Once Upon A Time ... On A Beach Far Away

OK Gang, we're talking ancient nostalgia here!!!  Later this week we will be heading out on a trip to Virginia Beach and we will be arriving right in the middle of a spectacular event - the 41st Neptune Festival!!!  Now I know there is some explaining to do about the title of this post and the "nostalgia" comment - and I'll get to that in a minute.  First, though, let me say this will be our first visit to this festival so we'll all be experiencing it fresh - for the very first time.  But don't get "over-excited" because the festival is already underway and we won't get there until
Thursday.  That means we will miss a lot of things I would love to show you - such as the running events, the fireworks display, the tribute to our Military Veterans and a bunch of stuff that we usually enjoy taking part in.  But - we will be there for a lot more!!!  One of the things we are looking forward to is the "Sandsculpting Competition."  Although we've never been there we have seen pictures and videos of the competition and it is truly astonishing.  To think that artists could create masterpieces like that out of nothing but sand!!!!  Unbelievable.  I have added a couple of photos here to whet your appetite - but - they aren't mine!!  They are from the festival web site. Look at these things, guys!!!  Absolutely wonderful.  We're going to take a lot more photos of our own and they will (hopefully) include some up-close-and-personal shots of the artists in action.   But - whatever we see at the festival I can pretty safely assure you that we will find some really neat stuff.     Now - for the "rest of the story."  Those of you who have been hanging out with us for a while will recall that I have proudly claimed that I am a U. S. Navy Veteran and you have had to suffer through my tales of "life at sea" from 1962 through 1966.  Well, part of that service took place in nearby Norfolk and it just so happens that, at the same time, my brother was attending school at Dam Neck right down the road.  I think you can get the picture - a couple of teen-aged good-ol-boys from South Carolina turned loose on the beach in Virginia - whoa!!!  But it was an entirely different world then, folks.  Just think, the population of Virginia Beach when we were there was 84,215.  Currently, it is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia at 437,994 and a metro population of over a million!!!  Wow!!!  Dam Neck, at that time, was the site of the Navy's fledgling missile program and my brother was one of the pioneers of those strange and arcane devices.  The picture on the left shows the training center as it was when we were there.  Back then, things were really laid back and the population of college students sleeping under the boardwalk during the summer months was phenomenal!  Norfolk and Virginia Beach were really just beginning to enter the world of cosmopolitan city life and the environment was simply a different world.  Remember - when we were there is was less that twenty years after the end of World War II when Norfolk was one of the largest naval ports in the world and people were just beginning to recover.  It was interesting!!  But - that was long, long ago and we do not live in the past.  (Although we will visit it in a heartbeat!!)  So on this trip we hope to show you some of the amazingly beautiful things there are to see in Virginia today.  We love the state and hope we will be able to introduce you to some of its finer points.  Along the way we will try to visit some of the 'lesser-known' spots.  I don't know if we will be able to make it there - but - in my childhood I actually lived at a military facility in Virginia.  If we have the opportunity I'll tell you about it.  It was a strange place!!  For now, though, rest up and get your flip-flops out for a stroll on the beach.  We'll be back soon and we want you to be ready for a festival!!!! See ya.