Advertisement
Published: August 29th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Cheap Holiday?
2.5 million anybody.... Ok so now it’s time to update as I have been very slack and lazy with this so I figured it’s about time I pulled my finger out. Now late last month ‘we’ (Jeremy and I) had the chance to head up to Norfolk Virginia because being the superstar that he is, Jeremy received his CSM from the Australian Ambassador on HMAS BALLARAT which was partaking in Northern Trident 09.
We decided that we would make a road trip out of it and headed up through Georgia and South Carolina where the accents became a little more 'rednecky' (I know that's not a real word either) and the signs on the side of the road told you "We have pecans, hams and remember Jesus loves you". Armed with our newly acquired religious acumen, negative hams and pecans, we headed to Norfolk via Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Now Wrightsville Beach is just outside of Wilmington and is a very popular tourist spot during the Summer. Most noticeably the holiday houses here are bloody massive and for a place that people live in for four months a year and an average price tag of 2.5 million the two simple Aussie travellers
Hero Status
Yes Im hiding a champagne glass..... were thinking WTF...there is nothing here and it’s no Foster/Tuncurry.....regressing to those school holidays.
Anyways after driving around and finding the worlds’ most expensive Holiday Inn the guy told me that it would be $360 a night. After suggesting that his pricing was ludicrous bartering commenced with Jeremy waiting outside. The clerk jumped on his magical computer and the price transformed to $208. Still not happy with this and a challenge in my head we headed down the road and much closer to the bars we had eyed previously. We stopped at another hotel where I proceeded to price barter again. After some Australian colloquialisms, playing the female card (unfair but reliable) and suggesting Jeremy was indeed a hero, we had a hotel room across from the night life and on the beach $50 cheaper than his starting price and $70 cheaper than the magical Holiday Inn. After 7 hours in a car with boring roads, country music (thanks Jeremy), and 100 miles of truly annoying South of the Border Attraction signs had made us both restless and eager to find a drink. A few bars later we were good to go and settled into a sports bar to
USS Wisconsin
You can google for the details watch baseball.
Next day after someone (not I) had cranked the AC down to 50F we were defrosting in the car for the last few hours. We stopped at a Mc Donald’s which could have been straight out of a 1980's movie. Not only could you smoke inside the Macca's (Dad you would have loved it) you could make a phone call from one of the phones located in each booth, and call another booth. That, coupled with the uniquely slow service, no ATM and an apparent language barrier had us both bewildered. Onto Norfolk Virginia where we found our pleasant hotel directly across from a Sports Bar and Irish pub which were both put to good use.
Day 3 saw us get ready for the cocktail party and presentation ceremony and as a guest I didn't wear rig. So after being told many times that I must be extremely proud of ‘my husband’ and me saying we are not married (which further confused the people) and one woman staring at me as though I was living in sin I finally just said "yes I am". A little while later people started to figure out we worked together
Norfolk
Another Downtown area another sports bar.... so awkwardness aside we jumped into the free booze and caught up with our Navy friends fortunate enough to be on the ships.
I ditched the party early due to heat, political talk and it just not being my thing. I caught up with Carl where we dined on Tapas and Sangria catching up from 9 months being apart.
Going home we had grand plans to stop again but we were both eager to return home. We covered 5 states and my speeding coupled with his safety driving saw us home in 10hrs, although it could have been 9.5.... All in all it was good to see a group of Australians and many people I had worked with before. Being 10,000 miles away from home is great (no offence people) but catching up, talking normally and people understanding what we say was refreshing and without finding a better word....normal. However, its now back to work and the next time ‘we’ travel is to DC for an Embassy stint so you will hear about that, and us trying to stay under the radar and out of trouble. As for me I'll be in Seattle and Portland checking it out
Jagmania
Football pre too many drinks and a hideous Sunday and continuing to do my best to see as much of this country as I can.
This last weekend saw us attend an NFL game with the Jacksonville Jaguars were beaten by a point by Tampa Bay Buccaneers but its only pre-season......still I was jumping out of the seat. Post activity drinking saw us hit the local bars, 3am street football...again, me call it a night at 6am while Jeremy skyped home until 930am. After welcoming Sunday in on 3 hrs sleep I struggled to make any sense of the rest of the day with anything mildly productive out. A walk on the beach that night added to the cloudiness so safe to say work on Monday was a little difficult.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.123s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0428s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dad & Lorraine
non-member comment
Glad your religous side was put to use!!!!!
Dad wanted to know what CSM stands for. Really Sherrin you know you should explain for us non Navy people!!!! Glad to hear you are having such a wonderful time.