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.