From the Mountains to the Sea: NASA and Sunset on the DelMarVa Back Bay

Part Five: Blast Off Back To Home

SUNDAY, MAY 26

BECAUSE today is Sunday, the NASA Visitor Center at Langly Air Base doesn't open until noon, so we have time for a leisurely (and indulgent) breakfast at the Gazebo Restaurant in Williamsburg. We have blueberry pancakes and pecan malt waffles, and then drive to the NASA center. A couple of spaced visitors at Langley Research Center Here we see a funny film made up of astronauts' experiments and antics under weightless conditions, narrated by the astronauts themselves. We also see the Apollo 12 Command Module, a full-size replica of the Viking Mars Lander, the space suit worn by David Scott on the moon, and a moon rock, as well as lots of exhibits concerning wind-tunnels and models of historic aircraft. We spend about an hour and a half there, then head back down the freeway and across the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel to Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

Astronauts' signatures on Apollo 12 Apollo 12 Command Module

Turning north, we cross the amazing Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, seventeen Seagull Restaurant on Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel miles of bridge, trestle, and tunnel, with four man-made islands. We stop to walk out on Seagull Pier at the first island (Thimble Shoals), to take photos, and eat steamed clams for lunch at the restaurant.

Upon reaching the other side, on Virginia's eastern shore (part of the DelMarVa peninsula), we drive for many miles up highway 13, a straight, fast road. Passing a sign for Sunset Bay, John remarks how unusual that concept is on the east coast, where the water is normally to the east of the land. As the day goes on, and after stopping at Stucky's for pecan pralines, we get the idea of trying to find a picturesque place to have dinner just around sunset, hopefully with a view of the water. By about 7:00, with sunset only around an hour away, it is beginning to look hopeless. Although near the water, this is mostly farm country. The one place we'd kind of thought would be promising, Cambridge, Maryland, turns out to be a commercial area, with the only restaurants surrounded by shopping centers and auto body repair shops. The Ferryboat Restaurant -- Trappe, Maryland Before we know it, we are on the bridge over the Choptank River and out of town on our way toward Trappe, Maryland. The Ferryboat Restaurant - Trappe, Maryland Would you believe it? At the other end of the bridge, in a small-boat marina, stands a big old ferryboat, land-locked, with a sign, "FerryBoat Restaurant - Open For Business"! We pull in and find they have been open only two weeks. We eat soft-shell crabs and crab cake for dinner, watching the sunset on the bay and marina (and the spiders making webs outside the window). It is as picturesque a scene as anyone could ever hope for (in fact, Linda does take several pictures), and a perfect end to a fabulous vacation.

Sunset from our restaurant table A perfect end is still an end, however, and even though we try to prolong it as much as possible, a meal can last only so long. It is nearly dark when we finally leave the restaurant, and the drive back from here is long, but uneventful. We listen to the stereo real loud and feel the cool evening breezes, which suddenly get noticeably cooler between Baltimore and Wilmington, Delaware.

Linda-the-Navigator, guides us through the maze of freeways around Annapolis and Baltimore, made even more confusing because of road construction and our outdated maps, and we drive through Philadelphia on I-95 around midnight-thirty.

A side trip through Churchville ("Trust me, John, we can avoid the Street Road traffic lights this way") brings us back to our home by 1:30 in the morning.