04 January 2015

Christmas 2014 - the bridges

One big part of going home to Maryland for me is the water.  Water is everywhere in Maryland - lots of rivers and bays and the ocean.  What that means to the weary traveler is bridges.  I had told the kids about all the bridges we would cross and they lost count.  I got a few pictures:
This is the Shore side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.  For more on this engineering marvel, click here.  I had told Josephine that you go under water twice and she was not thrilled.  After we crossed it, though, all the kids were glad they saw it.  Charlotte and Samantha even held their breath the whole time we were in the tunnels - both of them.

As we entered the first tunnel, this cargo ship was going over the tunnel.  These pictures do not do justice to how large these freight ships really are.

Going down!
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel has a northbound span and a southbound span.  This truck was headed north while we were headed south.  You can also tell from this picture how low the bridge is in areas.  It arches up for small watercraft and it stays low like this for most of the seventeen miles of bridge.  Then, of course, the tunnels take you under water twice.

Back on the Virginia mainland, we went through Hampton Roads to Yorktown, Virginia, where we lived three kids ago.  We stopped by the house where we used to live, and then headed to the beach again.  This is the York River bridge and we spent many hot summer days on these sands when Rachel and Samantha were little.  We left Virginia when Charlotte was four months old (Rachel was five and Samantha was four), so she doesn't remember this, but, the big ladies were full of memories of this area.
It was getting dark and it was cold - but, you gotta get a picture!

Our final bridge -over the mighty Mississippi - this is the sign you see crossing from Tennessee into Arkansas.  Two hours from home.
 
We also crossed the Dundalk, in the Port of Baltimore;  the Susquehanna River in Havre de Grace, the C&D canal in Chesapeake City, MD; the Bohemia River in Cecilton, MD; the Chester River, in Chestertown, MD, where I locked the keys in the car and the police had to break in to open our car for us....; the Dyer Creek in Georgetown, MD; the Choptank River in Denton, MD; then we headed through Bridgeville, DE, where ironically, there is no bridge.  Then to the Route 90 Bridge through the Isle of Wight Inlet and into Ocean City, MD.  Then Route 50 Bridge to get off of the island of Ocean City and back onto the Shore of Maryland.  We crossed all these bridges and didn't get pictures.  I bet you're kinda glad.

0 screams from the fans...: