I was 1-2 in softball today, with a really good hit.

On the road again. Philly to Warsaw is a loooong haul. Especially with two bored little kids. Alex especially wasn’t having any of the toys we had for him, so we just tried to stop for a while and run around every once in a while. Ohio just goes on and on and on. About the time we were all hungry and wanted some dinner we found large expanses of nothing, except McDonald’s which we didn’t want. By the time we got home everyone was really antsy. It was good to visit Patrick but it sure made a long day after. I’m glad I have Monday off for Memorial Day.

All good things, they say...we cleaned up the house this morning and headed out. We crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and went up through the Eastern Shore and Delaware, since we had arranged to go up through Pennsylvania to stay overnight with Amy & Patrick, since we’d always said we should come and drop by of we ever got the chance. So we did, and Amy wasn’t home...but we had a good visit with Patrick and the kids. He treated us to Chinese for dinner.

We walked around the beach this morning for a while, hit some of the shops along the strip looking for souvenirs, and bought some picture frames and shirts. We also got some little toys for the kids, and tickets to go to the aquarium. We then had lunch at the Jewish Mother, which we had learned since Tuesday that is now only in one location, in VB near the beach. We also remembered why we didn’t eat at the Jewish Mother very often, as lunch for the 4 of us came to $47. We headed out to the aquarium after lunch, and realized quickly that 1) it was really expensive for what you get, and 2) you should make sure you have enough time to see everything. The kids were excited to see the penguin exhibit, but when we got there we found it...disappointing. A couple of penguins not doing anything, big deal. They like the kiddie games that had been set up better. Missy found a robot arm thing she liked. Overall, however, they weren’t that interested, and we had to cut it shorter than we wanted anyway because the Caspers were coming over to the Wood House again. This time we did Zero’s pizza. While running out to pick it up, Brian and I ran into First Landing State Park to look for a geocache I’d looked up at Starbuck’s the other day, and I dropped off both my TBs there. We all had a really good time again. It was like it was 10 years ago, only with little kids around.

Today was a perfect beach day. Sunny sunny sunny, in the 70s. We went downtown to the Starbucks to check e-mail and look for a good geocache to drop off some travel bugs I brought with me, then did a bit of shopping at the stores along the strip (the kids liked looking at the painted "Kermit crabs"), finding a couple t-shirts and beach toys for the kids, then went home for lunch and hit the beach. It was literally a perfect day for the beach. The surf was as up as it gets in VB without a hurricane, and the kids had a great time running into and out of the crashing waves and building sand castles. Beth and I both got burned, her worse than me, and Missy burned a little on her back, but generally we were all fine. After a few hours on the beach we went home to clean up and went to Robert & Rena’s for a cookout and pool time. The kids both wore their life jackets and swam without us in the pool, having a great time, not wanting to come out even when their lips were turning blue.

Once again out to Portsmouth. We went this morning to the old Harbour View office where Beth used to work. It’s still there, and look about the same. Sandy still works there so Beth spent a good bit of time catching up with her while I tried to entertain the kids and keep them out of trouble (they made a mess anyway). It was almost lunchtime when we left, but we happened to be right near Bennett’s Creek Farm Market, another one of our favorite places, and another place that has not changed one bit. They still have the corn & onion salad, they still have the deli sandwich counter. So, that’s what we did for lunch. We even found a jar of bone suckin’ sauce to bring home. Then we took the road up through Smithfield and to Surry to get the ferry over to Jamestown. Boy, a lot of things came back to me on that trip. Like the old ruined church building with trees growing inside it. I’ve tried to remember for a few years where that was, and I had thought maybe Arkansas. The kids both really liked taking the van onto a boat with us when we went over to Jamestown. We just went to the glass house, not the fort, no time. Beth wanted to get some glass (which she did) but we had to get back because Laura and Brian were coming over. This time we went back through the HRBT. The Caspers are doing well, Brian is now an O-4 and is going to be something like DCA on the USS Harry S. Truman (my old ship). We grilled steaks using the convenient grills provided with the rental. I had never ever grilled with charcoal before, and I must say the steaks came out perfect. I’m going to have to look into this charcoal thing. We had a really good visit with the Caspers, and the kids played well together. Afterwards we all took our kids out to the DQ on the beach and made plans to get together again before we left.

An absolutely gorgeous day. First thing we drove up to Cape Henry / Fort Story to visit the lighthouse. The van got searched as we drove onto the base, including us getting out (kids stayed in their seats) while dogs sniffed around. Well, when we got to the lighthouse we found that Missy was not tall enough to climb the steps and she had to stay behind. Very disappointing for her. Alex climbed like a champ (the steps really were too much for Missy to have done). We got to the top, and a submarine was out driving around. A carrier was also approaching the cape and we had a good view from the top of the light. Alex just wanted to climb down, though. But as soon as we got down, he wanted to go back up, so we did. Alex climbed the light twice. The second time we had a great view of the USS Enterprise rounding the cape and heading south. After getting down again, we were in the parking lot (Beth had bought Missy a little puzzle to compensate for not going up) and just as I looked up at a passing plane, I saw things start to fly out the back of it. Turns out to be a paratrooper exercise, and we got to see a bunch of parachutes sail down. Afterwards, we headed back to Portsmouth because we wanted to eat lunch at the Jewish Mother at portside, but found it was not there anymore. In its place was...La Tolteca! Guess they’ve expanded. So anyway, we ate there again. Then we took the ferry across the river to Waterside and checked out the shops there. The kids really liked the ferry ride, both ways. After going back to the Wood House (as the kids are calling it) we got pizza from Zero’s.

