We got up at more reasonable time today in order to meet someone at the hawk-watch. We got there about 10:30. This is a nice spot. Several people were set up on a raised platform with a roof over one end. People were spotting and identifying various hawks which I couldn't see even with binoculars. We met the person we had been told about and we (mainly Jean) had a long, interesting conversation with a young man who was very active in developing butterfly habitat. He was especially knowledgeable about Monarchs.
We left about 11:30 and prepared to head out. We had a fairly long conversation with the camp host before we pulled out. Our main goal for the day was the city of Cape Charles. I had been there several (15?) years ago and found a dying town with half the downtown buildings boarded up. Today it is a tourist destination and I was interested to see what it looked like now. I'm not sure what the attraction is for tourists, though I understand there is quite a bit of golf there now.
One of the first things you see as you come into town from the highway is the water tower. It has been tricked out to look like a lighthouse on legs. It even has a strobe on top.
Most of the buildings downtown have been fixed up, and obviously cater to the tourists.
There is now an Irish pub and an interesting coffee shop.
We walked around and checked out some of the things I remembered. Most had changed but some not. Down at the end of the main street, where there is a new fishing pier and the beach begins, we found one of the Love sculptures that have been cropping up all over the state.
We both got into a long conversation with one of the shop keepers. Mine ran from historic ships to soldering techniques. Jean went into the shop next door and found someone from our home area. So we spent a pleasant half hour that way.
We don't play golf so there didn't seem to be much else to do. I was disappointed --- though I don't know what I expected. By now it was about 4:00 and we headed out to our next campground just north of town.
We checked in to Cherrystone camp ground and got a site right on the Bay. There was a great egret working a little inlet right in front of our site.
There were also a couple of colliers anchored in the Bay offshore. I got very curious because they were pointing in opposite directions. While examining them through the binoculars I got into a conversation with our neighbor and learned that this is the campground that got hit by a tornado last spring with the death of three campers. (And if anyone is interested, while we were talking one of the colliers swung around to point the same way as the other, so I guessed that they were riding in different parts of the tidal current.)
So a mostly quiet day but not without its interest.
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