~ Virginia Beach Trip (August 2001) ~

Little Island Beach, Virginia ~ for my birthday this year I decided that after 3 years of living in Virginia, it was about time I go take a look at the Atlantic. So bright and early on August 24th we headed east along the 66, through Richmond to Virginia Beach. John bought me an beach umbrella for my birthday so we felt very official when we finally set up camp (a little detour had been necessary when the route shown by Mapquest was blocked by a chain link fence!). It wasn't exactly sunny, but it was warm enough for a pleasant afternoon of lounging about. I didn't go deeper than knee deep as the water was a bit cold; turns out that wasn't such a bad thing, as a week later there was a shark attack at another beach a mile north of the one we were on. But all I saw were some really large crabs wavering back and forth just under the surface of the water. Kept my toes away from them and all was good! I took these shots through the plastic zip-lock bag I had my camera in to prevent the merest chance of sand & surf encroachment...