Day 5 - Thursday 19th May

There are a few attractions around Virginia Beach that we wanted to check out so that was today's mission. Starting with Cape Henry which included First Landing - the place where, reputedly, the first English settlers landed on the continent of America.

This is on a military base (this appears to be the case with loads of the land in this part of the world) so we first had to pass through security. Mmmmh, I'm not sure I'd rely on this to keep me safe - they expressed astonishment at a UK driving licence ( photo ID required, we already knew) then made us open every openable part of the car (boot, bonnet, glove compartment, you get the idea). A mirror was wheeled around under the car and I was asked how I liked the VW - then we were in with strict instructions on how far we could go and what we could and could not photograph.

Well, we reached the lighthouses, parked and then wandered around for a while looking at various interesting things (including First Landing) then headed for the Beach. Having parked up back at the resort, we sauntered a couple of blocks up the boardwalk to the Old Coastguard Station. We’d wandered past it a few times and kept saying “we must go in” So here we were.

We paid our money (not much) and were handed over to one of the volunteers to be shown round the first floor. Well, Carol reckoned she understood 1 word in 3, I think she was showing off – I got maybe 1 word in 6 or 7! Even an American inside said he didn’t understand much! The museum was quaint and, in its limited way, quite interesting. A highlight was the Lifeboat Tea on sale- with 7p of every purchase going to the RNLI – generous these Americans!

Then it was people watching time – we sat on one of the many benches on the boardwalk and read our books. Until we could no longer resist the lure of the 11^th Street Taphouse! After 3 pints, we then proceeded to break with tradition and cook in our apartment – pasta and sauce with basil and salad. Cordon Bleu it wasn’t!