Beach Time

Monday March 13th

It's beach time and we're headed with Gary and Laurel to Sandbridge to spend a few days with Sam and Sharon.  En route, Gary confirmed that the Virginia Dinner still makes the best onion rings and we arrived at the condo late afternoon....just in time for cocktail hour!

Tuesday

The weather was cold, windy and rainy and Laurel was a bit under the weather. However, we did get to go for a walk around the neighborhood and a brief walk on the beach.

The rest of the time we focused on puzzling, trying to piece together a beautiful bird puzzle.  We did it!

Wednesday

The sun was shining as we headed to First Landing State Park to take a hike.  The weather was cold and windy but the forest provided enough protection for a very pleasant hike with a picnic lunch.  The park uses ceramic blazes to mark the trails which Sharon thinks is a good idea for the A.T.  When the blazes are attached to the trees, nails are not driven all the way in; rather a 1/4" gap is left to allow for tree growth. It is an interesting idea and I only saw one blaze that someone had tried to pry off.

After the hike, Laurel, Gary, Gretchen and I headed to the Cape Henry Light House while Sam and Sharon headed back to the condo. It is definitely worth the trip, a beautiful spot... today looking out over a very rough sea! The old light house was the first construction project authorized by the United States costing $17,700 and completed in 1792. The photo is taken from the top of the old lighthouse with the new one in the background. The new light, built in 1881, is still functional.

Thursday

Noon found us at the Chrysler Museum for the glass blowing demonstration.  The girls below pulled the glass rod from a one foot blob out to at least 25 feet!  It was really amazing. The demonstration today was showing how to make a large (1 foot square) glass "G".  They succeeded!

I can't walk by the mirror sculptures without taking a photo!

Following a gourmet lunch in the Wisteria Cafe, we spent a few hours touring the museum.  Did you ever know the name of a famous person, yet, knew nothing about them?  That is the case for me with Toulouse-Lautrec, who was the subject of one of the museum's seasonal exhibits.  I learned he was a post-impressionist artist who created lithographic posters to promote new cafe-concerts at the Paris dinner clubs like Moulin Rouge in the late 1800s.  Many of his sketches and paintings depicted patrons of those clubs.  One interesting fact highlighted in the exhibit was that he was influenced by Japanese wood block prints that were being exported to Europe during that period.


In the evening we went to Blue Pete's Restaurant for clams, oysters and shrimp.  It's a great place for seafood on the west side of Back Bay.  We had a fun time this week and we all appreciate Sam and Sharon's hospitality. Thank you very much!  We just hope that Sam's arm starts healing and he gets some relief from the pain and recovers some fine motor function.

Great Time...Great Friends...Great Week!