Labor Day Weekend: Virginia Beach

I love three day weekends!! But don't we all?

This past one in particular felt longer since Justin and I fit so much into it.

Friday night was a cozy old-couple night followed by a productive Saturday morning. We hit the road and cruised for four hours to Virginia Beach! We drove straight to the Rock 'n' Roll expo and basically ate lunch with all the free protein bars and juice samples.


We also got a kick out of some of the gear...




I thought the above hat was too cute! I actually ended up buying it (only $5!) and wore it during the race ;)

That night Justin was reflecting on his lack of training for this half marathon and was pretty much determined to actually train, and train hard, for another half marathon perhaps in November. At the sound of the alarm at 5am on Sunday morning, the first thing he said was, "I'm NOT doing this again." I found this so funny and couldn't have agreed more in the moment. I thought, "Whyyyyyyyyyy am I doing this?" I honestly don't know if I would have woken up to it if Justin didn't start getting ready. Clearly - I value my sleep :)

But it was oh so worth it! Because we ran a sub-2:00 hour half marathon (race recap to come)!


My Garmin stopped working around mile 8 so all I knew was that I needed to keep running and start running harder. It actually felt like a race those last 5 miles. Since my Garmin decided to pull at fast one on me during the race, I didn't know until a couple hours after the race that I accomplished my goal. Hurray!

The post-race festivities occurred all along the beach, and Justin definitely enjoyed his two complementary beers afterward! While I loved munching on all the free bananas and snacks :)

We eventually headed back to the hotel for a little nap. After snoozing for not even a couple hours, we felt like the race was yesterday...not just two hours ago.

Next up...Virgina Beach...but actually this time we went to the beach. At this time we learned that Virginia Beach is pretty much the Myrtle Beach of Virginia - crowded and noisy. But it was definitely nice to lay out our blankets on our 10 foot space of real estate and soak up a few of summer's last rays.


As we relaxed, Justin was already thinking ahead to dinner and browsed through Yelp's recommendations on local restaurants. He came across Tautog's Restaurant. Oh my goodness - I love you Yelp for bringing this to our attention. We would have walked right by this coastal cottage not even knowing it was the most popular local restaurant in town if it wasn't for you.

According to the recommendations on Yelp, everyone was extremely happy with their meals and raved about their fresh fish dishes. They also talked about how it was always so packed and that you needed to make reservations in advance. Again, thank you Yelp.

If it wasn't for Yelp, we wouldn't have known this place existed, nor would we have known that 50+ people line up outside the restaurant before it opens at 5:30pm just to get a seat because the reservations are already full.

The meals weren't pricey, it's listed as being moderately priced ($11-$30 per person), but it's the local feel and creative fish dishes that make this restaurant so enjoyable.




Our night wasn't over yet, we then strolled the boardwalk, sipped on some draft beers (I tried a blueberry one...delish!), and then plopped out our blanket for the Brett Michaels' headliner concert on the beach!






Another perfect weekend. :)

Question

What were your Labor Day weekend highlights? Go anywhere cool or just relax? Have you ever used Yelp to help you find a place in an unfamiliar area? Did you find the reviews helpful?