A while back, Carole's birthday present to me was a weekend on the Virginia eastern shore at The Inn at Onancock and a guided kayak expedition in the area. Our daughter was leaving for a school trip on Saturday am, so we would have a three day Sat/Sun/Mon weekend away by ourselves - something that will become much easier to do next year when Lauren will be in college. Well, easier assuming the dog, the cat and the resident 82-year old mother-in-law can take care of each other...
We left early Saturday morning on a beautiful but windy day. The weather didn't sound very promising for kayaking on Sunday, with rain and even heavier winds in the forecast, but we could always reschedule to Monday or even wait for a future trip. The Saturday morning Bay Bridge rush hour traffic wasn't too bad, but the lane labeled "Cash/EZ Pass" turned out to not have a human being to take cash - as I stared at the empty booth, I noticed a sign that said "Just keep going, dummy - we will get you by mail." I pulled away, the bell went off and sure enough - a month later I got a bill in the mail for $2.50.
On the way out we stopped to tour scenic Berlin, Maryland, which took all of 10 minutes. I tried to do the SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy) thing and take Carole to a tea parlor, but luckily unfortunately they were booked up. We proceeded south and stopped at Chincoteague Island to do some bicycling. We did about 12 miles, looping along all the bicycle paths to the ocean side, going around the Wildlife loop at stopping at the lighthouse parking area to take the short walk to see the lighthouse.
The lighthouse is too big to get a picture of when you are up close but we traded cameras with another couple and took pictures of each other. Their camera was much nicer than ours, so we really should have jumped on our bikes and pedaled away with it but I didn't move quickly enough. From there we cycled a few more loops through the pine barrens and then back to where we had parked at the visitor's center.
From there is was another 35 mile drive down to Onancock and The Inn. Onancock is a cool little town, with a Main Street that has a movie theater, a hardware store, a few restaurants and a bunch of Victorian style house. At the end of the street is the Wharf on the Onancock Creek with a restaurant on the site of the historic Hopkins and Brothers store. We had a great meal at the Charlotte and then off to bed as the rain began.
The next day was cold and dreary, so kayaking was definitely out. We drove down and toured Cape Charles, then took the scenic drive over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (hint: if you are going to come right back, get the receipt when you pay the $12 and you will save $7 on the return) and decided to drive over to Virginia Beach - and ran smack into the VA Beach St. Patrick's Day Marathon. While it was sorta fun to see the runners, it resulted in a massive traffic jam and a long detour to get back to the Bridge (where I had to pay $12 again since I did not get a receipt on the way out) and a stop at the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Reserve. We did a bit of hiking along the trails, saw the very unusual underground shelter and anti-aircraft battery placements put there during World War II and headed back. On the way back to the Inn, we toured some of the other small towns in the area.
That night we had a very forgettable dinner at the Flamenco restaurant, which was about the only thing open in Onancock on a Sunday night - except for the old renovated single screen movie theater, where we saw a completely awful movie where some guy told his overly cute daughter about all his previous girlfriends. The next day we had another phenomenal breakfast at the Inn, and headed home -to return later this year to do it again, this time with kayaking.
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