Virginia Beach, VA

What?

I said the same thing. Government offices, including the city offices are closed everywhere today in celebration of this little known holiday.

In fact, my daughter’s class was to visit the library today and suprise! it was closed.

What is exactly is Lee/Jackson Day? It appears to be a holiday only celebrated in the Commonwealth of Virginia to celebrate the birthdays of Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson. It is celebrated the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

According to information, the holiday was created in 1889.

Who knew?

Chesapeake City, which is very close to VA Beach city, has a free public planetarium.

The planetarium is located at the government complex in Chesapeake, which is about 30 minutes from the beach front with traffic time.

The planetarium presents a 1 hour public program on Thursdays around 8pm, depending upon the time of year. For additional information, you can call the planetarium at 757-547-0153.

I still remember how surprised I was when I moved down here at the amount of specialty food stores and restaurants. Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, Soul Food, and other cultural foods are everywhere.

Our family’s favorite ethnic food store is The Delicate Oriental Grocery. This is the neatest store as it has all kinds of food from Japan, Vietnam, the Phillipines, and China. Adding to it’s “cool” factor was our experience the first time we went there. We came in and saw 2 oriental women with tongs running after a crab that had escaped from the basket. He was quickly making his way to the door. Now that’s one smart crab!

One of the other interesting cultural things in the store is the altar in the back of the store complete with offerings and incense burning.

We bought quite a few items and enjoyed reading the labels and looking at the products which were quite different than traditional “American” food. The store has fresh vegetables and also seafood as well.

The only downside–they take just cash! Remember to bring some along if you visit.