Beach Day

My friend Cassy is visiting Virginia Beach for the weekend. She loves the beach, whereas I go maybe once a year (usually because she's here and wants to go) even though I live a few minutes from it. So today, we visited the beach! (First we went to the DMV but that was not fun.)

This was supposed to have dolphins in the water behind Stella, but I think I missed them.

Stella says: "Don't forget your sunscreen!"

Ah, right at home for a wee little octopus! Sun, sand, and surf.

In the shade under the umbrella!

Cassy needed to submit a photo to her book of the month club
using this silly straw and their book of the month! (I actually was
reading the book, because I forgot to bring one with me,
and it's really good so far!)

Cassy shared the book with me, so I shared with Stella!

Making new friends with Cassy!

They're so silly.

We had a great time at the beach! We planned to leave around 2-2:30, and we heard the first rumbles of thunder at 2:20, so that was perfect timing!

Mt. Trashmore

Sounds like a joke, right? But Mt. Trashmore is the highest point in Virginia Beach. It used to be a landfill, and they sealed it up tight and covered it with grass and slapped a park on top of it, with Kids' Cover (a playground area) and a skate park, and several walk/run/bike paths.

Today, there was a 5K there (which I did not know when I chose to go there) and I think everyone else in Virginia Beach was there too! There was some cloud cover when we got there so it wasn't horribly oppressive (oh, the humidity!).

Our primary objective was to catch some Pokemon.
My coworker, who runs, told me he got a Dratini at
Mt Trashmore, but I didn't run across any today.

The stairs to the top

The view toward "downtown" from the top

Ahh, relaxing on the grass after climbing all those steps.
(I don't know what Stella needs to relax for; I carried her!)

There's also a Lake Trashmore. It, however, is not full of trash. It's actually quite lovely.

Pokemon Go!

I am very much on the Pokemon Go bandwagon, and today, Stella helped me catch my favorite Pokemon: an Eevee!!!

Independence Day

Stella and I had a fairly quiet Independence Day (in the sense that not being busy is "quiet"... we heard a lot of fireworks so it was not that kind of quiet). It was a mix of being home after driving across the US, wanting to get some home organizing/cleaning done, and preparing for my husband to start clerkships today (the unpaid intern part of med school). Plus, it was rainy off and on all weekend.

This was the rain we were faced with, leaving work on Friday!

We made a mad dash for it (Stella had the benefit of hiding in

my purse, with a plastic bag around the whole thing, while I got

more drenched than I would have if I had just stepped into the

shower in my clothes!) and of course, the rain cleared up after

we got in the car and made it about a mile up the road!

It was fun though. I'm a firm believer in running through a good

downpour about once a year.

Not knowing what would be open for lunch on the 4th, we decided a safe bet
was our favorite sushi place, since they're open pretty much all the time.

Fireworks! (I promise Stella is in the photo,
it was just really dark.) We go to my in-laws' house
for fireworks, since there's a country club across
the water that does them every year, and that means
we don't have to worry about parking or crowds.