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Memorial Day weekend is popularly considered the beginning of summer.  What better way to bring in the summer than a trip to the beach?  Join the tripswithkevin.com family as we loaded up the car and headed to the coast to check out Jamestown Historic Site and the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.

Jamestown

Our first target of the weekend was Jamestown.  Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the New World.  Consequently, it was the site of many important events in the history of Virginia, the United States and North America.  This has been a favorite place of mine since elementary school and one nice thing is that the ongoing archaeology changes and/or amends the story each time I visit.

If you haven’t visited recently, it would be worth a new visit.  Until about 15 years ago the ranger-led talks focused on the foundations of what was known as Newtowne.  This focus now is on the original settlement and the original fort.  Until the 1990s, it was thought that the original fort was submerged in the James River.

In the 1990s, they found the post holes for the original palisade and have been discovering new things since.The ranger now begins the walk through the site of the original settlement and doesn’t even mention the “Newtowne” section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing you see after crossing through the swamp is a large grey obelisk.  Erected in 1907, it marked the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.  Just passed the monument you can see the brick gateway that marks the site of the original settlement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you are through the gate there is a church building that was mostly constructed in 1907 as part of the tricentennial celebration.  It it built on the site of one of the earliest churches in North America..  The original tower of this church remains and appears to have been built in the 1640s.

Although most of the church building is not colonial, inside you can see the foundations of the church that originally stood on this site.

 

The building foundations of New Towne. The area that grew up around the original settlement as the colony grew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent about three hours here and decided it was time to head to our hotel and get ready for dinner.  We checked in at the Hampton Inn Newport News-Yorktown, unpacked and cooled down for a few minutes.  Once we were settled in, we made the short walk to the Pizzeria Uno across the street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner we walked next door picked up some beach toys at AC Moore so that we would be prepared for our day at the beach tomorrow.

Virginia Beach

The next morning, we woke up to no alarm, ate a leisurely breakfast, put on our bathing suits and headed to Virginia Beach.  I love Virginia Beach and realized a few weeks ago that my children had never been to the Oceanfront.  For kids that love the beach so much, I decided that was unacceptable.

Our hotel was about a one hour drive from the Oceanfront area of Virginian Beach.  If we hadn’t spent our first day at Jamestown we would have stayed closer, but it still was an easy drive.

We arrived early (a little after 10 AM) and even though it was Memorial Day weekend, we found parking with no problem in the 9th Street Garage.  Even though this is a resort area, all day parking on a holiday weekend only cost $10 for the entire day!  We parked, unloaded, put on our sunscreen and started walking toward the boardwalk.

It was a perfect beach day, with a high temperature of 90° for the day.  We walked toward the fishing pier and decided to go onto the beach at 11th Street.  After waiting for what felt like an eternity for someone to rent us an umbrella and chairs, we walked down to 10th Street to try the stand there.  This was the only downer of our trip.  Eventually (it took between 30 and 45 minutes to get served) we rented four chairs ($13 each) and an umbrella ($15).  Once we were set up it was a wonderful, relaxing day at the beach.

After a few hours, I walked to the boardwalk and bought us some lunch at Calypso Bar and Grille which we ate on the beach.  About 1 PM, we decided to pack up and drop our beach supplies back at the car.  Then we made a stop at Ben & Jerry’s for some ice cream before renting a four person bicycle from Cherie’s.  We got a four person Surrey for two hours ($35).  We rode our bike all the way to end of the boardwalk (40th Street) and back.  After about 1 1/2 hours we were tired and returned the bike.  By the time we returned the bike, we were really hot (& sweaty) so we decided it was time for more refreshment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We chose Chix on the Beach for our pit-stop and it was a perfect choice.  A popular spot for a “Crush“, Sarah and I both felt like we needed to sample them.  We left Chix and did some souvenir shopping in the shops along Atlantic Ave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a nice relaxing break, we continued to end of the boardwalk where we made a dinner reservation at Waterman’s and checked out the Surf Art Expo.  The artisans were impressive and super friendly.  We bought some art, a bath bomb and same salsa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we ended the evening at Waterman’s (home of Virginia Beach’s original crush) for a wonderful seafood dinner.  I had a crush here too, so I could compare it with Chix.  They are supposed to be the recipe, but I thought the one from Chix was the best one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time we returned to the car it was a little after 8 PM and returned to our hotel for one last night.  What a wonderful weekend!

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