The Beach - Day 1

The kids were beyond excited when we finally got access to our room. We had been in the car for four hours, having left Georgetown at 8:30 after dropping my Mom off at Starbucks, and having stopped once for gas at $2.15 we could not decide otherwise and another time for lunch seeing how everyone was getting hungry and tired from sitting in the car. Considering the downpour we had been driving in since we left DC making the trip in four hours was a good record. Initially we had planned on visiting either the Children's Museum of Virginia or the Virginia Air and Space Museum before lodging in the hotel, but JR was too excited for the beach to want to do anything else. We could have been granted free entry into either attraction with our Maryland Science Center family membership, but decided to put our ASTC benefits to a later use.

The room was amazing. It had a bedroom with two queen beds, a jack-and-jill bathroom separated even further from the bedroom with a walk in closet and a sink, a living room and a kitchen complete with a fridge, a microwave, a sink and enough counter space to cook a meal! A dining table with three chairs and a work desk completed the room. It was more than I had imagined we would get when I had asked for an upgrade. As a matter of fact, the front desk attendant upgraded our room even before I made the ask. "You are all taken care of," he said, and we were! We were even comped for breakfast at their bistro for Friday morning, just because! 79$ a night plus tax certainly goes far in VA Beach in the winter!

Once in the room with all our luggage: one suitcase, one gym bag, a back back, a briefcase, a Dora rolling bag, a cooler, a stroller and a purse, JR got busy putting things away. Once done, it was time to head to the beach. After much nagging the rain had finally stopped and with the temperature nearing 70 that day, it was the perfect afternoon to set our feet in the sand. In a wise move I had packed the kids rain boots thinking it would be wet that weekend, it turned out that the kids themselves got wet while nature stayed dry.

In their jeans, boots and jackets, the kids ran onto the shore. Although cooler and windier by the sea, the kids didn't mind the change in climate. With her love for collecting "treasure" JR got busy filling her bag with seashells and sand. Calling out "kikkik, kikkik" Yousef enthusiastically followed the sea gulls, and the waves. Closer and closer he got to the water and as one wave headed his way, his interest drew him further in. Unfortunately with his rubber boots on he sank in the wet sand and his bulky coat made it difficult for him to escape as the wave drew back into the sea. The next thing we saw was Yousef flat on his back surrounded by sea and sand. The look on his face was priceless, the thoughts in our minds were too! He was done chasing the waves!

When we had checked in that day they had informed us about the limited housekeeping services they were offering Christmas Day. "No problem," I had said, "I do not think we would be needing it." That changed soon enough. With Yousef's fall on the beach and JR's excavations they came back loaded with sand: in their boots, in their pants, on their jackets and even in their pockets. The room was beyond recoverable, it was in serious need of housekeeping. And so were the kids!

One bubble bath later, though, they were as good as new, but still in need of entertainment. Opening some Christmas gifts, unfortunately fell a little short of their expectations; it only lasted a few minutes and then they were on about swimming. "Bubble," Yousef would repeat looking out the balcony and seeing the waves crash on the shore. "Want to go swimming," JR would ask and they would both sing in unison until we relented. It was pool time. JR put one of her new swimming suits on, Yousef put his from last year and Jeff and I dressed in the ones we have had for a while. We were all matching in our blue colored suits as we headed back the elevator.

Hot tub, heated pool and many ins and outs later I was the first to be done with the pool; the hot tub was getting to be too hot and the heated pool was too cold for me. I promised Yousef more "bubbles" upstairs. And this is how the second bubble bath, and the second trashing of the bathroom, came about. Armed with paper cups and unending energy Yousef proceeded to empty the tub onto the bathroom floor, his first all-time favorite things to do. And while he was having fun, he had to be taken out of the tub for not listening to requests to stop what he was doing. He ran around naked in the room climbing on everything he saw and throwing anything he could find behind the couch and tables while screaming "uh-oh", his second all-time favorite thing to do.

Dinner time came upon us as every kid friendly, non-fancy, restaurant was closing. We found ourselves driving around town and calling up places only to be told, "we close at 6:00pm;" it was 5:50! In our search we finally drove into a shopping strip with Trader Joe's and a few other places. Vietnamese sounded good, especially when they closed at 7:00pm! That the food was actually tasty and enjoyable was a bonus! We had one B2, one M2 while JR and Yousef slurped on number 12. After one more iced tea refill it was time to call it a night.

Virginia Beach Day 1 came to an end a little after 9:00pm.