Thursday, May 3, 2012

Hampton, VA - Provisioning

The fountain is lined with about 50 shops, unfortunately only Ann type shops
We rented a car from Enterprise for the day. Their office is right next to the marina, less than 200 ft away, very convenient! Running a boat is very much like running a house, you may not have to mow the lawn  but the chores are very similar. Add to that all the things that can go wrong on a boat exposed to the salt water of a marine environment and it actually amounts to more work that with a house. Hampton is our last stop where there's a supermarket close by so we're trying to get everything we need to reach PYC.

Even a Farmer's Market - on Thursdays
I had started a download to the iPad of a newer version of our road guidance app and it was updating all morning (it's a very large app, it has all the maps of the entire US stored so no internet calls are required) and was not available for our use in navigating Hampton. We had forgotten how much we depended upon the voice of the app (Bettie, the popular name for voice guidance). Ann's in the right seat looking at a Google map trying to imitate "Bettie" while I'm fighting traffic, Ann had the tougher job. After seeing more of Hampton than we intended, we finally settled for a Walmart instead of a regular supermarket. It seems that Hampton has no Publix, no Winn Dixie, no Kroger, no nothing except for Food Lion, a one supermarket town. Eventually we got what we needed.

Dog walk area by the bridge - it "filters out" sailboard from the anchorage







Hampton has revitalized their town with many shops and a very nice waterfront. At only $1.25/ft  with the third day free (if you stay for two days), it's a great value. The docks are floating concrete and they have the usual showers and laundry facilities. The only drawback are the half length fingers but we manage. Ann's taking me out Friday night to a place with 40 beers on tap and a decent menu, great!

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