Happy 4th of July!




Today we slept in late, enjoying the holiday by relaxing at the hotel, enjoying our last full day together here, before splitting up and hitting the road tomorrow. For lunch we dined at Tupelo, a local southern restaurant where we enjoyed biscuits with homemade blueberry jam, sweet potato pancakes, waffles, eggs, grits, and brown butter pecan pie. Delicious food served in a super cute atmosphere made us feel at home. 

Next we headed to Tower of Games to indulge our nerdy side. Uncle Brice met us there and we played Zombie Dice and Love Letter for a few hours. Brian and Brice stayed to play in a FNM (Friday Night Magic) draft and get their hands on some Final Fantasy Cards. 

Bailey, Troy, and I headed back to the hotel for a chill evening,  . . . but I just couldn't do it. I love street festivals. I love fireworks. And I love the 4th of July. Even though I saw fireworks last night, I felt the pull and decided to just take a quick drive by Mount Trashmore Park to check out the celebration. Bailey and I had a bit of nostalgia as we visited the park 2 years ago on our gymnastics whirlwind trip. To our surprise traffic wasn't bad, the park was relatively empty, and the music and food trucks looked inviting. 

We circled around once taking in the situation, then opted for parking at a local business right near the road out of the area. We left our car to wander the celebration, stopping for a playground, some photo taking, and delicious Mexican food from Rio Good Food Truck. Special shout out to Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation for the fun sensory tent activities that kept the kids busy for an hour. As it got dark we grabbed dessert from an ice cream truck, spread out our blanket, and settled in for the show. The choice to attend proved to be an excellent decision as we were treated to one of the best shows I've seen in terms of quality, variety, pacing, and ingenuity. After the show, we hopped in our car and beat the traffic out of the park, arriving back at our hotel in less than 15 minutes. What started out as a crazy idea turned into an amazing evening! I'm not tired, dirty, not packed at all, and glad we did it.











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