Happy 9th Birthday, Ryan

Nine years ago today, we became grandparents for the first time. Being grandparents is one of the best things that have happened to us. So we thank Ryan for starting the ball rolling for us. It has been quite a ride. Hope that you have the very best birthday ever. We love you!

For the past three days, it has been raining so I thought that I would share interesting pictures from Norfolk and Newport News, VA. This photo was taken from our cruise boat, Victory Rover, of the Norfolk Harbor. From the photo, you can see that this is a very busy harbor. The day of our cruise, there was a little bit of everything to be seen on the water: tugboats, barges, pleasure craft, dredgers, Coast Guard boats, Marines on manuevers and of course, numerous U. S. Navy ships.

Because we had two long hard days of touring, first Norfolk and then Yorktown, we decided to have a movie day on Saturday. We went to see Mission Impossible III, a must see summer action movie, with Tom Cruise and Philip Seymour Hoffman. We really enjoyed this adrenalin pumping, special effects laden, incredible stunts of a movie. Tom, in spite of his personal life antics, really knows how to entertain. It was just fun.

When we came out of the movie, the rain had let up so we went to Fort Eustis, an Army base, in Newport News. We went to see the Army Museum of Transportation with exhibits of vehicles from the Revolutionary War to the present. Although there was space for the Iraq War, it wasn't filled in yet.

As we walked around Norfolk, we would see mermaid statues here, there and everywhere. We thought that because of all the maritime history of the area that mermaids were Norfolk's mascot. However, it dawned on me that the city was sponsoring mermaid art, like Chicago did with the cows. I like the mermaids but the cows were cute, too.

On Sunday, we woke up to sun, so were trying to decide what to do. There was an air show at Langley Air Force base. So we thought that we would ride over to Hampton, VA to see it. We stopped at Uno's for a good Chicago-style pizza. While we ate, it clouded up and the storms began again. So we decided to go see RV with Robin Williams. What a riot! Our life on the big screen! This was the second time that we saw RV. When we first saw it in Morehead City, NC, we thought it was just us because we laughed until tears rolled down our cheeks and my stomach hurt for a couple hours after we saw it. Both times, the audience roared with laughter. It wasn't just us. Even though we knew what was coming during the second viewing, we laughed just as hard as the first time. While the critics weren't very kind to this movie, we highly recommend this movie for a good laugh.

We are loving Virginia. We weren't prepared for how beautiful this state is. We are staying in an RV park right in the Newport News City Park. Above you can see our RV in camouflage. Obviously, this photo was taken on one of our sunny days. When we first checked in, we were only going to stay for three days, but this park is so beautiful (Mel said it is close to rivaling Fort Wilderness in Disney World or Fort Desoto in St. Petersburg, FL) that we decided to stay until Monday, May 15th. Our other reason for staying so long is that there is so much to see here. We highly recommend the Norfolk area for a vacation spot.
Here is a photo of our camp site. The path leads down to the park lake. If it ever stops raining, we hope to spend some time out of doors as there are great bike paths throughout the park. Today is our third day of rain. So it was beauty day. Mel and I both had our hair cut. I had a manicure and pedicure and Mel bought new deck shoes. His shoes were so worn out that his toes were coming out of the top. He complained that his feet were hurting. No wonder!