Fort Monroe, Virginia

After that super fun (not!) jaunt across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, we turned north towards Hampton, Virginia.  I had to take care of some business up that way and then we had a little field trip planned.

Guess what was waiting for me at Hampton Roads...ANOTHER bridge tunnel!  *sigh*

The good things I can say about the HR tunnel...no toll, only a few miles long, and the kids were thrilled to be driving through another one (and giggling at their scaredy-cat mom).  We'll leave it at that ;).

With the business taken care of, it was time for some fun.  This was a school day for us, so we planned a stop at Fort Monroe to do their Junior Ranger program (this was our history lesson for the day...the kids also did some other workbooks as we were driving).

Fort Monroe is huge...it was built in 1819 as the largest stone fort in the United States.  The entire thing is surrounded by a wide, water filled moat...

...then you come to the stone walls.  To enter, we had to pass through a narrow one-way gate.

outside the fort walls

inside the fort walls

Once inside the walls of the fort, it feels like a small town.  There are houses, a church, a museum, a park, and many other buildings.  Our first stop was at the Casemate Museum.  One word...wow!  It is completely free and extremely well done.  Room after room after room of well put together exhibits and artifacts. 

the cell where Jefferson Davis was first imprisoned following the end of the Civil War

that bed is so pretty :)

The building itself is very interesting...

We enjoyed roaming around the museum while the kids worked on their Jr Ranger books.  When they were done, the Ranger took us back into her office to go over the books and award them their badges (they have really neat wooden ones there, btw).  We all chatted for a while and she shared with us some must see spots around the fort...

the top of the fort walls

Tired and hungry, we left Hampton and Fort Monroe behind to once again attempt to make some southern progression.  ANOTHER trip across the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and we were back in Virginia Beach.  After a quick late lunch/ early dinner at Cici's Pizza, we were back on the road. 

Apparently everyone got off work while we dined on pizza, because the formerly busy roads were now insanely busy!  Ugh.  In my haste to get back on the interstate, I went the wrong way.  It turned out ok, though.  Just two blinks down the road and there was another exit that I was able to jump off and right back on headed in the right direction.  Next, I came to a construction detour.  I had my gps on, so I wasn't worried.  I hopped off where the signs told me to, but my gps kept trying to get me to turn around...over and over and over (dontcha hate that?).  I kept following the detour and my gps never did reroute, it was stuck on that u-turn that I could not do.  For some reason, while stopped at a red light, I zoomed out on my map and realized that I was at the place where I needed to turn left to get back on my original route.  Had I continued to go straight I would have been headed right for some place called THE DISMAL SWAMP!!!  Hahaha!!!  I am not even kidding....