I spent 5 months in Virginia Beach, and I can say with certainty (and as the understatement of the year) that it is NOT my favorite place I've ever lived. I know how toxic a bad attitude can be, so I tried to keep an upbeat mindset while I was there. In keeping with the positive vibes, here's an assortment of some cool or interesting things I saw in the Virginia Beach area, in no particular order.
Poseidon is a centerpiece of the Oceanfront and boardwalk area, and a fairly charismatic one at that. However, I preferred to spend time at the Chesapeake Bay beach rather than on the Atlantic, mostly because of the lack of crowds and ease of parking. At the Aeries Way beach entrance, there's a funny sign regarding cigarette butts.
Over the course of my time in VAB, I made several road trips to Georgia and Tennessee, each totalling over 1,000 miles each time. I think I averaged one major road trip each month, with some "smaller" ones to Blacksburg (only 650 miles). I'm now an official Road Warrior (note: not official), plus my car hit 200,000 miles on my spectacular 1,200 mile 5-state journey in June.
The state seal of Virginia is pretty intense. SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS indeed. (Fun fact: John Wilkes Booth shouted this phrase before fleeing the scene of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. The more you know!)
Virginia Beach is a big military area, to say the least. Home to 6 military bases or JEBs (Joint Expeditionary Bases) and numerous other military-affiliated labs and companies, some days if you make a wrong turn on the beach at First Landing State Park, you might be face-to-face with a battleship or helipcopters practicing official maneuvers.
To move back South, I used ABF's U-pack service to avoid having to drive
a moving truck hundred of miles while towing my car. The U-pack is
currently sitting in a storage facility somewhere in southern VAB, so
time will tell how the contents fared once it gets delivered.
Probably my favorite place to visit in VAB is First Landing State Park. The last time I visited, there had been a lot of rain over the previous week, and basically every mushroom you could ever want to see was out, including this stinkhorn that was attracting flies.
Perhaps as a precursor to Hurricane Matthew or perhaps totally unrelated, the Chesapeake was super choppy and windy on my last day in town. Instead of sunbathing, I had to shield my face from flying sand with sunglasses and a scarf. But the upside to the high tides and rough waters was that there were several horseshoe crab remnants along the beach.
And lastly, my favorite thing about the apartment complex I lived in was all the ducks. There were mosty mallards and muscovies, and one of my favorite little lady muscovies had some ducklings with her as I was moving out.
There ya have it: Virginia Beach.
