The first place we went was the Virginia Living Museum, which focuses on the natural history of the state. They have both living animals and exhibits about dinosaurs and such. Many of the living animals are either being rehabilitated or cannot live in the wild for some reason. When we went there in September, they had a Lego exhibit that was pretty cool.
For a sense of the size of these, the deer family is made up of 84,442 Legos.
Phoebe and I actually went back today to sign up to be volunteers. Once she turns 15, Phoebe can do it alone, but we need to do it together right now.
In October, we made our first trip to the beach. Buckroe Beach, in Hampton, is about 20 minutes from our house. We walked on the beach and gathered some sea shells. There is a boardwalk, but there is a fee to access it, so we decided to save that for another time.
Not too far from the beach is Fort Monroe, which has existed in some form or other since the early 1600s. We drove through it, but we didn't get out and walk around.
Also in October, we went to an Open House at the NASA Langley Research Center. It is typically not open to the public, but they do these free weekends every once in a while--it was also their 100th anniversary. It is a popular spot right now because this is where Hidden Figures takes place. A few days before the open house, they dedicated the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility, which Katherine Johnson attended, and there was an exhibit on the work they did at the event. We also took a bus out to see where they tested the Mercury and Apollo capsules for different landing/crash scenarios.
In November, we made our first trip to Richmond, which is about 1.5 hours away. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is there, and it was having an exhibit of Terracotta Warriors from China. That was pretty cool, and we also took the opportunity to explore the museum as a whole.
We also did a little walking around in one of Richmond's shopping districts, where we also had lunch. We have found some good vegan places to eat!
We have been over to Norfolk/Virginia Beach three times. The first time was just for shopping--there are a few stores there that are not over here. Then we went back on 30 December to go to the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, which is in Virginia Beach. They had free admission on that day, so we decided to take advantage of it. The coolest thing was a blown glass chandelier that was hanging in one of the gathering spaces. Before it opened, we drove a little further to check out the beach.
Phoebe and I also got the chance to meet, in person, one of our friends from Ravelry who lives in the area. We have met four of our Rav friends now, and that has been a lot of fun.
Two weeks ago we went to Marscon, which is a local SciFi/Fantasy/Pop Culture convention. One of my favorite authors, Carrie Vaughn, was the Guest of Honor, so I had to meet her. We managed to connect with some of the people who run the event, and we got to volunteer, which made us able to go for free. Vaughn's most famous series is about a werewolf named Kitty, and I directed a craft where we made wolf puppets.
Most recently--last weekend, in fact--we went back to Virginia Beach to go to the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center. For the month of January, they were doing half-price admission for local residents, so it was a good time to go! Like the Living Museum, this place is also rescue-focused. Sea turtles hatch along Virginia Beach, so they have a nursery. There are also jelly fish, otters, seals, sharks, and lots of other fish. There were even a couple of bobwhites hanging out.
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