It's been years since I've gone anywhere for spring break. When I returned to school a few years ago my break was all about working as many hours as I could. Since we had about 12 days off work, we decided to make the most of it. Without really trying, we filled our days off to the brim and had a great time.
First was a trip to Virginia Beach. Neither of us had been there but I'd heard good things from my family so I was really looking forward to it.
Dan and I trade off driving so the other can rest. I shut my eyes for a nap and woke up to our gps saying, "Turn around when possible." Uh-oh, Dan was busted. here we are, a few hours from home, and he decides to not pay attention to the gps. Not really a big deal except he wasn't using a map either. He knew we needed to get onto Delaware Highway-1 and saw Highway-1 signs for another state thinking that they would be the same. We learned that isn't the case. It wasn't too bad but funny since he gets after me for not listening to the gps when we're in places I know and he decides to ignore it when we're going somewhere new.
We selected a longer drive down to Virginia Beach to see more of the country than we would otherwise see. The drive even included time on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Not having any idea what to expect, we headed south and drove through some amazing countryside. The bay bridge-tunnel goes over the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and is just what it's called, part bridge and part tunnel.
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| Photo from here. |
On the bridge section.
About to enter a tunnel section.
That's a tunnel section of the bridge from the beach side.
Glad we experienced that but not sure I'll worry about doing it again in the future.
We stayed at a great hotel a few miles from the beach, The Founder's Inn and Spa. Even though it didn't have beach access, we still liked it and enjoyed our stay there.The room was quaint, the tree outside our room window was beautiful, and the hotel was elegant and had beautiful grounds:
Cold as it was we saw a few dedicated surfers trying to catch the waves.
These signs cracked us up. We wondered what the penalty was for using profanity but not enough curiosity to use some and find out the hard way.
Dan and his antiquated phones. All he could hear on this one was the ocean.
As we strolled around the beach, Dan struck up a conversation with some women in a booth on the pier. Of course, they weren't just hanging out, they were trying to get people to buy condos and Dan accepted an invitation to hear the pitch; it was only 90-minutes after all and we would get free stuff.
Well our 90-minute sales pitch ended up being 3-hours! Several people who started when we did and came in after us were leaving long before we were, our salesman would NOT. Shut. Up. I think he told us about each and every property the company owned in the whole WORLD!
Of course they pulled out the book of properties and a contract ready for us to sign our lives away. Dan told them we weren't interested. Magically, the price lowered and free week offers grew. Again we said we weren't interested. The manager came and the price dropped even more with more free weeks, "it's the best we can offer." When that was refused, the manager sorted through his list of properties and magically found one even lower than what was previously offered. (With each lower offer the salesman would tell us what a great deal it was and how he'd never seen one so low.) We kept telling them "no," Dan would explain that our son was getting married in a few months and they countered with, "wouldn't it be great to give them free lodging at a resort of their choice anywhere in the world?!" (Sure it would be great but we aren't paying for them to fly to that "free" lodging and the kids can't afford it either.) Or, they would remind us that these properties can be deeded, so we can leave them as property in our wills. Our children for many generations can continue to enjoy our time share purchase. Still not interested.
After 15-20 minutes of not being listened to, I explained that it was an amazing and tempting offer, however, we had other financial goals that needed to be accomplished before we felt comfortable taking on what they were presenting. We may leave and regret our decision to walk away, however, it is what we needed to do. FINALLY THEY ACCEPTED OUR ANSWER OF "NO!" Not sure if it was the silent one in the couple finally speaking up or that I was able to present our "no" in a manner they understood.
When we EVENTUALLY walked out the door, so did a few employees. Our salesman was persistent but certainly NOT paying attention to any verbal and non-verbal clues that we were done, ready to leave, and not interested which came out within the first 5 minutes of our being there. In fact I hit a point that the more he talked, the more determined I was to turn him down! Funniest part about it, we haven't given it another thought and don't regret our decision one bit.
One of the freebies we earned was dinner at a famous seafood buffet restaurant, Captain George's Seafood Restaurant. The restaurant was huge and could hold several hundred people at maximum capacity. It was also insanely busy, but we were able to have a "free" meal at a restaurant we probably wouldn't have chosen ourselves.
Just some of the seafood fare available at the buffet.
One of their two stained glass domed roofs. We didn't sit in either of the rooms, those must have been for the customers who purchased the properties for sale.
Another "free" gift was tickets to the Aquarium for us. We'd planned to go anyway and having the admission fee paid for was a nice bonus. We opted to do this our last day in town, so did everyone else in town. There needs to be more to do there when the weather isn't ideal. Regardless, we strolled through the exhibits and spent several hours seeing what lies under the sea.
The fish wouldn't hold still for pictures so some are fuzzy.
We have one more "free" gift, a 4-day/3-night stay at one of their properties. We haven't cashed this in yet and don't know when we will. We haven't read the fine print and are afraid our stay will somehow suck more time away from a vacation to sit through another sales pitch and end up costing us our limbs.
Before leaving the Virginia Beach area and heading to our next vacation destination, we stopped at a couple other must see items.First up, Old Cape Henry Lighthouse within Fort Story military base. After our car was searched and we were deemed safe visitors, we headed to the lighthouse.
At the base of the lighthouse is a gift shop and you can learn the history of the lighthouse from some very enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers. We paid our fee and headed up the 200+ steps to get a view from the top.
Back down we go...
...returned to the ground, safe and sound.
A few yards from the lighthouse is the Cape Henry Memorial Cross and First Landing State Park; where, in 1607, the English colonists first landed and erected a cross in gratitude for their safe journey. From a point in First Landing State Park you can capture the two lighthouses; the Old, built in 1772, which is no longer in use, and the new, built in 1881, still in use today.
After all this, it was time to leave the beach behind to turn our gps to other planned adventures elsewhere in Virginia. Our next destination was...
