Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

We left Chincoteague Island behind and continued on our way south.  Not very far into our drive, something we totally did not expect began to happen...it started snowing!  At the beach!  I know it snows on beaches farther north all the time in the winter, it just caught us by surprise :)...

see the tiny snowflakes?

We drove all the way to the very end of the Delmarva Peninsula and came to a bridge tunnel.  Say whaaat???  You read that right...a bridge, that is also a tunnel.  Oh boy.

When I initially planned my route, I had no clue about this tunnel underneath the Chesapeake Bay.  It wouldn't have changed my plans or anything, we were all intrigued...so of course we googled it and this is the image we saw...

image via

EEK! 

Deep breath.  I can do this. 

There was barely any traffic the morning we went across (thankfully), so I paid the whopping $12.00 toll to cross and away we went...

look closely and you can see the bridge just "end" in the middle of the bay

Ok, a little background for ya'll...ever since I had my first baby thirteen years ago and then four more babies within the following five years, I have had this crazy fear of driving over bridges.  I am scared to death of having an accident of some sort on a bridge and the car going over the edge and how will I swim and save all my babies at the same time?  Told you it was a crazy fear!!!  All my babies are bigger now and they all know how to swim, but I still get nervous when I think about it.

So, here we are on a stormy day with big waves crashing against the bridge pilings as we drive on a twenty mile long bridge.  It's not so bad though, the road is two lanes and one way with a wide shoulder.

Then comes the tunnel part. 

It goes from the big spacious one way road to a regular little narrow road with oncoming traffic in the other lane and zero shoulder!  Gulp! 

By the time we emerged from the worm hole aka tunnel, I was seriously feeling a little dizzy.  But I was also happy!  I had faced a silly fear and conquered it!  Surely the worst part was over! 

Or so I thought...round two was just down the road.  A second tunnel!!!  No pictures this time, you get the point.  Long bridge over rough seas filled with huge cargo ships that you DRIVE BENEATH in a series of skinny little tunnels that snake through the ocean floor.  Yep, that about sums it up.  My kids' take on it?  "That was fun!  Do a u-turn, mom, we wanna go again!"...for reals...