With a 95% chance of rain and expected accumulation of over 1/2 inch it definitely wasn’t going to be a day to be exploring outdoors. After a leisurely morning with loads of hot coffee, we decided to get out and brave the deluge of rain. It’s weird to dress for a warm, wet day… I’ve mostly been living in shorts, a tee shirt and flip flops so I was puzzling on what to wear, LOL!!! So, I could have just thrown on a rain jacket over that attire but I figured it might be cold inside places we might go. Usually the air conditioning is set on high almost everyplace we’ve been into in Virginia. In the end, I chose a pair of lightweight, quick dry capri pants, a capped sleeve shirt and a pair of slip on boat shoes. EWW, shoes!!! Of course I forgot my light sweater but somehow I survived with my fashion choices and yes, I really did need that rain jacket!

We decided to explore locally and started off with lunch at Venture Kitchen and Bar in Downtown Hampton. Their website described handmade pizza dough and a wood fired oven, so that seemed like a perfect lunch on a rainy day. The young man who waited on us was great and very chatty. Not sure how we got on the subject but he was fascinated by The Great Loop and kept coming by to ask us questions. He has a friend who lives on a boat… that is not operable, but still, he totally got the magnitude of doing a 6,000 mile loop around the US on a boat. Maybe it was more the idea that a boat could could actually run for that many miles??? I loved his curiosity and interest in traveling and so hope he follows his dreams, gets out and sees the world.

After lunch, we headed over to the NASA Langley Visitors Center which houses the Virginia Air & Space Science Center. Wally worked for NASA in the early 90’s and is always game to visit anything NASA, Space or Aeronautics related. It was a very heady time in his career and the spacecrafts he designed electronic hardware for all launched into space and gathered some really amazing science.

Hampton, Virginia is the birthplace of America’s space program. The Virginia Air & Space Science Center features interactive aviation exhibits spanning 100 years of flight, more than 30 historic aircraft, a hands-on space exploration gallery, unique space flight artifacts, and more! The Center is home to the Apollo 12 Command Module and the Orion PA-1 Test Vehicle – COOL!!!!

A unique collaboration between the City of Hampton and NASA Langley Research Center started in 1986. NASA Langley Research Center expressed a willingness to relocate their visitor center to downtown Hampton, so more people would have access to explore the past, present, and future of air and space. The City wanted a new place to highlight Hampton’s wealth of history. Hampton is America’s first permanent English speaking settlement and the birthplace of our country’s air and space technology so it appeared to be the perfect collaboration.

The museum isn’t big so it’s amazing how it can house so many aircraft’s. YF16, F4 Phantom, Burt Rutan’s Experimental and the FA18 which a friend based out of Whidbey Island Washington flew over our marina on occasion!

It was a perfect rainy day outing and it wasn’t really crowded either. There were more kids there than adults as the museum has an excellent educational program. They provide educational experiences through Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to students who will one day become our next 21st Century explorers of the future. We had fun watching a group of kids being led by a teacher doing an egg drop experiment. The goal is to drop your egg from a high point and have it land intact – think humans in the first Apollo mission!!! The girl with the balloon design and the boy with the coffee filter design nailed it!! We helped a few that landed early on the second level of the museum where we were watching. Sadly, some of those egg astronauts didn’t survive their space flight.

It was a real walk down memory lane seeing all the Apollo exhibits. It was an exciting time in American history to see Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. My mother worked in High Tech and her group manufactured some of the high reliability power supply’s in these Apollo spacecraft that we saw in the museum. She was incredibly proud of that work and we all excitedly watched so many of the Apollo launches. Who’da thunk I’d eventually marry a man who helped send space craft to Mars and Saturn???

After the museum, the weather gave us a break so we took a walk around Downtown Hampton. There is a nice river walk that winds along the Salters Creek. Don’t know if was the rain, but we wehardly saw a soul out and about and the area had ZERO vibe. Not good, not bad or indifferent, WTH??? We will have to check it out again on a weekend and see if that changes.

For boaters, Hampton is a nice stop if you are interested in the Museum and a checking out a few restaurant within walking distance. The Docks at Downtown Hampton is an option for boaters and it is right off the Hampton River in Downtown. Personally, I wasn’t impressed with it BUT the location is perfect. Safe Haven Bluewater which is a great marina is another option but it would mean taking their water taxi or Uber to get to downtown.

LOL, there was definitely no Joy at the Joy’s Marina. Looks like its hasn’t been operational in years!

After our walk around Hampton, we decided to drive over to the Phoebus Neighborhood and check out Sly Clyde Ciderworks. I really like this eclectic little neighborhood, it has all kinds of cool eateries, a few art galleries and a nice middle class vibe.

Wally is a big cider fan… me?? Meh, most are too sweet but when a good one comes along, I am all in. Wally had ordered a Sly Clyde Submursive Hard Cider at lunch and I liked it so much, that I decided to get one too. WooHoo, day drinking on a rainy day. We knew the brewery was local, so now we were really motivated to check it out. Again, there was not a soul on the streets and NO one inside at Sly Clyde when we got there around 3:30.

We had a great time with Amy, who was behind the bar. It’s really interesting and fun to connect with people who are locals. She is putting in a few extra hours at the ciderhouse on Friday and Saturday to top off her kids colleague funds. Otherwise, she is a bean counter at a nearby shipyard so we got to talk with her about that, which was fascinating! We also met her daughter who is in Vet School in Grenada but home for a summer break. The ciders were all great and we had more fun conversation with Amy and some friends of hers that stopped by with their adorable Cocker, Poodle Doodle Dogs. .

We started with a tasting flight but Amy kept the samples coming off the taps. Even a few of her own concoctions, which were delicious. The ciders were great and of course we left with several four packs and a few new friends. A very good rainy day indeed!