Today we first drove to Oceana Naval Air Station to see their military FamCamp called Ocean Pines RV Park. Remember, we scheduled this entire trip we are on now last year but due to COVID we had to pull the plug on it. When I went back to remake all the reservations for this year their were some minor differences. This is one of them. Last year we had reservations at Ocean Pines. This year we were able to get into Sea Mist, the one we are in now. I just wanted to see what Ocean Pines looked like. We arrived at the locked gate and tried to call the office for access, but got voice mail, so we gave up on that. It looks nice from Google Maps and it is obviously secure, so maybe we will come back some day and give it a go.
After that we drove out to General Booth Blvd and headed to the Virginia Beach Boardwalk. We figured better during the week than on the weekend. It is just a few miles there and we quickly found on-street parking on a side street for the big ol' brown truck towards the south end of the boardwalk.
The Virginia Beach Boardwalk dates back to 1888 and it was actually constructed of boards back then. In 1907 the boardwalk burned apparently started by the luxury hotel Princess Ann In 1926 the boardwalk was rebuilt using concrete and was extended to 3-1/2 miles, it's current length. A separate parallel bicycle path was built also. In 1962 a Nor'easter tore up the concrete boardwalk badly but it was again rebuilt and some other features such as a massive concrete seawall were added to reduce protect with boardwalk. Today the beach is filled with pristine sand, the boardwalk is wonderful, the bike path is really nice (if people would actually use it instead of the boardwalk). Up and down the boardwalk are hotels, shops, restaurants and monuments or all sorts.
Approach to the boardwalk from the parallel street
Doreen posing with turtle statues
A look down the boardwalk - a food vendor and their cart
Massive Virginia Beach
Red flags up today but many still enjoying the sand and water
Rows and rows of beach volleyball courts
Cabanas for rent
We made our way northbound on the boardwalk and took in the sites along the way and then move the truck to a parking lot towards the north end of the boardwalk. There we found the Virginia Beach Surf and Rescue Museum. This museum is dedicated to the US Coast Guard Life Saving Station that operated here from. This is one of the nicest museums of it's kind that we have seen on our travels, and staffed by very knowledgeable and friendly folks! Did I mention there is no charge for visiting this museum?!
As soon as we entered the museum we were greeted by volunteers and one of them gave us a personal guided tour of the entire place. She explained everything and answered all of our questions. We went upstairs and she issued us white cloth gloves, very similar to the cloth gloves we wore under our chemical protective garments in the Air Force. The artifacts upstairs can all be carefully handled by the visitors as long as you have the cloth gloves on! I've never seen that before, either! Here are a few pictures:
Doreen with her white cloth gloves on!
Various navigation tools of the trade
Lighthouse Keeper's Lantern Kit
Various lanterns and signaling devices
She led us back down to the main floor and continued the tour. One of the main tools of the trade for the Life Saving Service was the cannon, called a Lyle Gun, they used to shoot a rescue rope to a ship in distress. They would then use a rescue seat, called a Breeches Bouy, on a pulley system to rescue ships crew.
A mock-up of a rescue
Breeches Bouy
A Lyle Gun
Other Lyle Guns
Outside we various other devices on display including a rescue boat and a German-made spotting scope. We were encouraged to use the spotting scope to look at cargo ships at a distance.
Rescue basket
German spotting scope
Doreen with the Life Saving Station in the background
Leaving there we walked through the Naval Aviation Monument Park, which was very well done.
A nice tribute to Naval Aviators
The Homecoming
The place where aircraft carriers were started
Nearby was the Norwegian Lady Statue, created as a tribute to the wife of a ship's captain who was lost at sea off the coast of Virginia Beach after the ship ran aground. The Norwegian Captain and nine crew members were saved by the Life Saving Station personnel, but seven lost their lives including the Captains wife. Originally the ship's wooden figurehead was preserved here, but later it was destroyed and replaced with this granite monument. There is a like monument in Norway and they face each other across the Atlantic as a "wishing all the men and women of the sea a safe return home". .
Further up the boardwalk we visited the Neptune statue.
Doreen with King Neptune
The Neptune amphitheater
With lunchtime passing us by we seeked out Murphy's Irish Pub and had a nice lunch and beverages. My Guinness and Irish Reuben sandwich was great. Doreen had fish and chips.
Thats it for today. We had planned to visit a couple lighthouses but ran out of time. We also plan to visit the USS Wisconsin which is docked in Norfolk. It is an "Iowa-class" battleship along with the USS Iowa, USS New Jersey and the USS Missouri
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