virginia beach

Rooting for the Anticlimax

/ Katie / 10 Comments

Well, Hurricane Erin has come and gone. Or, rather, it’s gone and it was never really here to begin with.

I’m not unhappy about that at all. Sometimes, anticlimactic is good.

It’s my first hurricane season as an official resident of Virginia Beach, and though I’m not too worried generally, I admit I was concerned about and disconcerted by all the watches and warnings that accompanied Erin’s not-landfall here. As a lifelong mountain critter – if not in body than certainly in spirit – I find the ocean intimidating. Coastal storms were something that, growing up, we actually talked about pretty often. You know, as in: “Gee, sure glad and grateful we aren’t dealing with that.”

And now here I am, living very close to the big water, right on the coast. It’s a funny old life.

At any rate, I am quite grateful that the most we saw of Erin in our neck of the woods – er, our stretch of the sand – was just a little bit of a breeze, some higher than usual high tides, and rough waves.

The surfers had a great time. Waves in Virginia Beach are normally pretty calm, so these were fun to watch. From a distance.

I know the Outer Banks in North Carolina dealt with more, and I’ve heard Norfolk had some flooding. But as storms go, we got lucky. And I’m hoping we stay lucky through this season. Because as much as I love new experiences, I definitely don’t have “See a hurricane up close and personal” on my 2025 bingo card.  

Surprise! (It’s a Snowstorm!)

/ Katie / 8 Comments

I’m admittedly a little late to the party, posting about this. It’s been over a week ago now. But I couldn’t just not write about it, given how much I love snow. (If you’ve been here for a while, you know I love snow. If you haven’t, you should know: I love snow. And winter is my favorite.)

Anyway…

I just can’t believe it, y’all. I thought I’d never see a snow like this again. But the universe just loves proving me wrong, and so here we are. Virginia Beach got a foot of snow.

I mean, in this case, it’s like the universe proved me wrong to make me happy, and I just can’t complain about that.

There’s like no snow infrastructure around here, so we were snowed in until the weather warmed up enough to melt stuff.

And I’m not complaining! Many cups of tea. Lots of snuggles with the baby. Good naps.

Lucy loved watching the snow fall.

And was entertained trying to catch it in her hand and feeling little flakes on her head.

She was…decidedly less certain once we got her outside to actually play in it.

Maybe next year, kid. 😊

Although, who knows? This was a pretty historic snowstorm for Virginia Beach, and I doubt we’ll see anything like it again for a long time. But a few inches next winter? That’s possible!

For now, I’ll just be grateful for the abundance we got.