Va va va VA Beach

I am in Virginia Beach. Yo-yoing. The shows here have been going well, people are much nicer here than they are in Boston. Now I get what everyone says about us New Englanders. Not that I mean every Bostonian is mean, because they are clearly not, but in my experience of showing up at a school and actually needing help and time for people- the Virginians are much more accepting of my requests. People from NH are pretty good too, and also East Boston. That's a surprising mix.

As far as the yos go, it's getting better and better. I'm landing my tricks more often than not now, and totally wowing little children. I hope this only continues.

Today I had the day off, because it is Veteran's Day. No school. Woo hoo!

I took it upon myself to explore VA Beach. The first place I headed to this morning was the boardwalk. I was excited. As I left my hotel, the sun was beaming and it seemed to be getting warmer; however, as I drove eastward on I-264, the clouds began to roll in. I got to the gray beach a few moments later. I didn't let the clouds stop me, I walked on the boardwalk two miles down the beach to get to the pier. When I got to the pier I discovered it was closed for the season- I also discovered that had it been open, someone would have charged me $2 to walk out on a dock. Seriously? Where is the world at these days?

Well, I walked to the other side of the pier and proceeded to take my shoes off and stick my feet in the ocean. I did this while Virginians walked the boardwalk in coats and scarves. It was a balmy 53 today. The beach itself was lovely, so clean and crisp, with huge waves.

I walked back to my car along the strip, and poked my head into some cheesy gift shops along the way. The sun poked its head out for a brief moment, and it that moment I ran back to the beach and snapped the picture above.

I was hoping it'd be warm enough to actually lay out in my bathing suit on the sand, and maybe go swimming, but no such luck. I'll just have to wait until next month when I head to the D.R.(not yo-yo related).

I then took the rest of the day to explore the city.....it didn't take long. Strip mall after strip mall, chain restaurant after chain restaurant. I was hoping to find a quaint Sherman-esque coffee shop where I could do some reading, but no luck there either. I thought that perhaps the center of VA Beach would have something similar- the "center" of VA Beach is an office park where the town hall, crime solvers and other random governmental stuff meet. It was back to the strip malls for me.

This made me think about the rest of America. And how lucky we Bostonians are. Not only the Bostonians, but the New Yorkers, the San Franciscans, the Seattle-ites...the people that live in L.A.- we live in a city with character. A city where a lot of the things in it can't really be found anywhere else. When I'm driving down the road here in VA Beach, I could easily be back in Kansas City, or even in Orlando. My boyfriend told me that the average American watches 4 hours of T.V. a day. I can see how this is possible, when the biggest thing to do where you live is go to the mall- and even that closes by 9:00.

I do thoroughly enjoy the beach though.

Tomorrow, it's back to the bean. It's been a nice little jaunt. Thanks for everything Virginia!