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Published: September 12th 2013
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Ever since we moved to Virginia I have been wanting to go to the ocean! J was invited to attend the promotion ceremony of one of his mentors down at Langley, so we decided to make a trip of it and tour around the area a bit! For those that don't know, Langley sits right on the Chesapeake Bay, near Newport News, VA. I had done some looking beforehand and discovered that there was to be a launch from the NASA Wallups Island launch facility on the Eastern Shore that same night, so we decided to spend the night out there to watch the launch!
I have been to Norfolk, VA before. I landed there on my flight back from the desert. However, I was so jet lagged that I barely remember any of it! I do remember flying in over the bay and seeing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-tunnel for the very first time. From the air, all I saw was what looked like a highway dead-end into the water. I had no idea! I had never heard of the tunnel before! Ever since then, I have been wanting to see it! After researching a bit more about the Newport
News/Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Chesapeake Bay area, I discovered that 2 other bridges in the area were also bridge-tunnels, and we would be going through at least one more! The Hampton bridge-tunnel connects Hampton to Norfolk. It was the first tunnel we went through and was the longest! I'm not a claustrophobic person, but this was the second time since I have been here that I felt the heaviness of so much weight over top of me. The first time was 4 stories below the Ronald Reagan Building in the parking garage! It was definitely an odd feeling. I'm not scared of it, but don't enjoy it.
Virginia Beach was the next stop! We got off the highway just inside Norfolk so we could drive along Ocean View Ave to the Virginia Beach. There is a lighthouse on the point where the Chesapeake meets the Atlantic, it's called Cape Henry. We discovered that the Cape Henry light lies on a military installation called Fort Story. It is open to the public, but you do have to go through a military gate guard and auto search to get to it. This was the most interesting stop! First off, there are 2
lighthouses on Cape Henry! A new one, and the old one. The old lighthouse was erected in 1792, commissioned by George Washington and was the first federally funded lighthouse! The New Cape Henry light was built in 1881. They allow visitors to climb to the top of the old lighthouse where you are awarded with a panoramic view of the new light, the Atlantic, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/tunnel in the distance. Now as if this was not mind-blowing enough, at the top the lighthouse stands a historian ready to answer any questions about the lighthouse or the area, and he proceeds to tell us that Cape Henry is where the very first English settlers landed in the US. When John Smith and his party landed at Jamestown in 1607, they did so at the this beach where the Atlantic meets the Chesapeake! There is a marble cross that marks the spot and commemorates their journey just up the road from the lighthouse. Jamestown, the town, we actually passed on our way in, as well as Colonial Williamsburg. Those will be another trip though.
So after our history lesson, we decided to skip the beach at
Virginia Beach and just head over the water to the Eastern Shore before it got too late. There is a gift shop just before the first tunnel of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel that we stopped at, then headed for the depths! The Chesapeake Bridge-Tunnel is actually 2 tunnels, and they are not very long, with 3 bridges. In total, the bridge-tunnel is 17.6 miles over purely open water! The toll was $12 for a regular car, and would be $5 if you return within 24h. It was a nice drive! Interesting! Lots of dead birds! We got to the eastern shore and drove up to our overnight spot in Exmore, stopping along the way to snap some photos. It was a perfect day for a drive! About 80°, sunny, cool breeze...beautiful! We tried to find a good place to catch the sunset, but it's hard to find any open water. Everything is little inlets instead of open shoreline. I did get a few shots off a little dock in Onancock. The launch was scheduled for 11:27pm, so we went back to the room to rest up and have dinner before heading out.
Our hotel was about a 45 minute
drive from the launch site. We just used the map to find a road that looked like it got close and ended up being at a little boat launch that was directly across the water from the island. (Wallups island was only accessible to authorized personnel.) There were quite a few other people who had the same idea we did! NASA has a visitor's center in the area where they held a launch party, complete with big screens and bleacher seating, but we were quite a bit closer to the action than they were. My video is blurry and does not do it justice! It was such a cool experience! I have been fascinated by space my whole life, so this was bucket-list worthy for me! The LADEE is a lunar atmosphere and dust environment explorer that will orbit the moon and send back information about the moon's atmosphere. It's supposed to take 30 days to get to the moon! This was the first large rocket launch out the Wallups Island facility, so was a milestone for them. They have more large rocket launches scheduled and I hope to catch a few more while we live here!
We
did go visit the NASA visitor's center the following morning, but there was not much to be impressed with. To the very north of the Eastern Shore lies the town of Chincoteague Island. This is the spot! If ever there was a best-kept-secret-spot in VA, this is it! I'm not sure that it is so secret, but with the big names of Ocean City and Virginia Beach, it might get a little less play. I fell in love with this island! The town itself is very island flair! Scooters for rent on nearly every corner, shops and cafés with seafood and beach themes...I don't think I even saw a chain food restaurant! It really reminded me of Key West, and I love Key West! Across a little bridge lies the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge with the Assateague National Seashore. It's the same as a National Park, you have to pay to get in, but then it's protected. So the beach was not crowded and was very clean! There are literally hundreds of species of birds that call the refuge home, and there are herds of wild ponies that roam the beach and the marshes. It's perfect! The perfect spot to
getaway, that's close to home and can be done in a weekend! I have a feeling that we will visit often!
We had to get home by 6 to pick up the dogs, and it's about a 5 hour drive from Chincoteague to home, so we hit the highway. It was another gorgeous day with the sunroof open and the windows down! We crossed over the Bay bridge near Annapolis that was a nice surprise (I love bridges!) and had an unexpected jaunt through D.C, thanks to our GPS! We did get to drive through the 3rd St tunnel though, that is directly underneath the Capitol lawn (I like tunnels too!). We made it home with about a half hour to spare to get the pups! It was such a nice relaxing trip! Only one over night but felt like a long weekend! I hope we get to do it again soon!
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Kelly
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Fun!
Looks and sounds like you guys had an amazing trip! I love the pictures of the bridges and all of the water. That's really cool that you were able to see a rocket launch too. Hope you get to see more in the future! :)