Vaca: Day 1

Well, we have arrived at the beach!! We spent Saturday driving 9.5 hours (about 9.5 hours too long for me) and stopped in Charlottesville, VA for dinner. The downtown area is so cool! It is a long brick road lined with different restaurants and shops. It is completely blocked off to traffic, which is so nice to just stroll around. One end also has a concert stage where they bring in some really big names. It is a lot like the Verizon Wireless Music Center in Indy, but this is right downtown. On Sunday morning we checked out the UVa campus (partially in search of good coffee for Todd) and decided to tour Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello. He was an amazing architect and created a mountaintop home that was completely self-sustaining. It is really amazing to see the different things he designed that were advanced for the period in which he built the home. The mountain was foggy and it was a bit rainy, so we didn't see to see all the amazing views, but we toured the grounds and home. We also stopped to see the family cemetery on his property, as well as the vineyards, which exist at one end of the 5,000 acres he farmed. After that, we stopped for lunch at Mitche Tavern. It has been open and operating since the 1765. It was pretty cool. We ate with camping-like plates and cups to keep to the period.

After that, we drove the final 3.5 hours to our destination at the Outer Banks - The Sanderling Resort. We checked in and took our first walk on the beach. Then, we checked out the The Blue Point for dinner. Of course, we have already eaten way too much, but so far it has been fun. We are hoping that Tropical Storm Bertha stays away!

Todd found his Starbucks on the UVa campus! It is a very cool area of town like Green Street (Illinois) or Kirkwood (Indiana).

Me at Monticello. The grassy area actually used to be a goat farm (sticking with Jefferson's plan to have a self-sustaining plantation), so it actually wasn't as nice back then.

We saw so many crabs when we were walking the beach. Todd is looking forward to the fish this week (Swordfish tonight...Tuna tomorrow night).