I was looking through some pictures and realized that I completely forgot about Dave's birthday in September and his camping trip the week after. So please bear with me but we're going to go back to the middle of September and do a blog about Dave! :)
I always try to plan activities for Dave's birthday -- activities that he would absolutely love. Last year, we made a whole weekend out of his birthday. We started with an evening wine tasting and live jazz at the Ginter Botanical Gardens. We followed that up with his actual birthday which was low key but nice. And then spent Saturday down in Jamestown and finished the evening at one of our favorite restaurants downtown, Comfort, where I had arranged to have two couples who are good friends of ours surprise him and join us! He said it was the best birthday ever!
So what to do this year?! If you've seen recent posts, you'll know that Dave has had an extreme case of "Summer Fever"....so with that in mind....I decided to take him down to York River State Park (down near Williamsburg) where we did an eight mile hike. It was absolutely gorgeous....and he LOVED it!!!! Totally loved it!!!! His kind of birthday! :)
We then came home where a birthday cake awaited the Birthday Boy!
Make a wish, Dave!
The next weekend was the famed Armenian Food Festival here in Richmond...just down the street from where we live. We, of course, were there Thursday night which was opening night and I had made Dave promise that he wouldn't get carried away like he did with the Lebanese Food Festival and make us attend 3 days in a row. :) But as were sitting under a tent, eating our lamb and pork kabobs....Dave decided that he was going camping. Not only that...but he was going to leave in the morning and he was going to the Eastern Shore. It was all so sudden!
But come the next morning, the car was packed and he was off to the Eastern Shore of Virginia -- a place he's been wanting to visit since we moved to Virginia. He invited me to come along....but I declined and opted to have a quiet weekend at home. :) Look at the link below to see the Eastern Shore. It really should belong to Maryland but it is part of Virginia and the only way you can reach it from Virginia -- without driving up the peninsula, through Richmond, to D.C. and through Maryland -- is to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel from Virginia Beach....but more on that later.
It took him about 2 hours to get to Virginia Beach and then about another 1/2 hour to cross the bridge. His first stop was at a World War II bunker. These were part of the defenses on the eastern seaboard and they housed 16 inch guns which were designed to protect the naval ports of Norfolk and Virginia Beach from enemy attack during World War II.
His next stop was Kiptopeke State Park on the Eastern Shore -- the place where he would be camping. This picture is looking towards the Atlantic Ocean. He said that it was marshland for as far as the eye could see.
Dave found a lovely campsite and was so surprised that it was so heavily wooded. His campsite was only 1/4 mile away from the beach and the Chesapeake Bay but he slept in the woods -- so to speak.
Home away from home!
And here is the beach just down the bluff from his campsite.
Being a California boy, Dave has always been unnerved by the fact that, here in Virginia, the sun rises over the ocean and sets over land....instead of the opposite which happens in California. He says it just doesn't seem right. But here....on the Eastern Shore....he saw a very strange thing! He saw the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean and sink into the Chesapeake Bay. Dave said it was a very cool thing to witness.
He spent the better part of the afternoon on the beach and watched the sun set into the Bay...
And marveled at the peacefulness of the area surrounding him!
The next morning, he just happened to come upon a Hawk Demonstration. And this is the part Dave was most excited for me to share with you all. Especially you, Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Mike. September and October marks the traditional migration of all sorts of birds from the Arctic and Northern Canada to Mexico and South America. Juvenile birds follow the coast while adults migrate down through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Since 1963, Kiptopeke State Park has had a Birding Center that, during the migration, captures some of the birds and tags them for monitoring purposes before releasing them again. They also count the number of hawks flying through the area. The day that Dave was there, they had a total of 593 hawks fly overhead. Dave said it was crazy to watch. But that is nothing compared to the count they had on the 10th of October -- 2,045 hawks! Here is one that had just been tagged and was about to be released.
Mice and other rodents....and even some smaller birds....don't stand a chance against thing!
For those interested in the different birds he saw, he asked that I include his list. For those not interested....skip to the next paragraph! Hahahaha! :) While on the Eastern Shore, Dave saw: Brown Pelicans, Osprey, Northern Cardinals, Black Skimmers, Ruby Throated Hummingbirds, Great Blue Herons, Black Vultures, Black and White Warblers, Downy Woodpeckers, Double Crested Cormorants, Eastern Kingbirds, Gray Catbirds, Great Egrets, Belted Kingfishers, White Ibis, Terns, Gulls, American Kestrels, Broad-Winged Hawks, Northern Harriers, Bald Eagles, Sharp-Shinned Hawks, Cooper's Hawks, Peregrine Falcons, Merlins, Tree Swallows, Red-Tailed Hawks, Turkey Vultures, Yellow-Crowned Night Herons, American Oystercatchers, Ruddy Turnstones, and Northern Flickers. Whew!!!! {Between you and me....the fact that he actually made a list worries me a little!!! Hahahaha! :) }
Moving on....after his morning of bird watching and exploring some of the little towns located on the southern tip of the Eastern Shore, it was time for Dave to return home and cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel again. This is a great diagram of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. The Bridge Tunnel is 23 miles long and is 1 of 8 Bridge Tunnel Systems left in the World -- 3 of which are located in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia (Hampton Roads = Williamsburg, Newport News, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, etc. -- just as an FYI for you non-VA people). It is a toll bridge and costs something like $12 to cross -- just so everyone is aware (after Richmond's $0.75 tolls, this can come as a shock!). When it was built in 1964, it was considered to be 1 of the 7 Engineering Wonders of the World.
Here is a view of the bridge portion.
And here is a view of one of the artificial islands that connect the tunnels to the bridge sections. The tunnel section is below the water in this picture. The purpose of the tunnels is to allow commercial shipping and military crafts to enter the Chesapeake Bay without having to use draw bridges.
I am told that I am lucky Dave came home at all....he wanted to just stay there forever! :) He loved his visit to the Eastern Shore and is already planning a trip back there in December -- he actually almost went again this morning but opted to go hiking in the Blue Ridge today. His case of Summer Fever has not been cured.....yet. :)
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