Virginia Road Trip & Father's Day...

So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I headed down to Virginia with my Brother and Cousin this past weekend to visit with my Dad, who's ship is docked in Norfolk. My Father is a Chief Engineer Merchant Marine, and this was the first time I've actually seen where he works. The whole experience was very "Life Aquatic", except my Dad is not bent on seeking revenge from a shark. The ship is very 70's and I really liked all of the dials and signs, some of which were in other languages.We stayed on the ship which is about 5 stories high and 750 feet long. I definitely have a new appreciation of what my Father does for a living.

It took about 13 hours of driving to get there, we only stopped a couple of times on the way down. We got there on Friday night and on Saturday we headed to Virginia Beach. It was 102 degrees! Definitely different weather than what we're used to up North! Sunday (fathers day) we dropped the boys off at Busch Gardens to make themselves sick on roller-coasters and my Step-Mom, Dad, Captain D, and I headed to Colonial Williamsburg. Sunday was cooler (about 85) so it was the perfect weather for walking around outside. We stopped at a winery on the way back before retrieving John and T.J. and then headed to dinner. Monday was pretty low key, just hung out until it was time to go to the airport. Unfortunately the weather was so miserable in Boston that our flight was delayed by two hours. Then it was back to the foggy, cold, rainy North.

Everyone calls my Father "Chief", which I really like.

T.J. on the bow:

Pretty much the only decent picture of me from the trip, at the Williamsburg Winery:

On a plank, five stories up, walking between ships:

At the winery:

Williamsburg hats:

Hand-blown bell jars:

"The Governors Mansion":

Sunset over Norfolk:

Sunny skies!:

This room reminded me of "The Life Aquatic" very much:

Beautiful weather!

This is self explanatory:

I think this was a race:

Cranes:

More cranes:

The ship:

John makes an excellent Crab Face:

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge:

Also self explanatory:

At a New Jersey rest stop viewing birds:

John also likes to view birds at New Jersey rest stops:

The George Washington bridge:

driving up to the GW: