Day-16 .. Fort Monroe, Fort Eustis, Virginia Beach

Slept in!   Needed that after an emotional day.   We went out for breakfast and had a good visit.   We dropped off Violy at home and Weldon and I proceeded to Fort Monroe National Monument and the Casement Museum.   It was started as a fort by the Colony of Virginia in 1609 and continued as a defensive fortification protecting the navigation channel between Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads.  It was decommissioned in 2011.   400+ years!

A very interesting, long history!   The National Park Service has done an excellent job in presenting such a varied story. What's a casemate? They're vaulted chambers within the fort's walls.

Several famous people were here.    Robert E. Lee, future commanding general of the Confederate forces, as a 24-year-old West Point trained engineer, was posted here from 1831-34 with his wife, Mary Custis Lee, who was related to George Washington !    Edgar Allan Poe was stationed here in 1828-29.

looking out over the fort walls to Chesapeake Bay

On to Fort Eustis, home to the 7th Transportation Brigade and the Army's Transportation Museum.   Enjoy some pic's :

history of .. and versions of the jeep

the DUKW ..

We drove back to pick up Violy and drove to the Atlantic shore, the town of Virginia Beach.    We had a special seafood dinner at :

Very delicious.   Crab cakes, cajun sea scallops, and calimari.    Afterwards, we walked on the boardwalk at the beach.    A good day.