Pleasure House Point Natural Area

 A few weekends ago, J., A., and I visited the newly opened Pleasure House Point Natural Area in Virginia Beach after reading about it -- and seeing gorgeous photos of it -- on the Tidewater Gardener's blog. James wanted to check out the kayaking potential; Anouk and I were so sick of being cooped up in the house that we would have gone anywhere.

Pleasure House Point is located just south of the Chesapeake Bay, part of the Lynnhaven River watershed, and is one good thing to come out of the recent recession. The area was originally designated to become high rise condo buildings, but because of foreclosure, found its way into the hands of Virginia Beach City, the Trust for Public Land, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, who worked to preserve it. But for the walking/running trail that's been put in, the 118 acres of marshes, and maritime forest are now one of the largest parcels of undeveloped land along the Lynnhaven River.

We had an excellent time on our walk. The skies were blue, the water and the sun were working together to offer some serious sparkle, and the path (at an estimated 1.5 miles or so?) was easy enough for Anouk to keep up. At every turn we found something new to investigate, from fallen trees determined to become driftwood to fish leaping out of the water to dozens of clams sitting just beyond the little waves of the beach. We also came across three separate groups of birdwatchers (the Audubon Society has compiled a list of the many types of birds you can find at PHP).

We were also excited to watch some of the construction going on at the environmental education center that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is building nearby. I read online that it's going to offer tons of community outreach, and as we're big CBF fans, we can't wait to blog about all of it. :)

And because of the eensy weensy beach, I think we can technically cross off one of our new year's resolutions?