Chesapeake

This is a bit of an exaggeration of the facts - but it feels true. Norfolk is the city and Chesapeake is the country.

There are certain things about Norfolk that I really miss, and can't be beat - like the location. Norfolk is awesomely centrally located. Living there, the only time I had to drive more than 2 miles from my house was to go to church, or Trader Joe's. We had multiple malls, 3 super walmarts to chose from, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, restaurants galore - all within 2.5 miles of the house. We could walk to 2 different redbox's...even the Woodard Group is conveniently only 2 miles from the house, and hospital, the dr's and the dentist, Ocean view beach... and the airport? Well, that's 3 miles. Soooo far away:-) It's just super duper convenient to live in Norfolk. LOVE that.

Chesapeake has it's advantages too - but nearness to anything is not one of them. Right now we live about 20-25 minutes from Hugo house in normal traffic. We live actually, only a few exits from North Carolina - we're basically "right on the border". There is not a single redbox closer than 1.5 miles to my house...The "everything is within 2 miles" standard in Norfolk is gone...long gone. "Everything is within 15 miles" might be the new slogan. There is 1 Walmart near, it's about 5 miles away (right on the NC border). It's an adjustment to the gas budget, and the timeline. On the plus side, we are about 10 mins from church, which is nice, since we are there often enough. It actually reminds me of where I grew up - close enough to the conveniences of the city, yet in the country.

Anyway, getting used to all this country living has us smelling "things burning" every night - every one lights their fire places, and it gives an aroma to the air that the kids find very alarming:-) And there's all the...snow. Haha. It's colder out here! And this week - it "snowed". I use the term loosely, but the kids were beyond thrilled. It was technically sleet. And I drove in it...as I headed into downtown Norfolk, wouldn't you know it...not snowing/sleeting at all there:-)

It didn't last longer than a quick trip to Walmart, but sleet/snow/slushy rain was falling!

This morning - frost! Something we didn't experience much in the city because a) we had no grass b)it's warmer there.

Our grass this morning. The kids were screaming in praise and rejoicing. It was a little over the top, given it was frost, and not real snow...but I guess these southern babies just have really low standards when it comes to these things:-)

Across the street, in the sun, if there wasn't a chill to the air, you might think it was still summer...

Our neighbor directly across the street - not a stitch of frost anywhere...

But we had tons of frost! Funny how that works. It was all for the kids. They loved it!

Driving. As my Dad put it, "everywhere you go here is a major highway" ;-) Not always the case...but yah. Choices...am I headed toward Richmond...nope. Off to my new home town, Chesapeake! As an aside - why do cities do that...I mean, Richmond? Shouldn't you put the next destination on the sign, and not the last one? It's Norfolk, Newport News, Williamsburg THEN Richmond. Confusing.


This is Hampton Roads - home sweet home! It's surrounded by the ocean - the "real ocean" and "the bay". We simply adore this place. It's a great spot on the map:-)

 

 

This is a breakdown of where the cities are - if you are not familiar...all of these cities (listed below) make up the Hampton Roads area. All of these cities are within very close approximation to each other. Our church is literally on the Va Bch/Ches line, and it's only a few miles down the road. So while I complain about being "far away" the road systems here do a pretty good job of integrating these individual cities into an easily accessed larger "city area".