The "Real" First Landing?

3 July 2022--Spent the past 2 days in Virginia Beach with our friend Kathy, who insisted on taking us to the 'real first landing' of the colonist--on those 3 boats even Kathy never heard of, although she did know of the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. lol  We are 65 miles from Jamestown--everyone in Virginia needs to get the story straight and stick with it once and for all if you ask me. lol

Somewhere along this shoreline the colonists stopped for about a minute and memorialized it with a cross before moving on to Jamestown. lol

  

  

Two Cape Henry Lighthouses.  The one on the left was built in 1792, on the right 1881.  In the 3rd pic Kathy is pointing to where it says something about Jamestown being the 1st settlement---this is still a bone of contention with me. lol

    

This is a statue to another Frenchman who helped us during the Revolutionary War.

  

Kathy then drove us to First Landing State Park, a place she has frequented often over the years to go walking with either her dog or friends.  It is quite big, with several trails of up to 8 miles, and is right along the beach.  Eerily pretty in some spots--check out the 2nd pic.

  

  

  

After having dinner at her place, we walked about a block down to the Virginia Beach Boardwalk.  It runs 3 miles along the beach, with hotels, restaurants and entertainment (every couple blocks different performers) along the other side of the boardwalk.  The statue of Neptune is 34 feet tall.

  

  

Kathy was the Landscape Designer for the city of Virginia Beach for 13 years, and worked for 7 of those years on the expansion of the boardwalk, so all the tourists have her to thank for the beautiful landscaping along the entire length of the boardwalk.

     

From the boardwalk we walked over to the beautiful Cavalier Hotel, built in 1927 and still going strong today.  In the first pic you can see houses on the left--there's more on the right--that were also built by the developers, and are quite pretty.  Kathy and I went inside, admired the art...lol...and then walked thru the lobby to the rear where we exit onto beautiful lawns with a view of the ocean.  I think the view of the back of the hotel, looking up to it from the ocean, is actually prettier than the front.

    

  

  

   

And here is something completely unrelated to our tour.  We had stopped to pick up some vegetables for dinner and this sign was there.  For all my city friends, this is how long it takes to grow some of your vegetables.

OK, so now we are on the road to Raleigh, NC...only 2 days there over the 4th of July, so we'll go to the Capitol building on Tuesday and launch for N Myrtle Beach on Wednesday.  Have a great 4th of July celebration everyone--God knows it could be our last!