Virginia Beach

This past week Dave and I went on a quick little overnight trip to Virginia Beach. Even though it was only one night it was so fun and refreshing! We certainly need to make sure to plan more little overnight trips like that, it was short, cheap, but perfect. 

It wasn't quite warm enough to swim, and since it was our first time and we have plans to make lots of return trips this summer we decided to just do lots of exploring and familiarizing ourselves with the area. We went to three different beaches that I had researched before hand.

The first, and our favorite was False Cape State Park. It was 30 minutes from the heart of Virginia Beach, but was worth the drive. Totally empty and we had the beach to ourselves except for a little family way way off in the distance. People online said it was always empty even in the middle of summer. The sand was perfect and the waves were big. There is supposedly also camping that is only accessible by foot and is a 4 mile hike down the beach. We certainly plan on camping there at some point this summer! 






Like I said, the water was cold! 





Saw this at the parking lot. What??


There are a bunch of places in Virginia Beach that were on Diner's Drive-In's and Dive's. The first place we decided to check out was called Flip Flops Grill and Chill. The atmosphere was nice, the service was good, but the food was pretty appalling. We started off by ordering chips and salsa. The salsa tasted exactly like the pico I buy all the time from the grocery store, just with some mango chopped up and added to it. I ordered the dish featured on DDD; their BBQ Fish Tacos which were grilled fish, their mango BBQ sauce, slaw, tomato, avocado and lime crema. The crema and mango BBQ sauce was good, but the fish was very very plain and the tortilla's were clearly not fresh and seemed microwaved, which was a deal breaker. Dave ordered their steak tacos, which tasted exactly like steak tacos from Taco Bell. No joke. Exactly like Taco Bell. And to make it even worse, it was all horrifically over priced. 

We have been to many places on the hunt for good tacos since living in VA but have had no luck other then one shop in West Virginia - which we love and is super cheap but is over an hour away! Oh well. At least we know how to make good ones ourselves. 


After dinner we went to the Virginia Beach board walk. Beach + Sunset = Bliss! 






This is me freaking out over the cutest dog ever! 



It was just a little white fluffy dog, hopping around the beach, and then it
did a face plant into the sand. Adorable and hilarious! 




Let's not talk about how I tried and failed at flying a kite...
But it wasn't a sissy kit like this... It was a real kite
the wind was just gusty and it's been about 5 years for me!






Since it wasn't too cold and we are cheap we just camped for the night.
There were some pro's and con's to the place we stayed at.
It was cheap, average camp ground rates. The employees were super nice!
It was a 5 minute drive from the beach, 
but they gave you a pass to free parking at the beach.
The bathrooms were clean and amazingly nice. 
The nicest camp bathrooms I have ever seen! 
But... we were kept up till midnight with super loud jets flying overhead! So loud!
I usually bring ear buds, which I forgot about, but even ear buds would not have helped!
It was a weekday, so maybe they don't do that on the weekends? No one in the reviews made any complaints about loud jets, so maybe we were just unlucky!




I was up off and on till about 3:30 but once i finally did fall asleep I got pretty good sleep!
Dave bought me a MisFit Shine which is a pedometer 
but also tracks your movement while you sleep.
Below shows my sleep while camping. Although I didn't get lots of sleep, 
that's a lot of deep sleep! 
Usually I get that much deep sleep in 8 hours of sleep. 
I guess I need to sleep outdoors more often! 


This picture does not do justice; the jets were flying so low! 
And they started flying again at 8 am!



That morning we woke up and met my good friend from growing up and her hubby 
to do maternity pictures! They are only living in VA for the summer 
but it was so great to spend time with friends our age!



After the pictures they treated us to breakfast. 
We went to the next place on the DDD list called Citrus. 
The place was so busy! We had a tough time finding parking, but our food came out quick, and although it looks simple it was so yummy! So yummy! We will certainly be back! 



After our goodbyes we visited Cape Henry Lighthouse.




And then drove to First Landing State Park.
The beach didn't have big waves and had a lot more families, good for people with young kids. We drove through the camp grounds and the camp grounds were really nice with tons of trees! We will probably camp there next time.






After trying and failing to fly my kite we just soaked up some sun and then hit the road.

For dinner we stopped in a super sketchy part of Richmond and got Cook out. 
Oh. Man. I so love Cook Out. They are so cheap! I got a burger, a side of slaw and hush puppies for $5. And not some dinky little burger, a big yummy, amazing burger. Dave also got a burger and tried one of their hot dogs with chili and slaw. Good, but not as good as the hot dogs in NC. And to end the meal we enjoyed a peach cobbler shake. Yes. It was perfection. You could truly taste each amazing part of the peach cobbler; the crust, the peaches, the sugar crumb topping. Perfection! If you are on this side of the states you must make a stop at Cook Out. You're welcome.



Such a fun little trip! I can't wait to go back!

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