.

Here's a look at the living plantation at Colonial Williamsburg.

 Jan checking out the entrance sign.

 One of the "planters". Not called "farmers".

In the kitchen. The women did most of the work in the plantation.

However, the men did most of the hard labor jobs in the field.

Here's a 360 look at the plantation.

I stumbled with my words when I got to the meat cabin - I couldn't come up with the "smoke house".

Unfortunately this happens more often than I'd like to admit as I get older.

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A 360 degree look at the living plantation.

ON TO VIRGINIA BEACH

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Here's a summary of our day trip from a geographical perspective...

On the way to Virginia Beach we stopped at Norfolk downtown and visited the 

Norfolk and Southern Train Museum. I captured that visit on another blog page.

If you'd like to check it out, click on this link

As we continued on to to Virginia Beach we had to get through Chesapeake Bay.

In order to do that we had to go under...check this out...

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It took a little over an hour to arrive at Virginia Beach.

 Virginia Beach from the south end looking north.

 Jan and I noticed the barges going by. 

I tried to capture this one.

But, as you can see, it didn't turn out too good.

The week before we arrived there were two Nor-eastern storms and a hurricane that hit the southeast coast.

The locals said the real damage was done by the two Nor-easterns that hit before the hurricane.

It left behind debris from the sea.

The hurricane didn't hit land, but went out to sea instead.

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Here's a 360 degree view of Virginia Beach

 We continued north on the beach.

 We didn't have sun screen so I figured out a way to protect my neck.

Looks kinda corney, but it worked.

Jan and I went on the pier shown on the map.

We sat a spell watching the fishing people do their thing.

Very relaxing.

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I saw these birds flying in "V" formation.

I thought they were geese.

Turns out? They were sea-gulls.

I didn't know they knew how to fly in formation.

Interesting.

I finally got a shot of two barges carrying intermodal containers.

The one of the left was going north (left) for OCL.

The one on the right was going south (right) for NY Harbor Freight.

We finished our visit to Virginia Beach with a Ben & Jerry's ice cream treat and then headed home.

Day 5 Bikes & Back to Williamsburg

Day 5

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Today we rode bikes and then we made a return visit to Colonial Williamsburg.

Later tonight we'll watch the Cubs/Pirates game to see who plays the Cardinals for the NL Title.

 This bridge is just after mile 5.

 We stopped here to use the restroom and scope out our path.

 Started at Unlimited Bikes in Williamsburg. We proceeded to the Chickahominy Riverfront Trailhead.  We made it to mile 12 in Sherwood Forest (just off the picture to the left).

 Getting ready to go over this bridge.

 At the summit. Jan made me take off my hat and glasses. 

It exposes my bald head.

Here's Jan with her bike as I faced the other directions where my picture was taken.

.22 seconds

I liked Sherwood Forest so I grabbed my phone and took this video.

My bike on the move. 

 Jan took this shot for Candy Boulay.

She gave us the bag I am wearing as a back pack.

And yes, this is as far as we went today. 

We should've turned around at mile 11 or even 10. 

We were way too exhausted when we got back to the bike shop.

 We stopped here for lunch. Our very own lunch site.

When we were sitting, I noticed there was a bird's next still on the fallen tree.

The next picture shows a close up of that next...

 To see what the bird's nest would look like you'll need to turn your head to the side and imagine the tree upright.

 Going back over the bridge we crossed earlier.

 End of the day. Back at the bike shop.

 We went back to Colonial Williamsburg to catch the tour at the Governor's Mansion.

This was our tour guide.

 The main entrance of the Governor's Mansion.

Note the guns and swords on display. 

Yes, they were actually used in battle.

The Governor's Mansion gardens. Very nice.

We took note of the ornate handiwork above the back entrance.

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A panoramic view of the gardens.

 We kept finding some surprises as we went back deep into the gardens.

I especially like the bold walls.

 Some area just moving around counter clockwise.

Last shot in panoramic 90 degree view.

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A 360 degree view of the side grounds. 

Walking back to the car. Another great day behind us.

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Saw this CSX coal train. I had to take a couple of videos.

This is on the way to and from the Revolutionary City.

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One last view of the CSX unit coal train. 

Led by 2 CSX locomotives.