Virginia Beach, VA

I’d like to begin a series of weekly posts on fabulous facts about Virginia. We’ll begin the series by mentioning a little bit about the controversy over the state song.

Yes, controversy. In fact, VA is right now songless. Gasp. Virginia has retired it’s old song Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny” and designated it as song ermeritus. This song was composed in 1940 by James Bland a prominent Black composer and song writer. You can read the lyrics and listen to the music here

For a little while, so the story goes, it appeared that a new state song had been chosen. The song was Virginia by Lynne Rinker. You can listen to that song and read about the entire song debate in length by surfing over to the Virginia State Song webpage. Even if you don’t give a peanut about the song debate, I would encourage you to listen to the University of Virginia Glee Club singing Virginia. Most interesting, Virginia Beach is specifically mentioned!

So, which song do you favor?

Virginia is a mecca for history fanatics. Being such a fanatic myself, I was thrilled when I moved down here and discovered the plethora of historical sites in close proximity to our house. Many battles of both the Civil and Revolutionary war occurred locally. In fact, judging by the number of “Yankee Go Home”(actually they say, take I95 NORTH) bumper stickers I see, many folks are still fighting the Civil War, but that’s a blog for another day….

During one of my many visits to local bookstores gathering curriculumn for the upcoming school year, I noticed that Gallopade Press publishes a lot of local interest books and activities for children. I highly recommend their products. Gallopade is the brain child of local author Carole Marsh. She’s written and published a bunch of quality products of local interest.

One of our favorite Gallopade Press products is their Virginia Mural. Your children can color the mural all the while learning about VA facts and history. There are many, many other quality products and books to choose from though. These products would make great “rainy day” activities for the kids during your trip to the VA Beach area. If you are local, you can find a variety of books at the local Barnes and Noble stores as well as the Teacher and Parent(TAP) stores.

Good news for Canadian tourists!

The beach has some special money saving deals for y”all! The website is most informative and has downloads in French and German by the way.

I have to say that traveling at the beach, I haven’t noticed or heard a lot of foreigners, unless you count those living about the Mason Dixon line(which some southererns do I have to say) as foreigners.

I strikes me as funny the number of folks I find visiting/moving here from Pennsylvania, my home state. The thing I find even more hysterical is that MOST Virginians I talk to would love to vacation in Pennsylvania! They speak about going to Amish country and also to see Hershey Park. It wonders me, as we would say in Amish land(translation–hmmm…I wonder why?) You live next to a beach, with loads of theme parks and you want to go to a land locked state to a theme park that is designed around chocolate?

Oh well…more sand for me I suppose.

One of the best sites to visit when you are visiting VA Beach is the Virginia Aquarium. There’s a lot that goes on at the aquarium(and that’s another post entirely), but one of the neat things they do is wildlife rescue.

That, my friends, is a transition to today’s topic. It seems that a kayaker found an entrapped turtle off the coast of NC, and the aquarium was called out to do a rescue.

It turns out that the turtle wasn’t just any turtle, but a rare green turtle. The green sea turtle is now endangered, but long ago numbered in the millions before they were exploited.

Not all is doom and gloom in this story though. You see, it was discovered during the exam that this particular turtle is, ahem, with egg!:)

You can follow the story yourself as it unfolds on the special site that has been set up for above said turtle, now named Tiki Jr.

One of the things I really appreciate about living in this area is the great number of opportunities for disabled children/teens/adults.

In fact, I’ve heard that military families with special needs children often request to be stationed in this area because of the services available.

Virginia Beach has a therapeutic recreation center with a number of different programs geared towards ages 14-25. I’ve been doing some research as I have 2 disabled children and there are also programs in Chesapeake and Norfolk, which are close to the Beach as well.

In addition to recreational opportunities, you might want to check out Sugar Plum Bakery in Virginia Beach. It employs and trains handicapped people for meaningful employment. The pastries and pies at this bakery are absolutely scrumptous and they also do tours of the facility as well. Sounds like a win/win sitch for everyone–can it be that you can “have your cake and eat it too?” OK, that was a sad attempt at humor, but isn’t it great that you can enjoy wonderful pastries and know that you are helping disabled folks at the same time?

