The weekend in review...
What a great anniversary vacation it turned out to be! Although, I'm really glad to be back home and with my child...I missed her terribly! *sighs*
Anyway for those who might want to know what all we did in the past 4 days...
Friday - We left Reading around 8am and got down to VA Beach area by 3pm (we stopped twice, once for breakfast and again for lunch). It was raining the further south we drove which was disappointing, especially when driving over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel since we couldn't see much. Oh well. When we got into the heart of VA Beach it was really beginning to pour, so we decided to go to the Virginia Marine Sciene Museum (where we got Ariel a stuffed River Otter) which turned out to be a good stop to kill a little over 2 hours until camberne, her husband, Phil and her son, Geoffrey got home from work and school. We went to their house around 5:30ish and got the tour. They have a lovely home and on prime golf course property!! Really nice! We decided to go to Uno's (Chicago Grill) Restaurant for dinner before going to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Dinner was great! Our waiter was awesome and the food was sooooo gooood. Yummy! Anyway - the movie was incredible I thought! I hadn't any expectations though to be honest. It wasn't a let-down which was very good.
Saturday - We left around 9am to head on up to Busch Gardens, Williamsburg. As we got into the park (around 11am since we stopped for breakfast along the way) we were able to see their newest attraction R.L. Stine's Haunted Lighthouse. That was a surprise! Wasn't expecting some things to happen that happened. Really kewl 4-D experience. The rest of the day was just splendid as the weather was threatening but it never rained and it remained kind of on the cool side all day. It was Michael's first time to BG and he thought it was a very nice park. We left the park around 6pm and headed back down to the VA Beach area for a nice romantic dinner. We saw in one of the various coupon/tourbook thingamajiggys that I had grabbed along the way an add for a Japanese Steakhouse called Otani. Well, I didn't have the coupon book with me as I left it back at Alice and Phil's place. All we could remember was that it was in the Hilltop Shopping Center. Hmm... So, we go to the shopping center looking for Otani's but ended up stumbling across Shogun Japanese Steak House, which had tons of cars in their parking lot and a huge stretch limo Humvee outside and it was 8:30pm! We decided to eat here instead and it was a good thing too. Man, was the food excellent! The chef was funny and we chatted with a local family that was there too. What a good time. Alice and Geoffrey were still up watching a Friends DVD and were surprised to see us back "home" so early. I chatted with them for a bit, recapping my day before heading up and joining Michael for bed.
Sunday - We got up a bit earlier today as we had to be outta' the house by 8am. We said our goodbye's and THANK YOU's to Alice, Phil and Geoffrey too (oh, and Scout - what a great dog!) and away we went. Again, we stopped for breakfast en route to Paramount's Kings Dominion. I was very excited about going to this amusement park as neither Michael nor I have ever been there before. We arrived around 10:15am and the brochure said they opened at 10:30am but there were people already riding some of the rides...huh? We asked one of the workers what time they opened and she said 9:30am...damn brochure! Anyway, we started our day there by riding Berserker *shudders* - that was kinda' scary. I got to eat lunch at BubbaGump's Shrimp Shack! It was so kewl. Best thing though? This park has 12 roller coasters in all! We got on 10 of them (the two we couldn't ride was because one was broken down and the other, well it turns out I was too short and Michael didn't want to ride it without me...ain't he sweet?). All in all, it was a good day. Very sunny and warm and we got done with pretty much everything by 6pm. A very good day indeed. I bought a souvenir shirt and mailed my mom a postcard as I usually do when on vacation (and got her a thimble for her collection as well). But that was it as far as souvenirs go. The ride home was another story altogether as I got extremely ill. Somewhere I must have eaten something that just didn't agree with me (Michael's thinking was it may have been the shrimp since he didn't have any and was feeling fine). Anyway, the car ride was quite an adventure. I ended up getting sick in a plastic bag along the way and we had to pull over to an Arby's we found. I went in and got "really sick" then. Gross. Michael ate dinner while I was in the bathroom losing my lunch. And then all at once...I felt much better. We were off again and making good time until I told Michael I was hungry. So now it was on to find me someplace to eat. We eventually found a McDonald's and made it home by 10:30pm. Still made pretty decent time all things considered. We both unpacked and went to bed.
Monday - We slept in! YAY! Then around 11:30am we left to go to Willow Grove area to get our child. My mother-in-law was visiting her mom (aka Nana - Michael's grandmother and Ariel's great-grandmother) and we decided at the last minute that we could go and visit for a while and get our daughter back all in one shot. So we made it down there by Noon-ish and we went staight away to lunch. Afterwards, Ariel was showing signs of sleepiness so we just came back home instead of hanging out any longer. Good thing too as she napped the entire way home and so did I. Michael napped when we got settled in. We really did miss our daughter. *sighs*
Now with Ariel sleeping and dinner all done, I'm gonna' try and play catch-up on LJ and work on the new website for our PA Ren Faire group.
