Hi there, Virginia Beach!

What a super fun, semi last minute trip this turned out to be!  It all started with Sam going up for two days for a softball tournament, and instead it morphed into a five day yay-school-is-out vacation.  So, basically if I'm involved, it's turning into a vacation.  Haha. 

Originally, Sam was just going to go up for the weekend and split a cheap hotel with a bunch of the softball guys, but when I saw the date and realized it was the weekend after Harper's last day of school, I thought it may be fun to tag along.   It seemed like a fun way to celebrate our school year survival.  Then, it totally "if you give a mouse a cookie"-ed.  If we are going to drive that far (around 5 hours), I may as well take off Friday.  And if I'm going to take off Friday, we should probably just drive down Thursday night to make a full day of it on Friday.  And then, if we're going to pay for a hotel room for Thursday night, we should just go up early on Thursday morning.  And then, after stumbling across a concert on Sunday night, we opted to stay another night and leave on Monday afternoon.  So, suddenly, that weekend trip turned into five full, fun days. 

I could. not. get over how expensive hotels were for the boardwalk area of Virginia Beach.  Like $419 a night for a Holiday Inn crazy.  I'm not sure if it was because of the huge softball tournament or it being the first real "summer" weekend, but I had major sticker shock.  I wasn't planning on this weekend being as much as a cruise.  And thankfully, with some serious travel site stalking, I was finally able to Hotwire a deal for an oceanfront three star hotel for around $200 a night after taxes.  I'm basically a detective when it comes to Hotwire, so I had figured out before I booked that based on the amenities and star rating listed, it had to be the Ramada, and I was ok with that, so away we booked.

Mahpalooza!

Most of the softball team stayed inland at a cheaper hotel (and most also didn't have kids with them), but I knew with Sam away for two of the days at a softball tournament, I really didn't want to have to pack up all our beach stuff, drive 30 minutes, find parking, unpack the car while making sure my kids don't run into traffic, walk a half mile with 25 pounds of beach chairs/towels/cooler, and finally sit down in front of the water just in time for one of the girls to need to pee.  So, we "splurged" a little and went for oceanfront, and I am SO GLAD we did.  It turned out to be in a super location with a live music festival that played each night on a little pavilion right outside our room.

We had an easy (though long) drive over there (wait a minute.  That may be the first time since Willa's birth that I've ever written that.), and got there around 1 p.m.  Our room was ready, so we were down on the beach by 1:30 and got in a full five hours of beach time on Thursday.  The girls were super excited to see the ocean again, even if it was a bit cooler than they remembered.  :)

 

 

An hour or so of that may have been an afternoon nap.  :)  That worked out well because then the little ladies were up for a fun evening of seafood, dancing, and playground playing. 

 

Harper and Dad at dinner

WK and Mama at dinner

She's waited a year to eat $25 worth of seafood!

  

As we walked back to our room on the boardwalk, Harper spotted a bike stand right outside our hotel.  She begged and begged and begged and begged to rent a four person surry.  We told her we would first thing in the morning, and so don't you know, at 7:30 a.m., sweet girl was reminding us that we promised her we'd give it a try.

 

You know those things that seem like a good idea and then turn out to be absolutely miserable??  Yeah, this was one of them.  Sam was too tall to extend his legs fully to pedal and I wasn't quite tall enough to sit with my back against the seat, so we basically hated our lives for the entire 42 minutes that we were in possession of this thing.  We couldn't wait to turn that bad boy back in, and so we did.  A full 18 minutes early.

By the time we finished up with our biking excursion and had some breakfast, Rachel, Jennifer, and Mike arrived and so it was time to get our beach day of fun started.  Woohoo!  The girls could NOT WAIT until Easton and Emerson arrived. 

 

The majority of the softball team arrived by lunch, and so we had a marathon day on the beach with the little kids (and the big, mid thirties kids) playing all day long.  The Quesenberrys came up to our room to shower and get ready and joined us for dinner.  It has been so fun seeing these kids grow up together.

Fertitta/Quesenberry Beach Trip 2014 and Beach Trip 2016

 

Sam left for softball early on Saturday, but most of the ladies and all the moms opted for a beach day instead of a day at the field.  I know, good choice.  But first, breakfast.  We found a little café across the street that had some outdoor seating, so it became my morning routine with the girls. 

 

 

  

  

 

 

Another fun dinner out was finished off with some dancing at Mahpalooza outside our hotel. 

Sunday was another softball day for them, beach day for us, but the real fun happened on Sunday night.  Last week, Sam and I were driving in the car with the girls talking about people we'd like to see in concert.  He just haphazardly said Twenty One Pilots, so while he was driving, I pulled up their tour schedule.  What the what?!  They were playing at the Portsmouth Pavilion (the next town over) the weekend that we were planning to be in VA Beach.  So, I looked up tickets and booked them.  Corrie and Jeremy were so super sweet to agree to keep our kiddos while we went and had a fun date night.

Now, up until this point, we hadn't seen a drop of rain, so I wasn't too worried about our outdoor concert, but while we were eating at Mahi Mah's before taking the girls to the Cromers, and it started pouring.  Ugh. 

 

It rained the whole Uber ride over the Pavilion, but as soon as we pulled in, it cleared up and didn't rain another drop the entire night.  And the concert was amazing.  So, so good.  We are already looking to see them again!  We didn't get back until midnight because the Uber rates were in surge pricing-- all the way up to 4.3x at one point.  But, it was worth it, and such a fun date.  Except for feeling like the old people at a concert. Haha.

Our last day on the beach was super low key.  We ate breakfast (hello, again Sunnyside!), packed up, and went down to the ocean for a few hours.  The girls sure soaked up their last bit of sunshine, but it was insanely windy.  New meaning to beach hair.

Our drive home took forever, but it wasn't so bad.  The girls jammed out to some Twenty One Pilots with us.  It was "just a weekend trip," but the sun and sand sure made it feel like a vacation, even if (despite Harper's disbelief), we never left the state.