Part 2 of our vacation coming up. We had a day to just hang at our campsite outside of Charlottesville - we didn't bother going in to walk around as we had been there the prior Spring. We found a nature trail on property and walked that. I did some knitting and took a (well-deserved) nap and Fletch puttered around going various things. We grilled steaks for dinner which were pretty flavorless😞 - luckily we had some great Brussels sprouts and onions to go with them.
Wednesday we got up, packed up our camp and headed South to the Suffolk area. We stopped at the "famous" Virginia Diner for lunch which was good (but everything was sweet - even my chicken salad!!). We got to Damon & Peggy's (Fletch's brother and his wife) mid-afternoon and relaxed with a beer. That night Fletch stayed up later than everyone and ended up locking himself out of their house! He spent the night in our camper in their driveway - lol.
Thursday morning the guys went through a bunch of old photos and memorabilia and I knit. We headed out to the Smithfield area in the afternoon. First stop was Fort Boykin on the James River. We walked a bit and came upon this gorgeous Black Walnut tree. It is the 2nd oldest tree in Virginia and is over 200 years old!
And we did a bit of beach combing.
Smithfield has some lovely old Victorian houses, so we strolled around town a bit and ended up on a nature path that Peggy used to walk when she was working (she retired in March). Much to my dismay, we came across this guy:
A black snake over 4' long. I was not pleased. Supposedly they are harmless, but that doesn't really matter to me. I stepped up the pace (plus the mosquitoes were coming out) and we made it safely back to the car - lol. We ended up at Captain Muck A Chuck's for dinner - a place right on the water. The fish tacos were some of the best I've ever had and the frozen margarita wasn't bad either.
Friday we went out to breakfast and then stopped by Fletcher's uncle's home to say hello. Then we packed up and hit the road for Chincoteague. It was pretty windy in Suffolk and we were a bit concerned about crossing the Bay Bridge, but there were no restrictions and it turned out to be much less windy on the Eastern Shore.
As we were setting up our campsite, the wind picked up a bit. We had dinner and just as we finished Fletch's sister Lori and her husband Patrick arrived (in their very large RV). It was a great night for a camp fire (though the wind whipped up the fire and we went through our 2 bundles of wood quickly) and we just sat around having beverages and catching up a bit. We could see the lighthouse on Assateague from our campsite.
Saturday we tooled around Chincoteague. We had planned to go to Assateaque and tour the lighthouse, but last time we were there the bugs were so bad we couldn't even get out of the car! It was kind of a mucky day so we stayed put. Fletch and I did find a nature trail that was about 1.5 miles long on the bay side of the island.
We didn't linger as there was a lot of standing water and ponds that seemed perfect for various insects. We did hear a lot of bull frogs.
Driving around on some back roads, we came upon the Timothy Hill House - the oldest house on Chincoteague (circa 1800).
And we stopped for ice cream on our way back to the campsite! I have not stopped for ice cream in years. It was delicious, but I couldn't even finish it....
Sunday dawned with some rain. Lori & Patrick packed up and headed back to their home in Chesapeake, VA by 8:30! Fletch and I had a lazy morning and then went to the Chincoteague Museum. Lots of Island history. I was sorry not to be able to visit the yarn shop and not to see any ponies, but all in all, we had a wonderful time. We didn't leave until after dinner on Sunday to avoid the heavy traffic around Dover, DE. We pulled into our driveway just after 11 p.m.
A fun time, but it is good to be home!!