Today we went to the Virginia Zoo first off. Beth and I were trying to decide if the zoo had been there while we lived here, and couldn’t remember it, but we learned it had been there the entire time we were there. I’m not sure why we never went, unless maybe people had told us it was a sad little zoo so we didn’t bother. It really isn’t that impressive. Alex talked about seeing the zebras from the moment we told him we were going to a zoo...guess which animal wasn’t there? Yep, no zebras. The ONLY animal Alex really wanted to see. Missy was happy to see the elephants and giraffes, at least. After doing the zoo (didn’t take all that long) we headed out to Portsmouth to check out our old town. We drove past our old stomping grounds and over to lunch at La Tolteca, which hasn’t changed a bit. After lunch we went through Harbor View and checked out some more of the Portsmouth scene. A lot has changed there. Then we went back to the beach for a while, and ate dinner in.

First thing this morning, we wanted to go to our old church. We didn’t know what time services were though, so we made a guess and headed out. We got there in between first and second services, and ran into our old friends Robert and Rena while we were getting a tour. The place has grown…a lot…and changed…a lot. We were disappointed to find out that Pastor Scott is no longer there, but the associate pastor Jamey is the senior pastor now. We got the grand tour and got to drop the kids off in Sunday school while that was going on, and stayed for the service. Afterwards we wanted to go out to Captain George’s in Pungo for lunch with R&R, so we headed out…with a faint remembrance of where it was…but after making it to Pungo and not finding the place, we asked for directions and were told it closed a few years ago, bummer. So we wound up at Applebee’s with them. Anyway, afterwards we had the afternoon free to hit the beach. It was the first time the kids have seen the ocean and they had a great time playing in the waves. Later on, we found the other location of Captain George’s for dinner, just as good as we remember but $80 for dinner....ouch...

We ate at Denny’s this morning (I think it’s required to do so if you’re on the road) and got going at a decent time this morning, and made it the rest of the way. The kids traveled well altogether, and the DVD player helped a lot. We also stopped every 2 or 3 hours to let everyone out to run around and play for a little while, and broke out a new toy for them every little while. And we also stopped somewhere in Maryland at Chick-fil-A specifically because they have play areas. Both of us were getting all excited by the time we passed Richmond. On the way into Hampton Roads, we decided to take the long way around 664 so we could go past our old condo and stomping grounds. We swung through River Pointe, and our old place looks about the same as ever. There’s been a lot of building going on in the area too, much of it for the better. We got to the rental house by early evening, and it is beautiful. Perfect.

I had thought that this was Alex’s last day of preschool, but there was a calendar error on the preschool website so he’s actually going to miss a week. Anyway, I took today off work to finish packing and loading the van. As soon as Alex was out of school, we picked him up (a few minutes late) and we were off. With only a few more stops. We went via turnpike all the way to Pittsburgh today, and stayed overnight in a motel I got cheap on Hotwire.com. Lesson learned: if you’re specifically staying somewhere because it has a pool, check to make sure it is an indoor pool. The kids were disappointed that the pool was outside…drained…and they couldn’t swim, but less so than I’d expected. We got dinner and tried to get the kids to bed at a reasonable time, which isn’t easy when they’re still wound up and in the same bed together. The good part was that Beth and I got to bed early too, since we couldn’t do anything else after they finally fell asleep.

It has been a quiet weekend. Beth is still in the recovery process and is not moving around very well, but she's doing better. It's been a hassle with the kids this past week. Wednesday I stayed home long enough to get the kids ready for school and Kate took them there and picked them up afterwards, then took them to her home until I got out of work. Thursday (no school) I got them ready and took them to Tina's house, where they were all day until I was out of work. Friday I got them ready again and dropped them off at Kate's, and she brought them to Lorraine's for the afternoon until I was out of work. This weekend I've taken to kids out of the house and left Beth to rest whenever possible;

Softball was rained out tonight.

We all went out geocaching again today. We found a really nice spot out near Syracuse called Pisgah Marsh, where we got 3 caches. There is a great boardwalk leading maybe a half-mile from the parking lot to a spot atop an esker (look it up) overlooking a shallow lake. Another cache hidden nearby was in a stump by another lake, and some friendly fishermen approached us when we were looking for it and asked what we were doing on their friend’s property. We made up a story about the kids didn’t want to get back in the car yet, wanted to go for a walk, wanted to check out the cool stump etc...I think they bought it. We waited for them to leave before re-hiding the cache.

I had an eye appointment today and so didn’t play softball. I am finally getting new frames, the ones I have have been trashed for some time now.

Beth and I went out to see "Spiderman 3" tonight with the Johnsons. Very disappointing. Too much pointless stuff in it.

Tonight I was 0-2 in softball, without even making decent contact.