Virginia Beach - Ecursions 2 - Children's Museum of Virginia

 One of the excursions we took during our week-long vacation was to Portsmouth, VA, to visit the Children's Museum of Virginia.  This ended up being my favorite part of the whole trip...mostly for the kids.  It was about a 30-minute drive from the beach, but was awesome and completely worth it.  The fares to get in were more than reasonable ($32 for all 4 of us, although Matthew was free as he was "under 2") which included being able to visit all the exhibits int he museum and a free show at the Planetarium.  We regrettably didn't get to go to the planetarium for this trip as we were losing Matthew hard, but, if we ever go again, it will be something we definitely do.

Right out front of the museum...I'm sure they had a wonderful literary conversation

 I didn't get to take as many pictures of the different exhibits as I wanted as Colleen and I were on "keep track of our kids" mode...and they were all over the place...mostly gravitating back to the main attraction of the museum, which I'll show later on.  They featured a bunch of different things ranging from a miniature-scale model of a port completely equipped with all of the heavy machinery utilized at a port.  They even had an apparatus the kids could manipulate that would load and unload cargo to and from cargo ships and semi trucks.  Very neat.  A Bank with a safe and drive-through, a music room set up like a Stomp! stage show, a grocery store, an exhibit featuring simple anatomy and physiology, Safety Zone with fire trucks and police motorcycle, Pets and Vets, and, my personal favorite, the Dr. Force's Traveling Energy Extravaganza.  Tons of cool stuff to do, but not at all overwhelming.  I would think that most of the exhibits are catered for 5, maybe 6, and under, but it was a very cool museum.  (Above from left to right: Matthew putting out a fire, Boys checking out a city map that highlights different modes of transportation, Christopher at the bank drive though, the boys in a huge chair...Matthew not feeling it).

Christopher Driving the Bus

There was an exhibit featuring an old out-of-commission city bus.  Christopher has an insane fascination with buses, so he took full advantage.  I actually had to force him out of the bus to check out other exhibits!

From Farm to Food Mart

Sounds Around

 Bodyworks

 Curious George

 Bubble Room

They had a lot more bubble-making stuff here, but this was another one where I found it very hard to keep up with the boys.

Dr. Force's

Lancaster Train Display

This was the highlight of the trip.  Christopher and Matthew could have spent the entire day in here if we'd let them.  They loved it.  I think it was the most massive train display I've ever seen.  Along the walls around the display were hundreds of different model trains featuring hundreds of different makes and models of trains.  It really was pretty impressive.  Matthew liked it, Christopher absolutely loved it.  There were some tunnels that led to little domes where the kids could poke their heads up and see the set-up from within.   It was an amazing display...and I'm not remotely into that sort of stuff.

 

Virginia Beach - Excursions 1

We did many excursions aside from the beach (which was a daily occurrence) while away at Virginia Beach.  The first one we took was to Jungle Golf, a miniature golf course along the Pacific Ave near the boardwalk. The kids had a good time, but, as one might expect, it was incredibly overcrowded and we had a hard time talking to one another due to the intermittent thunderous roar of fighter jets going by every 10 minutes or so flying in and out of Ocean Naval Air Station (located about 5 minutes away from the VA Beach boardwalk.  I suppose the most important thing though is that the kids had fun and it seemed they did.  There were a lot of pseudo volcanoes and animal statues all over the place, but it was all cramped up in a small area.  They also charge $22 to park in their lot, but they give you 2 free games for using their parking lot.  Thanks.  We had learned about another miniature golf course before going to this one called Pirate Paradise Mini Golf that got a lot of good reviews, but we couldn't find it.  We discovered on hole 16 Jungle Golf (we were on a "hill" at that point) that Pirate Paradise was right across the street.  We probably would have had more fun there, but....live and learn I suppose.

www.junglegolf.com

www.piratesparadiseminigolf.com

  On a whim one night, after eating at a local BBQ joint called Beach Bully BBQ, the family headed out to the boardwalk.  We quickly realized that it was nothing like the New Jersey shore boardwalks.  There were no stores of any kind or small eateries or treat shops as you'd find in Jersey.  It was simply a boardwalk. That being said, there is a strip along the city-side of the boardwalk on Atlantic Ave. where all the shops, bars, and restaurants are located.  It was extremely crowded at there were these weird side shows all along the strip ranging from pop-singing quartets, a Frank Sinatra imitator, a freak show magic artist, and other such things.  The picture above is of a haunted house located there on Atlantic Ave.  Occasionally, smoke would waft(?) from the mouth of the skull there.  I took a lot of pictures, but few of them turned out as I was toting and/or entertaining a child in one fashion or another.  We did hit a frozen yogurt store and Col's Aunt Chris and her granddaughter, Kaylee, were so happy, they began dancing (not really, but it does make the story more interesting).  By the way, the BBQ joint was pretty good.

www.beachbully.com

We visited a place featured on Food Network's show, "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" called Citrus.  I had more pictures of the place, but the SD card they were got fried.  So, was it worth checking out? Definitely.  Would I go there again?  Maybe.  I'll leave it at that.

 The second of three breakfast joints we tried out was Doc Taylor's.  It was good.  The first thing listed on the menu was Biscuits with Sausage Grave made with either sage sausage, andouille, or chorizo.  That's totally getting off on the right food there.

Pop's Diner was our third.  It was off of the beach and in the city itself, but totally worth the 10-minute drive. 

www.facebook.com/pages/Citrus-Breakfast-Lunch/108150095893271
www.doctaylors.com
www.popsdinerco.com


More to come....