Day 4: Travel to Delaware

On Wednesday we were heading to Delaware, but we had several things to see along the way. First, we stopped at Emily’s Donuts, which was suggested to us by Allyson’s friend. The donuts were very good.

We had a couple options on what to do next. One was to go to the Mariners Museum, and the other was Yorktown. We likely didn’t have time for both, so we were planning on letting the kids decide. However, it was raining during our drive through Virginia and part of the Yorktown site was outside, so we just decided to do the Mariners Museum.

That turned out to be a great decision because this museum was amazing. And it was only $1 per person to get in! About half of the museum was devoted to the USS Monitor which was a notable iron-sided ship that was launched during the civil war. The rest was filled with all kinds of other ship stuff. It was all very interesting and the museum itself was very, nicely maintained. I highly recommend visiting if you’re in the area.

Now we were heading straight to Delaware which meant we were going across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, something I was very excited to do. The drive across the bay starts on a low-height bridge, then drops through a tunnel, then repeats that before finishing on another bridge. It is very neat. I must admit it wasn’t as stunning, or awe-inspiring as I expected (not sure what I was imagining), but it was still very cool. I read that when the bridge was planned during the Cold War, the military didn’t want a potential bridge collapse (either caused by accident or by an enemy) to prevent military ships from being able to exit Norfolk. So they insisted on tunnels to eliminate that risk. The tunnels are 105 feet below the water at their deepest point. So I think that's the furthest depth below sea level we've ever been to.

After the bridge we carried on into Maryland and then Delaware. We first had to stop at an Enterprise in Dagsboro to pick up a minivan. Then we headed to our campground, Treasure Beach Rv Park in Salisbury, DE. Pulling in was a bit stressful. Allyson was in the minivan, so I had Nolan whining for more dried mango as I tried to check in and then park the motorhome. But we made it.

The campground is pretty nice. Our spot is paved with a nice fire pit. It’s seems like it’s going to be a good place to setup for a few days. We have a lot of great camping gear that we sometimes don’t get out because often we only spend a night or two at a campground. But with four nights here we immediately got out all the chairs, the mat, and the toys. We grilled dinner and then Allyson made a grocery run. Later we got the younger three kids to sleep and then Allyson and I hung out with Caroline and Natalie by the fire. It was way too hot to have a fire in Williamsburg, but the temperature in Delaware was just right. We hung out, made some s’mores, and then listened to Caroline and Natalie carry on with non-sensible, slap-happy gibberish. Once we had our fill of that they went into bed and we soon followed. Tomorrow we were all looking forward to the beach.