Anyway for those who might want to know what all we did in the past 4 days...
Friday - We left Reading around 8am and got down to VA Beach area by 3pm (we stopped twice, once for breakfast and again for lunch). It was raining the further south we drove which was disappointing, especially when driving over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel since we couldn't see much. Oh well. When we got into the heart of VA Beach it was really beginning to pour, so we decided to go to the Virginia Marine Sciene Museum (where we got Ariel a stuffed River Otter) which turned out to be a good stop to kill a little over 2 hours until camberne, her husband, Phil and her son, Geoffrey got home from work and school. We went to their house around 5:30ish and got the tour. They have a lovely home and on prime golf course property!! Really nice! We decided to go to Uno's (Chicago Grill) Restaurant for dinner before going to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Dinner was great! Our waiter was awesome and the food was sooooo gooood. Yummy! Anyway - the movie was incredible I thought! I hadn't any expectations though to be honest. It wasn't a let-down which was very good.
Saturday - We left around 9am to head on up to Busch Gardens, Williamsburg. As we got into the park (around 11am since we stopped for breakfast along the way) we were able to see their newest attraction R.L. Stine's Haunted Lighthouse. That was a surprise! Wasn't expecting some things to happen that happened. Really kewl 4-D experience. The rest of the day was just splendid as the weather was threatening but it never rained and it remained kind of on the cool side all day. It was Michael's first time to BG and he thought it was a very nice park. We left the park around 6pm and headed back down to the VA Beach area for a nice romantic dinner. We saw in one of the various coupon/tourbook thingamajiggys that I had grabbed along the way an add for a Japanese Steakhouse called Otani. Well, I didn't have the coupon book with me as I left it back at Alice and Phil's place. All we could remember was that it was in the Hilltop Shopping Center. Hmm... So, we go to the shopping center looking for Otani's but ended up stumbling across Shogun Japanese Steak House, which had tons of cars in their parking lot and a huge stretch limo Humvee outside and it was 8:30pm! We decided to eat here instead and it was a good thing too. Man, was the food excellent! The chef was funny and we chatted with a local family that was there too. What a good time. Alice and Geoffrey were still up watching a Friends DVD and were surprised to see us back "home" so early. I chatted with them for a bit, recapping my day before heading up and joining Michael for bed.
Sunday - We got up a bit earlier today as we had to be outta' the house by 8am. We said our goodbye's and THANK YOU's to Alice, Phil and Geoffrey too (oh, and Scout - what a great dog!) and away we went. Again, we stopped for breakfast en route to Paramount's Kings Dominion. I was very excited about going to this amusement park as neither Michael nor I have ever been there before. We arrived around 10:15am and the brochure said they opened at 10:30am but there were people already riding some of the rides...huh? We asked one of the workers what time they opened and she said 9:30am...damn brochure! Anyway, we started our day there by riding Berserker *shudders* - that was kinda' scary. I got to eat lunch at BubbaGump's Shrimp Shack! It was so kewl. Best thing though? This park has 12 roller coasters in all! We got on 10 of them (the two we couldn't ride was because one was broken down and the other, well it turns out I was too short and Michael didn't want to ride it without me...ain't he sweet?). All in all, it was a good day. Very sunny and warm and we got done with pretty much everything by 6pm. A very good day indeed. I bought a souvenir shirt and mailed my mom a postcard as I usually do when on vacation (and got her a thimble for her collection as well). But that was it as far as souvenirs go. The ride home was another story altogether as I got extremely ill. Somewhere I must have eaten something that just didn't agree with me (Michael's thinking was it may have been the shrimp since he didn't have any and was feeling fine). Anyway, the car ride was quite an adventure. I ended up getting sick in a plastic bag along the way and we had to pull over to an Arby's we found. I went in and got "really sick" then. Gross. Michael ate dinner while I was in the bathroom losing my lunch. And then all at once...I felt much better. We were off again and making good time until I told Michael I was hungry. So now it was on to find me someplace to eat. We eventually found a McDonald's and made it home by 10:30pm. Still made pretty decent time all things considered. We both unpacked and went to bed.
Monday - We slept in! YAY! Then around 11:30am we left to go to Willow Grove area to get our child. My mother-in-law was visiting her mom (aka Nana - Michael's grandmother and Ariel's great-grandmother) and we decided at the last minute that we could go and visit for a while and get our daughter back all in one shot. So we made it down there by Noon-ish and we went staight away to lunch. Afterwards, Ariel was showing signs of sleepiness so we just came back home instead of hanging out any longer. Good thing too as she napped the entire way home and so did I. Michael napped when we got settled in. We really did miss our daughter. *sighs*
Now with Ariel sleeping and dinner all done, I'm gonna' try and play catch-up on LJ and work on the new website for our PA Ren Faire group.