2009 Vacations – Part 3 – Virginia Beach

This past Labour Day, Ryan and I went to Virginia Beach for an extended long weekend. We arrived on the Friday morning and stayed until Tuesday afternoon. The main purpose of the trip was for me to run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon, but it was also a great place to go for a nice relaxing weekend on the beach. Or at least we thought it would be.

We had a great weekend, but the weather didn’t quite cooperate the way we had hoped.

Race day morning was sunny and hot (great weather for the race itself) but it started to turn stormy that afternoon. We actually swam in the pool at the hotel and not the beach as the conditions were very rough in the ocean. I also had to take my finisher’s medal photo from inside the hotel room because I forgot to take it when I was still at the beach and by the time I remembered, it was raining.

All of the Monday was stormy, so we took the bus up to the Virginia Aquarium to check out all of the indoor exhibits. It was quite busy there (combination of long weekend and rainy day) but we had a good time and saw lots of interesting creatures.

  

All in all the weekend was great, even with the rain. We enjoyed the Verizon Wireless American Music Festival, ate wonderful food at Mahi Mah’s and enjoyed some beverages on our ocean view balcony at Sandcastle Oceanfront Resort Hotel. All that was missing was sitting at the beach and swimming in the ocean.

Vacations in 2009, part 1

Ryan and I have started planning some vacation time for 2010, which put me in the mood to look through some of last year’s vacation photos.

Over the next few posts I will highlight some of our vacation moments of 2009.

First of the year was our May trip to Ottawa, ON and Alexandria Bay, NY.

Ryan and I arrived in Ottawa for Victoria Day Weekend (May 2-4) when the Canadian Tulip Festival is in full bloom. This festival is the largest of it’s kind in the world. With three million tulips blooming, it’s quite the spectacular site to see.

After a great weekend in Ottawa, we headed south to visit my parents for a day. We ended up having to stay a bit later than planned due to some car trouble, but were on our way to our next destination of the Thousand Islands by late afternoon (we were planning on leaving in the morning).

We stayed a night in Gananoque before our trip across the border to Alexandria Bay.

Our stay in Alex Bay was great! We stayed at Captain Thomson’s Resort and had a fantastic view from our balcony. We spent our evenings sitting and enjoying the clear skies and view of Boldt Castle on Heart Island beautifully lit up and spent our days both touring Heart Island and also enjoying the weather on patios.

The view from our private balcony at Captain Thomson’s:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boldt Castle:

After leaving the Thousand Islands, we were on our way back to Ottawa for Race Weekend! I was to be running the half marathon, so I wanted to be there a bit early to get prepared.

We checked out the 10K race and saw some amazing elites competing for the top spot on the Saturday evening. Ryan shot some photos that evening in preparation for the next day’s Marathon & Half Marathon.

On Sunday, My nephew and niece ran in the Kids Marathon and about an hour later it was my turn to start in the half marathon. It was a warmer day than usual with bright sun and very little shade. It was a great course. I definitely enjoyed the day.

Here’s a shot of my niece wearing all 3 completion medals (mine, hers and her brother’s).