Virginia

It has been a hectic but fun week with a trip to Virginia to reunite with the family and visit the in-laws. I left home early on Wednesday and we did not arrive home until late Monday night. All things considered it was a good time.

Cereality was the highlight of my journey as I had never eaten at a cereal bar. I got a concoction of granola, frosted flakes, apple, and maple syrup that was pretty good. It only cost $4.50 and for airport prices I was pretty impressed. The rest of my Dallas layover consisted of watching television on the iPod.

Thursday we picked up our rental car, a Prius, and headed off to Busch Gardens for the morning. It was surprisingly toddler friendly and we spent most of our time in the Sesame Street world. 2 hours was all the kids could stand and we headed back to home base for the day. Friday was our day at the beach. Virginia Beach is pretty nice, but the weather was not cooperating. There were red flag conditions which aborted my open water swim endeavor. We did have lunch and ice cream on the boardwalk.

Saturday was my day in Atlantic City. The Venture bus tour started off at 7:00 AM in Virginia Beach and we arrived at the Tropicana a little before 3:00 PM. The card room suited my style of play well with limit games at 2-4, 3-6, 4-8 and the pink chip game at $7.50-$15.00. I did not dabble in the no-limit games at 1-2 and 2-5. Roulette was the only game I hadn’t played in a while and I had to test my daughter’s birthdays (no luck). It was a pleasant outing and I made my contribution to the NYC grinders who were down for the weekend. We left at midnight and rolled back into Virginia Beach at 6:30 in the morning.

Sunday was low key and we spent time at the house meeting some new people and relaxing. We tried to make another trip to the beach, but got caught in the rain about halfway there. That night we watched “Mall Cop” which was no better than expected, but was a decent light hearted romantic comedy. Monday we explored the mall and packed up for the trip home.

I had modified my training routine for an off week and did OK getting in both runs, but missed the swim. Had I not done the AC trip, I could have swum at one of the pools there. I had scheduled a heavy week this week, but with family responsibilities, that is looking unlikely.

The girls had a good time and were well behaved for both legs of the flight. My wife was certainly more stressed out and with good reason as we would be abandoning the help of her parents and left to our own devices again.