Day 3
We woke up and ate breakfast and left for Smithfield & Isle of Wights. We drove on Richmond Rd (where the hotel was on) to Jamestown Rd, where we drove to the end of it where Jamestown Scotland Ferry to Surry County was at. Fifteen minutes, very cool. B) This is bucket-list worthy, I think. The ferry was really part of Route 10, and we continued driving on it on land. There weren’t any streetlights (not that we needed any ATM); very rural and countryside-ish. There were plenty of what looked like “haunted houses”, battered and seemingly empty. Sadly, we were driving too fast and so I couldn’t take any pictures.
About an hour later, we arrived. There wasn’t much—just very old houses, a museum about Smithfield’s history, and a British telephone booth. (Maybe I’m just too paranoid…but that wasn’t all, fyi. Ahem.) [insert picture here.] One of the interesting things about Smithfield, I think, was that it's (apparently) internationally famous for their hams, and produce(d) good peanuts (something like that). And it being such a small town, it has a museum about itself, and surprisingly, they have tourists coming, like us. Our excuse was that it was a place to stop at after riding the ferry, and also on our way to Virginia Beach. But forget it, since I don’t know what my point is. Anyways, for lunch, we ate at Smithfield’s Gourmet Bakery and tasted their, so they say, famous ham. On our way out of town, we stopped at St. Luke’s church, because it’s an old gothic church (the only) still standing since the 1600’s.
(There are lots of streams and river and bays and lakes in the East, which means lots of veryvery longlong bridges.)
We passed through Portsmouth and its downtown, where there was a veryvery longlong tunnel. On to Virginia Beach!
It was very hot, but the water felt really good. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my swimsuit. I had to settle for just soaking my feet and shins in the water. WHEE. THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. There were a couple guys that were trying to surf (keyword: TRYING) all while trying to hit on “hot girls” at the same time. On the way back to the car, one of them was at the water fountain (one where you can rinse off the sand off your legs and whatnot) with a bunch of girls. He was very cocky and, I guess, they would say, humorful. I was figuring out how to work the fountain and he joked with me. (It doesn’t sound right, but it’s when people tell you that you broke something when you can’t figure out how to work it, because they’re just messing with you.) The girls laughed. He asked me where I was from, and I said Chicago. The girls shut up. (HA!) “You like it there?” “Yeah.” “Better than this shithole, huh?” –shrugs- And as I was walking away, I couldn’t really hear what he was saying, but it sounded like he was making fun of the way I said Chicago and the girls were laughing. Screw him, because I don’t like his accent either. Yeesh.
Understand that in between the hotel, Smithfield, and VA Beach, we drove for about an hour and a half. So by the time we were done with VA Beach, it was time for dinner. We tried looking for a good seafood buffet, (everywhere we go, we look for a visitor center :D ) through all the visitor guides and dining guides and maps and coupon books and ads and whatnot. I found Yukai, which was a seafood buffet and a sushi buffet. (which I thought was nice, since the last time I ate all-you-can-eat sushi, Japanese-style, was in Japan. –teartear- memories.) But it was a typical Chinese-owned buffet that you see in Chicago often, so we went to eat at Captain George’s another seafood buffet right next door. We ate lots, and I was really full.
Heading for the hotel, we drove a different route from Smithfield (the shortest route). We passed through downtown Portsmouth and its really long tunnel, passed through another longlong tunnel, before driving onto a very longlong bridge.
Day 4
We woke up early, ate breakfast, then checked out. We headed to Yorktown Battlefield, the last in the Historic Triangle. But it was too early, so we went exploring through the fields. At some point, my parents thought I disappeared, since the trenches the soldiers dug ended pretty high, so they couldn’t see me. When the visitor center opened, we went in and watched a video and browsed through their exhibit. Since we’d already walked through the fields, we decided to take an driving tour around the whole battlefield. We saw the siege walls, trenches, encampments, etc. I can’t offer any other details, since, really, it was just an empty field. (At this point Anonymous would say, What were you expecting? Preserved tents and dead bodies?)
We saw a family of deer. :D The male was pretty young, since he barely had horns.
Lunch: ate in the car, before going home.
It was a stormy day with scattered T-storms, so when Dad was driving on the very left lane on the highway, we drove under a huge raincloud. Before the rain, the wind was really strong. We driving at about 70mph and the car was starting to swerve in its lane. It’s a Western car (Chrysler), so its heavier. If we’d driven a Toyota or something, then I dunno what would’ve happened (Asian cars are lighter to save gas). The windshield wipers were going very fast (the fastest) but the rain was pouring so heavily and fast that it was louder than mom talking in the backseat. It was like driving under a small waterfall. We couldn’t see anything in front of us but rain and grayish-ness, from the sky, the mist from the car tires, and the heavy rain on the road. The cars all had headlights turned on, but in the rain it was still so hard to see. Our car and many others started turning on the double-parking lights, so that the repeated flashing made it easier to see. It was easier to drive in our lane, since we could follow the yellow line on the left. We were all panicking, and (almost) everybody had dropped down to about 45-55 mph. Some people stopped on the side to wait for the rain to stop. It was really scary, and lasted for about 10 minutes, I think (since it felt longer, like 30 for me).
Instead of home, we went to H-Mart to buy groceries, and ended up eating dinner there. We ordered Korean dishes (I dunno the names, but I wished I wrote them down) but the one my dad ordered was really good. Prime ribs with veggies and rice on hot stone pot. P:
Home, and outside the car, I get seven mosquito bites in one minute. I also had a headache for about the entire day, so as soon as I layed down, I passd out.
Excited for NaNoWriMo and the double ARC giveaway. |D
Music: ROBYN. Dancehall Queen, yo.
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