Our Virginia Beach weekend getaway!

Well today we returned from our weekend getaway to Virginia Beach.  This was the first time I went there that I can remember.  When I was around 6 years old, my family took a Virginia vacation but I'm not sure we actually did the BEACH there NOR do I actually remember anything about it.  SO like I was saying, this was my first trip there. Anyway, my aunt & I were complaining last summer about not having done anything, so earlier this year,  my husband & I got to talking about it.  He just started a new job & definitely couldn't take any time off this summer since he has no time to take. (not to mention.. he's definitely NOT a "beach" person.  I know I know... seems insane, right?) Well maybe insane is too strong of a word,  since I'm not much of a "beach" person myself.  It's not that I don't like the beach, it's just a lot of "work" what with having to lug everything down to the beach:  the towels, chairs, sunscreen, beach toys, everything & I'm not really into lying there soaking up rays.  I guess I have a bit of ADD &I suppose I'm a little lazy too, although then again wouldn't that make me ENJOY lying there, so I'm not really sure, what it is, perhaps it's just "heat & me" have never really been friends.  I figure what's the point, I don't like feeling HOT!   BUT I do love looking at the ocean & the serenity of it.  So it's got it's good & not so good.  Anyway we thought a weekend some where would be nice, & the truth is almost every time I've ever went to the shore I've had a great time!!! It's more the idea of going to the shore that I find exhausting.. LOL! So Brian suggested that maybe Emily & I could go somewhere with my aunt & we could use his "Marriott" points so that the hotel would be free for the weekend.  Wasn't that nice of him?  I thought so.... we then decided on somewhere not too far, maybe 5 or 6 hours & decided on Virginia Beach!!! We chose to stay at the "Fairfield Inn" which was right on the beach for 2 nights, it would be Emily, my aunt Barbara & I on the trip.  A girl's weekend! :)   We ended up staying at the "Courtyard" right on the beach because for some reason the "Fairfield Inn" was all booked up or closed for renovations or something & they sent Brian an email sometime after we booked saying they needed to move us to the Courtyard.  I didn't really care, as long as it was RIGHT ON THE BEACH!  That is until "I" looked at the re-reservation  2 days before our trip & realized that we no longer had 2 doubles but rather a king & a sofabed. Which was annoying since it would mean my aunt & I would have to sleep in one bed unless one of us slept on the sofabed.  Since all I could think about was Elaine from Seinfeld & the episode where she sleeps on the sofabed & is in agonizing pain the entire weekend, I wasn't tooo keen on the idea of any of us on it. BUT since Emily is a kid, & thus probably like every other kid immune for some reason to the pain of the thin mattress &/Or the "bar" digging in to the back of your spine from the sofa bed was chosen to sleep on it. (we tried calling to see if we could get 2 doubles but no they were all taken)  The annoying part to me is that we booked the room months ago & booked it for "doubles" & they up & switched it to a king without verifying before hand that was ok.  I used the power of "twitter" to voice my grievance, not that it helped any but for some reason still made me feel better & I was able to let that lil' hiccup go.  My aunt ended up staying here Thursday night, so we could get up & go on Friday.  We ended up leaving the house around 6:30 AM & got to Virginia by 1 or 1:30 or so.  NOT TOO BAD! :) Plenty of the day left.  We went to the hotel, got a parking pass & managed to get to the beach by 2pm.  The weather was beautiful, we stayed on the beach until about 4 or 4:30 the time we were allowed to officially check in.  When we finally checked in we got special treatment at check in because Brian is "platinum elite".  Which essentially meant we got to pick out something from the market Or get extra Marriott points AND we got COOKIES at check in! Serious PERKS! LOL! (what can I say?  being a stay at home mom I don't get out much!) Anyway, we checked out the room & then went to the pool!  Which was really nice.   It was kinda "L" shaped & had several water falls & a little slide from one section to the other.  Emily & I had so much fun in the water together.  We even got my aunt to go down the slide with us at one point. That was really fun!  We ended up going out to eat for dinner at this place called "Dough Boy"  It was a pizza place but they had other things as well.  We got dinner & Emily got Ben & Jerry's & we didn't get back to the hotel til' probably after nine.  So far so good, day #1 went well. :) Day #2 was pretty much a repeat of day #1 with one exception we went to this really cool breakfast diner, called "Pocahontas Pancakes & Waffles" SOOOOO incredible good! We noticed there was a "food network" stamp on the menu so Emily asked if they were on food network since she's really into food network.  The waitress told us YES! Emily asked if it was, "Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives? The waitress said yes and Emily thought that was really cool!  Beach, pool time w/ alcoholic beverages for Barb & me, a virgin cocktail for Emily, & then back to room to shower & change followed.  Then we headed out to explore the "non-board" board walk! *Believe us as Jersey Girls that was NOOOOO Board walk... LOL!! :) But still... we didn't know quite what we wanted to do for dinner so decided to just keep walking til we figured it out.  Which was neat.  Every block would be a "statue" or "Sculpture" The best one by far was the big & I mean BIG statue of "Neptune"!!!! They also had fish, dolphins, giant sea shells, a big giant sculptured sand castle, etc.  We ended up walking from our hotel on 37th Street to 17th street & then just decided to go to another of the "Dough Boy" pizzeria's but this time get pizza since it looked so good from the night before. After much debate w/ our waiter w/ the beautiful blue eyes, we decided to go w/ the "pan pizza" one!!! Yum-0 We definitely made the right decision!   It was almost 9 when we finally left the restaurant, a bath room stop & another trip to Ben & Jerry's finished up the day! Except for a few hiccups... (indigestion & non-sleep & a sunburnt forehead) the trip was really fun!!!! :)  Each night ended for me w/ some time on the hotel balcony with it's spectacular view of the OCEAN!!!!! Incredible!  The sound of the ocean was very relaxing to me, even if the height of the balcony wasn't! I was proud for mustering through the fear to take in the sight/sound of the ocean! It was too short a trip, but the weather gods were good to us & I was really grateful we got to take it! :) So much fun, the views, the people, the scenery, the vibe,  I really liked it here & if u are looking for a vacation, I'd really recommend giving Virginia Beach a try!