Birthdays & Beaches

I had such a good time last weekend for all my birthday festivities, I decided to do it again. Yippee!! Wait, no? Oh, that's right, it is Beloved Son's birthday, the sweetest baby ever born!!

Long ago one sunny morn,
On the day that you were born,
The doctor tripped, and then then he said,
"Whoops, I dropped it on its head."

Also, he is the cutest baby ever born. I know everyone says this about their kids, but...

... come on people, is there really any doubt? There have been some close seconds, but I have not found anyone to dethrone him yet.

He is 26 - more than a quarter century. Shit, that suddenly makes me feel positively prehistoric. Today, in addition to having to work on his day of celebration (bummer), he is also housesitting his boss's dogs, so tomorrow we will go to dinner at Il Giardino (don't forget to support your locally-owned businesses), where they will be so good as to let me bring his ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery. I know, it's a chain. Sigh, but he loves those things, and today he gets whatever he wants. Although I remember once I had a scoop each of pumpkin ice cream & cheesecake ice cream together that was drop-dead delicious.

Today was also the 20th annual St. Mary's Home for Disabled Children 5k Run. In addition to the usual runners, Team Hoyt Virginia Beach was there to push a bunch of our kids through the race in jogging strollers. There were a lot of jogging strollers.

The number of people wanting to push strollers grows with each race, so more & more of our kids get to join in on the fun. So many that not all the kids would fit into the picture.

The race took place this year at Fort Story, a bitty little base plunked down in the most prime real estate in the city - at Cape Henry, where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean.

The area above the road is the Fort, and just about all of the green treed area is a state park. Between those 2 things, all that glorious potential revenue-producing land is off-limits to the poor city. Heh. BTW - doncha just love Google Earth?

Every couple years, our good city council folk anxiously await the latest round of base closings, with just a bit of drool on their chins, as they dream of hotels, condos, and high-end shopping. Sadly for them, what appears to be a useless base squatting on pricey land is most useful in other ways. Other than the uses listed in the link, the Navy loves to use the Fort for SEAL training. You can't easily find all those miles of unspoiled, unpopulated beachfront & marshland in which to practice their sneak attacks.

I would really like to know what the rocky outcroppings are used for. There are other hidden gems at Fort Story. The Cape Henry Lighthouses are there, right across the street from each other. The first picture of this series is from the web. The others are mine.

The old one, which is now a national historic landmark, is open to the public. It was built in 1792, the first lighthouse authorized by the federal government. The 'new' one, which is still in use today but not open to the public, was built in 1881. This next picture shows them both in 1905:

I also like this picture I found of the lights with one of our Navy ships being deployed:

Also at Fort Story is the site of the First Landing in 1607.

There is a large granite cross there now commemorating the event. Access to the Fort is restricted, so be prepared to have your car searched if you want to go see these things.