my introduction to virginia's eastern shore
Two weekends ago, Jesse and I went to the Hampton Roads area to watch his nephew play in a basketball tournament. When we weren't watching games, we were exploring the area and one of the places we explored was the Eastern shore.
I don't hear much about VA's Eastern shore as I do Maryland's Eastern shore and I was told there really isn't much there. But I saw on the map that there was a wildlife preserve which I really wanted to see and we had time to kill so we went.
One of the first things we did after crossing the Chesapeake Bay (by the way, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is scary and incredibly long...it may be longer than the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain which is also scarily long) was go to the preserve. We didn't get to see much wildlife, but we did get to see a turtle that was slowly crossing the road. Unfortunately, Jesse drove right over it, not noticing it was there. Poor little turtle. The tragedy of its death nearly ruined the experience of the visit for me. In fact, I'm getting all sad over it right now as I type this.
At the suggestion of the volunteer at the preserve, we explored Cape Charles, which is a town on the Eastern shore with a nice, quiet beach. I really liked the tranquility and small town feel of the place, which was very family friendly.
We spent so much time doing both of these things that, by the time we left Cape Charles, we had to head back to meet Jesse's family for dinner. I was bummed because I really wanted to go to Chincoteague for obvious reasons but we decided that it was best to go another time when we weren't so rushed.
6 comments:
I've never been to the VA tip of Delmarva, despite the fact that my grandfather's farm is only a few miles north of the state line.
A very nice travelogue, and beautiful pictures. But did you ever wonder why it's called the "Eastern Shore?" When last I looked, Virginia doesn't have a Western Shore (Tennessee doesn't count as a shoreline, in my opinion). Just a thought.
The Chesapeake bridge-tunnel is the longest bridge-tunnel in the world I think it is 17 miles long.
To Bilbo, it's called the Eastern Shore to distinguish from the mainland of the state, just like MD has an Eastern shore.
Steve and I took a trip to Chincoteague and Assateague Islands earlier this summer and I loved it! You should definitly go, but make it an overnight...we did, and it was much less stressful and we had more time to spend with wild ponies :)
mal snay: heh. delmarva. i actually haven't heard that one before.
bilbo: thanks. thanks for the compliments. honestly, i had no idea that VA had an eastern shore until that weekend.
h to the izzo: yeah, it sure felt like the longest in the world. there was one point that we were on the bridge and we couldn't see any land behind us or in front of us. quite scary.
lexiloo: yeah, i kinda want to make a 2 day trip out of it too. i certainly don't wanna rush things, especially if i haven't seen any ponies at the end of day 1
I've still never been to a beach in Maryland. I'm from central Virginia, so we always went to VA Beach or the Outer Banks when I was growing up. :)
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