Tonight is the second night of two in a Norfolk hotel, which ended up being nicer than the on-line comments — – is it perfect? Nope…but any wasted text here would be a 10 yard penalty for whining!

Got up early and decided to hit Virginia Beach (15 miles or so away) for a couple hours — it was really nice and it seemed to have a lot of regular people there — and there are some nice hotels in the area.

It turned out they were having some Arts Festival on the Boardwalk, so I decided to get my dose of culture and I strolled around and envied the people dropping lots of dough on some art —

After that culture, I changed to history mode and sprinted out to the Yorktown/Williamsburg/Jamestown area — they call it a historical triangle — and diehards could spend days here — I was attempting to squeeze in enough in 4-5 hours and I managed to do this by cropping Williamsburg out of the picture — So, Yorktown for a bit and then drive the 20 miles or so to Jamestown.

Watched a movie about the Battle for Yorktown and then had a guide discuss some artillery that was used by the English, French (a key ally in this battle) and the Colonists. They then did a couple oif blasts so we could hear the bang and see how much had to be done to get the canon to fire. A photo of the preparation is below and then, I tried to do a movie snippet with the camera –

See the Canon at Yorktown via this YouTube link — >> Click Here

After spending a couple hours here, I drove the 30 minutes down to Jamestown, to see where the first settlement was — and it was pretty interesting — lots of what I went to constitutes an archeological dig — you can see the many artifacts that have been unearthed and read how anthropologists weave history from little pieces they find (for instance, the number of buttons found with a skeleton may indicate what he or she was wearing and in turn that may clue them into whether the person was higher class, etc.).

Below is a snapshot of what a barracks would look like — some others were much smaller, with wood posts kept together with hardened mud –

I would definitely come back when I have more time -

Then it was an hour ride up to Richmond to catch some minor league baseball — the Richmond Flying Squirrels — and it was Sergeant Slaughter night — he signed autographs, but somehow, I took a pass….

The stadium people were overwhelmed — they had a large amount of walk up customers — between Father’s Day weekend, a 96 degree day, and of course, the chance for the Sergeant Slaughter autograph….I left after 5 innings to come back to Norfolk — the lines were huge and I just had given up managing the lines….

Except, for one snack – I got some cinnamon roasted cashews — which were yummy and of course they were necessary — I mean you have to watch out for the Flying Squirrels, they’ll grab your nuts…

Off to the Outer Banks tomorrow….relaxation for 4 days —