Beach Time, VA

Cape Charles, Virginia
Kiptopeke State Park


After a very busy week of reunions, we were looking forward to some quiet beach camping with Steve's brother Jeff and his family.  Cape Charles is located on the Chesapeake Bay side of the Eastern Shore of Virginia.  It's a quiet little post-Victorian town of about 1000 people.  Farming and bay/ocean fishing/crabbing as well as tourism are the main sources of income.  Many have family owned cabins and vacation homes here.

 

Driving from Newport News to the Eastern Shore includes a drive over and under open waters where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean.  The Bridge-Tunnel provides a direct link between Southeastern Virginia and the Delmarva Peninsula of Delaware.  From end to end, the Bridge-Tunnel measures 17.6 miles and is considered the world’s largest bridge-tunnel complex. Construction of the span includes 12 miles of low-level trestle, two 1-mile tunnels, two bridges, almost 2 miles of causeway, four manmade islands and 5-1/2 miles of approach roads, totaling 23 miles.  Pulling the 5th wheel, we were required to stop at an inspection station where they verified that all of our propane canisters were turned off.  It cost us $22 total for the dually truck and our 5th wheel.

 

I forgot to get pictures of our campsite at Kiptopeke State Park.  We were lucky to get one of the few spots with a little shade under some tall pines at the end of the sites which gave us a bit more privacy.  Most spots are wide open on grass.  We had FHU at $37 a night for #A18.  Again, the A Loop had the most shade, fairly level.  There are paths to the beach and a nice pier for fishing.  The shore is long and shallow with fairly warm water. 

We all got set up and since it was so hot and humid here and Jeff & Veronica and gang were in a tent, we drove in to town for an ice cream and a little walk around.

Great ice cream.

Jeremy, Amanda and her fiancé, Bryan, Charity, Jeff, Cassidy & Veronica. (Nephew Alex couldn't make it.)

Hand painted homes for your pet Hermit Crab.

Along the beach near the small pier was this large sculpture.  Later that night we all went down to the beach and swam and played in the ocean to cool off before dinner.

 

Another time I took the pooch down to the far end of the beach so he could play.

 

Some big Horseshoe Crabs here on the East Coast.

Some of the old cement ships sunken off shore.

It's been a while since Hurley has played in the ocean.  He had a ball of course.

 

 

After watching the sun set, we headed back to camp.

Jeff's Gang rented kayaks and we all headed out to paddle the bay side where the tide currents weren't too strong and we could investigate the smaller waterways where there is supposed to be many shoreline birds.

Cassidy & Veronica

Jeff

Charity & Jeremy

Some very loud gulls.

  

  

Egrets.

We eventually ran out of navigable space.  Dodging the oyster beds became impossible and we had to head back at this point. 

An osprey nest.

I guess these seagulls can't read.

 

On our drive back to camp we passed some very beautiful homes.  I just loved this one.  The Crepe Myrtles were in full bloom and everywhere.  Just beautiful!

I could sit on this swing sippin' something cold.

After watching Children of the Corn and Signs, large corn fields around homes always creep me out.

Cassidy.

One of my favorite things we did was visit Dacha, a Russian Tea House, for a tea sampling.  Dacha is the Russian word for a summer home. Since Cape Charles is full of many summer homes, they chose the name Dacha Tea for their Russian Tea House here in Cape Charles.

Owner, Jone, aka Ivanka

 

Jone was our wonderful hostess and was happy to answer all of our questions about how she started this business.  She became very interested as a young child and was able to visit the country and study about Russia.

We chose the #2 option.

So much to choose from.

Some descriptions of the yummy home made desserts.

She told us all about the proper way that Russians enjoy their tea.  Very different from America or England.  While you're tea is steeping you put a small saucer on top to keep the heat in.

Instead of sugar, they use jam for sweetening.

The kids were great and had a wonderful time.

Some of the colorful nesting doll collection.

  

These are special tea pots.

  

Some of our wonderful desserts and a special candy at the end.

 

The 3 teas we sampled.  One was smoky, one sweet and one floral.  This turned out to be my favorite activity of the week.  A lot of fun and a lot learned!

I loved this little cottage.  With a little TLC, this could be a really cute home.

On the way to Chincoteague we stopped into the NASA Flight Facility.  Not really my thing, but it was interesting.  Nice views from the roof.  We also found a geocache out front.

It was a long time since we've been back to Chincoteague.  Just a small tourist town noted for its duck decoy carving and nearby wild ponies on Assateague Beach.

Having a little fun on the huge beach chairs.

We walked along the pier, had lunch and geocached some more.

On the way back to camp we came upon this very interesting memorial geocaching.  We had a great time and now Jeff and Veronica are hooked on it.

There were times it was just too plain hot outside and we all chilled in the A/C. 

What a crew!

 

One more walk along the beach and pier before we all have to leave.

We had a great time!!  See you all again in a couple of years.