The Chesapeake Bay Region

We left Washington this morning and drove northwest through Annapolis and over the Bay Bridge to the east bay region and then turned south to travel to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge which connects Norfolk to the east side. On the way we stopped at Chincoteauque and Assateague Islands, made famous by Marguerite Henry in her book Misty of Chincoteauque, a wonderful story for children about wild ponies that grow up on Assateague and annually are swum to the main island and made available for purchase and taming. We hoped to see the wild ponies but saw none. We did get a picture of a statue of Misty and saw lots of blue herons, sea gulls, and white swans.

We arrived in Virginia Beach in the late afternoon with enough time to walk along the Atlantic Ocean to the Fisherman's Pier. Dinner found us at Il Giardino's, an Italian restaurant which is well-known in this area for fine cuisine. We tried the focaccia, Clams Casino, Caesar salad, lasagna, and salmon in a creamy tomato sauce over pasta. It was excellent, and we had no room for either coffee or dessert. Our waiter, Bill, was a fount of local information, as well as very knowledgeable about the restaurant's fare. It was a lovely day driving along estuaries and occasionally seeing the ocean or Chesapeake Bay.