When she’s not enjoying life with her boys, baking and cake decorating you can find Shanaka at Mama Bee Does. She survives being a single mom with lots of laughter, coffee, sweet tea and Dr. Pepper. Sometimes it feels like she’s hanging on my her apron strings but she makes the most of every day. She believes that every body is unique and beautiful no matter the shape, size or color and that’s why she loves dresses like the Audrey from Karina Dresses because they offer dresses for every body. Shanaka loves being social and you can find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

I had plans to spend the weekend of my 30th birthday at the beach and then along came hurricane Arthur. The hurricane hit NC pretty hard and I was afraid that my weekend would be ruined but Virginia didn’t get much of Arthur at all. We packed up and started the 4 hour drive to the Norfolk/ Virginia Beach area. I have family in Norfolk and Virginia Beach so we were back and forth a bit throughout the weekend.

American Made Dresses: Spending A Weekend In Virginia Beach

We got up at 5:30am to take my two sons on their first deep sea fishing trip. At home if you dared to wake me up at sunrise I would not be a happy camper at all but being on the beach makes seeing the sunrise so much better. After dragging the boys out of bed and grabbing breakfast from the hotel we were staying at we made the drive over to Rudee Inlet in Virginia Beach where we had reservations for a deep sea fishing outing with the Virginia Beach Fishing Center.

The boat captain was a friendly voice we heard throughout our boat trip but we never got to meet him in person. The mates on board were very friendly and helpful. The men came around and gave us our squid, baited our hooks for the first cast, gave us buckets for any fish we wanted to keep and got us signed up for the biggest fish pool. We were told that because of Arthur we may not catch much but the croaker didn’t seem to know that a hurricane had stirred the waters because they were still hanging out and many of us on board were catching a lot of them.

The boys and us grown ups all enjoyed our deep sea fishing trip. While my boys spent time with their cousins me, my mom and a friend spent some girl time on the beach.

The area we were staying wasn’t crowded, even for the July 4th weekend, but the hurricane may have had a little something to do with that. After soaking up so sun for a couple hours we went back to Rudee Inlet and had lunch at a restaurant called Rockafellers. We had seats by the water so while we chatted over cornbread we watched people taking stand up paddle board lessons. I loved the crab cake sandwich I had and the blueberry honey soda.

We spent more time walking the shore taking in all that Virginia Beach has to offer. My sons had so much fun swimming and playing that my youngest was asleep by 6pm one night. I call that a family vacation success.

Due to Arthur the July 4th fireworks shows were delayed by a day so we were still able to catch a fantastic firework show from Mt. Trashmore. It was a great end to a great beach vacation. Wondering what to wear the next time you want to dress up your visit to the beach? Head over to our online store and check out Jenny, the perfect Karina dress for dressing up or dressing down.

Have you visited the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area?  How did you spend your time there?