Pat Robertson. That name might conjure up a whole lot of images and thoughts for many people–some good, some bad.
Did you know that CBN(the Christian Broadcasting Network) is right here in Virginia Beach?

Surprised? When we first moved down here, I was surprised by the sheer number of churches in the area. I don’t think of Virginia as a “bible belt state“, but I suppose it is.

If sweater vest Christianity isn’t quite your cup of tea, what about leather vest Christianity?

One of the groups in the area that have traded their sweaters for leather is a Christian motorcycle group, The Sons of God

Just saw an article in the Pilot about the lack of interest in the Magna Carta during its exhibit at the Beach.

Is it a lack of interest? Or just too much competition? It seems there is so much to do down here. Sadly, the Jamestown anniversary celebration also had less attendance than expected as noted in another newspaper article.

So, do people just not care about history? What do you think?

Have you heard of Flat Stanley?

Flat Stanley is a character from a children’s book. The gist of the story is that thru some accident, Stanley becomes flat. In the book, this becomes a great thing for him as he can fit into an envelope and be sent all over experiencing great adventures.

We joined a Flat Stanley group on Yahoo! and this is the 2nd Stanley we’ve hosted. This time, our Stanley, named Flat Breanna, came from Canada. We sent our Stanley, named Flat Pocohontas, with her mini suitcase, passport and journal to Canada in return.

Flat Breanna is packing up, getting ready to go back to Canada this week. We’re writing up journals, and developing photos to send back. I’ll let you know what our traveler, Flat Pocohontas(a Virginian in real life!) experienced visiting Breanna’s family in Canada.

Do you have a Flat Stanley you’d like for us to host? Please let me know!

Did you know that Busch Gardens in Williamsburg is 45 minutes from VA Beach? Well, sort of….if you avoid rush hour traffic that is!

Today, the neighborhood is on an outing to Busch Gardens and I’m pulling baby duty. Our 4 month old just couldn’t hand the high heat/high humidity combo.

While there, you have to try the latest roller coaster, The Griffon. It’s a floorless coaster and has a 205 feet drop at 90 degrees. I won’t do it, but my husband says it is one of the only coasters he’s gone on which truly terrify him( interestingly enough, he claims that this is a good thing for him). Hey, whatever floats your boat I say.

For those of you budget conscious folks, save on parking by paying online and printing the voucher. Also, did you know that if you are military, you and 2 of your dependents are entitled to a free day at the park? Check out the military kiosk before entering. All you need is your military ID.

In order to save time, I’d recommend purchasing tickets online and presenting the voucher at the turnstile. It goes much, much quicker.

Since I’m not much of a ride kind of gal, I love going to the shows(otherwise, I usually end up holding all of the stuff while everyone else goes on the ride). The American Juke Box show is cool–who doesn’t love a good rendition of YMCA? Also check out the show in Ireland. Wow! One of the neatest shows in Ireland is the animal show which tells the story of an imaginary town in Ireland inhabited by animals. Real animals–cats, dogs, birds–star in the show. This was my children’s favorite.

Or, rather 2 Jamestown’s.

You know, this confused me when we first moved down here. Jamestown Settlement and Historic Jamestown are near each other. So, which one is Jamestown? And, if you have limited finances or time, which one do you choose to visit?

Now, I know the answers and I’ll share them with you!

At Jamestown Settlement, they’ve re-created what the original or “real” Jamestown would have looked like, or what we think it would have looked like. There is the re-creation of the fort and some of the buildings inside the fort, the Indian village outside the fort, and the re-creation of the ships at the dock. Also at the settlement is the visitor center with museum quality exibits on Jamestown life and a copy of the Magna Carta. Wow!

