Not a Vacation Technically

 Pics from our Thanksgiving trip down to Virginia Beach. My friend is currently unemployed, so I don't think we can technically call this a "vacation". Hey, at least he's getting a sense of humor about the situation.

Technically we took this picture when we were leaving the beach, not when we just go there. But it's such a cool picture I wanted to post it up front. This is like, the city's entrance to "The Beach". There's probably some kind of story to what this scultpture represents. Is that the reason it's not obvious? To make you curious enough to investigate what it's supposed to be? Is it going to work on me? Did they count on me being soooo lazy? Hey, it looks cool, that's enough for me.

We were "pretty sure" that the public parking was not pay-able this time of year. I think it's Memorial Day through Labor Day, or something like that. Not knowing for certain, we sheepishly parked next to the covered-up meter and were hoping that we'd not get a ticket.

Signs like this, being out still, is what caused us to worry. We only wanted to see the beach "real quick". There was nobody around to pay near this sign. Would somebody magically appear if you drove up next to it?

Not dark enough yet to turn on the lights for this tree. What an awkward railing around it so close.

The nearby restaurant had these cool circular flaming pit tables. Can I say that a fire pit is "cool"?

There's Neptune! He's the guy that officially welcomes you to the beach. By taking your picture next to him, you're now at Virginia Beach!

Gotta get a picture with your hooves in the sand. It's a little chilly outside, but you gotta do it!

There's a zillion bird foot prints in the sand! Is it the same bird running around like crazy, or hundreds of birds who each stopped for a little bit?

Even though it was chilly, I still felt the urge to build a sand castle. Or did a deep hole to lay down in. When he was younger, my friend would dig a pit that would act like a sort-of lounge chair.

But we didn't want to linger, in case of the parking thing. So we tried to enjoy the view as quickly as we could. If that makes any sense. I mean, look at all that water! That's a lot of water!

This is about as close as we got to the water. It's neat how the tide rolls in. You think you're at a safe distance and then one time it rushes in a lot faster, and you have to panic and jump back. Fun. It's way too cold outside to get wet feet!

Sooooo much beach! Does it bother you that my picture doesn't have the horizon completely level? It bothers me a little. But what am I going to do, go back and take another picture? Sometimes I don't notice when I'm taking the pictures.

That's a little better. We've been here for a few minutes, so it's time to start heading back. We had the funny idea of just acting like a bum and taking a nap on the sand, but of course that's silly so we didn't do it.

Giant tourist candy store was not open. I would have liked to look around, and might have been in the mood to splurge on some candy. Maybe it was a good thing they were closed.

We got this picture when we were leaving and had stopped to get that first pic of the "entrance". Right next to it, they are building these. Looks like condos? Right near the beach, they will no doubt be super expensive to live in. Maybe it's a hotel?

Did I mention we were in Virginia to do Thanksgiving with the family? Here's the Macy's Parade on TV. We caught most of it. The giant Lego dragon is incredible, but a few of the bits on it don't look quite right. The leaf pieces behind the eyes in particular. Sometimes I can be such a nerd. Also, you know Goku, right behind it, looks like he wants to smash it! Hahaha.

Anybody do the fried turkey thing? My friend spent a lot of money on the fryer just to try it. How long was it going to take to fry a whole turkey? Only about 45 minutes! It took longer for the oil to heat up to the right temperature.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

There was a lot of people there, and at the start of the meal, it was declared "no skin for anybody" to avoid a riot. We were surprised that there was bits of it saved, so we did get some of the skin at the very end. 

Randomly inserted picture on the day we went to Busch Gardens. Turns out the traffic on the interstate was stopped, and we snagged a pic as the emergency vehicles passed us. I've said this before, but I usually don't get upset about this type of thing. Because sure it sucks to be stopped and not moving for a while, but that's much better that dealing with whatever the other people are going through. I'll make that trade any time. I hope they are all okay.

We managed to get off at the nearest exit and from this angle, it looks like the accident was close to where we were. We got right back on the interstate and not that much of a delay after all. Pictures of Busch Gardens will be another posting.

Not mine, but proof that I know somebody who got this massive thing. Lego Titanic! We measured the shelf they planned on putting it, and it was not going to be big enough. This is nearly 4 1/2 feet wide!

Ironically, the "Wreck-it Raplh sign" jinxed the cabinet, which did not seem to want to work today. Is that funny? Kinda, but not really.

I was so hungry that night, I barely stopped to get a picture of my Fuddruckers meal. The fries are off to the side. The burger is upside-down. Pic. Done. Let's eat!!!

On a whim I put a dollar into the claw machine at Fuddruckers and scored a Squid Games Guard! Adorable! I almost got a two-fer, as the claw also snagged that bubble-pop thing right behind it, but let go of it at the last moment.

After Fuddruckers, my friend was absolutely stuffed. But who's going to say no to Dairy Queen? Does this table look like a Starfleet vessel of some kind? Reminds me of the Reliant from Star Trek II.

What would you have ordered? Here's the menu. We didn't really have a specific thing in mind when we got there, so we checked it out for a hot minute to see what looked good.

Nothing new seemed tempting enough, so we went with a Heath Bar Blizzard. It's been a long time since we've gotten one, even though that's our default choice at Dairy Queen.

Had to get a picture of my friend's amazing cat feeder. Amazing because it's run off of a phone app, which dispenses portions on command. Even had a voice clip in the tower that repeated a pre-recorded "COME AND GET IT!" message!

We got a moment to stop and grab a picture of the seals outside of the Marine Science Museum. Not the easiest things to get good pictures of, but fun to watch them swim around for a few minutes.