Okay so if you didn’t get the idea from the Atlantic City Post the kids were not impressed (other than with “It’s Candy”) there was not much for them there. In Norfolk however, after a quite day recovering from our 30 hour trek and enjoying our inventive Thanksgiving Day dinner we had a nice time.

I guess first I should disclose that in Norfolk we decided to get a slip. It was a tough decision since the cost was $1.85 per foot but unbelievably the only anchorage close is small with poor holding and the weather predicted that we would be getting 35 mph winds around midnight. That was all I had to hear. We got a hold of the only marina with someone manning the phones on Thanksgiving Day and tucked into a slip.

As a side note the wind did pick up around midnight Thanksgiving night and howl through the rigging. When we got up to check the lines around 2 am we watched one of the two sailboats in that same anchorage go floating down the channel anchor light bobbing in the otherwise black night. There was nothing we could do to help but pray for them. I did see their anchor light go out so I was pretty sure the had woken up. The next morning I did see that they had gotten re-anchored. At 2 am I was just glad it hadn’t been us having to reset the anchor in that wind and rain.

But on our Thanksgiving Day mid afternoon arrival in Norfolk it was a beautiful afternoon and everyone shed their jackets, sweatshirts and coats and jumped ship. As we walked back to Passages from the Marina office we struck up a conversation with the nicest folks from a boat called Wind Dust. They are retired and also headed to the Bahamas. We had a lovely time talking with them and found we had lots in common as their previously boat was a Vagabond almost like the one we have now. The next day we shared a bus ride on the shuttle and went shopping at the local Food Lion. It was fun to meet new folks and have so much in common with them.

Once we returned from the getting the groceries and stowed all of the supplies the kids and I decided to go exploring across the channel on the paddlewheel ferry. Just in case you have lost track of what day this is makes it this would be Black Friday and so of course we went to The Mall. I’m so grateful for small favors… at least we didn’t have to PARK. The kids had a totally great time. Nicole and I hit every shoe and accessory store while Paul ventured off on his own happy, likely, just to be free of us. WiFi and drinks with ice for all was the ringing cry.

In the end the kids and I decided to take in a movie and felt the more civilized for it. We have been on a TV and movie crash diet for the last 3-4 weeks and even though we all kind of agreed that the movie we saw, Planet 51, was pretty hokey we enjoyed the familiarity of the process. We toddled our way back to the boat around 9 pm and the kids took shower at the marina “club house” while I did laundry until around midnight. All in all enough packed into the day to make both kids happy, which keeps me happy, for a while.