Historic Jamestown is the really real deal. Meaning, the real place where the fort once stood etc. It is an awesome place to visit if you want to really explore and learn about Jamestown minus the glitz and glamour. Spend some time watching the excavation of one of the wells! It’s fascinating to see what they threw away! Also fascinating is that they used a well for a garbage pit…This park is owned by the National Park Service.

Depending upon traffic, it can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours to get to Jamestown from VA Beach. I’d suggest avoiding rush hour traffic in the morning, and planning so you avoid leaving during the afternoon rush hours of 3-6pm. Otherwise, be prepared to sit in traffic!

Summer is here! Last week, during one of those hazy, lazy summer days, we decided to do a day trip to Knotts Island in NC.

It sounds far away, but it’s actually only 1 1/2 hours. If you are in the Beach area, take Princess Anne road South and just stay on it and you’ll come to NC eventually. That’s easy, right?

Check out the ferry times by calling 1800GOFERRY. You can take the ferry from Currituck, NC to the island. You and your car that is! It’s great fun. There’s observation decks and also an air conditioned area with snacks as well. Be sure to be there early though!

We got the 11am ferry and got there around 10am and stopped at the MCD’s near the ferry for breakfast. The folks were so friendly inside the restaurant. We ate in the gazebo near the dock which was lovely. After a 45 minute ride, we arrived at the island.

We stopped at The Peach Basket and bought local peaches to snack on and then went to the community park to eat a picnic lunch. After the kids played at the park for a while, it was time to pack up and catch the next ferry back.

If we’d go again, I’d recommend bringing a kite as well. It was slightly windy, just perfect for kite flying.

When we were down in NC last week, we learned about skim boarding. A little like surfing, but you skim about the water on the shallow end of the ocean. It almost looks like you are gliding on the sand.

Apparently, skim boarding started in 1920 when some lifeguards got board and made up the sport. It is still a small sport, but growing.

We bought the kids some boards, which weren’t that expensive(about $15.00) to start out. We’re all still re-covering from “family week” and the kids just got back last nite from a weekend with their dad, so we won’t be venturing out to the beach today.

More later….

Ok, it’s not really near VA Beach–maybe about 1 hour away on the Eastern Shore off of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel which does end(or begin depending upon your vantage point) in VA Beach.

Yesterday we went to DE to drop the kids off for a visit with their dad(3 of them anyway) and took US 13 up the shore line as usual.

The difference was that instead of stopping at the usual McD’s or whatever, we ate at The Great Machipongo Clam Shack which has just seafood. You can even do the drive thu if you want, but take the time to actually go into the shop which is unique in itself. The food is great, the people are friendly and it’s a bit of local culture.

Today, we decided to go to NC. It’s about 15 minutes away, depending upon traffic.

We ate at Griffon Bar BQ. Real NC barbeque–YUM! Plus, sweet potato rolls to boot. The tasty thing about the barbeque was that they put the cole slaw on top of the Q. It was delicious!

The great thing about this restaurant is half of it is in NC and the other half is in VA. The kids had fun standing in 2 states.

Earlier that day, we visited the Wright Brother Museum in Kitty Hawk and saw the replica of the first plane and walked the field where the plane flew. It was WINDY! I can see why it was a great place for the first flight.

We touched the sand of the local beach for a few minutes and then went to get to the Currituck/Knotts Island Ferry. Check out the schedule by calling 1-800-GO-Ferry. It’s free and you can cross with your vehicle. Alas, we JUST missed the ferry. I mean just missed. We waved as we watched them sail away. Maybe next time!

It’s been a busy few days…where to begin?

For the 4th, we had a picnic on the beach at the Military Beach. Hubby and I went over to the docks in the morning and got a bushel of crabs and 100 clams. No place to put them all but in the bathtub with ice! Oh well, it worked.

We cooked up some seafood, corn and had all the fixings for a great picnic. When the sun went down, we watched the firework displays at Mt. Trashmore and Norfolk which we could see from the beach.

It was one of those days that comes along every so often when you just catch a glimpse of paradise. Great food, the family and fun on the beach. What a great combination!