Virginia Beach - Virginia
While staying in Elizabeth City North Carolina we took a short trip north to visit Virginia Beach which is reached in around one hour from Elizabeth City. We parked in a large public car park at Rudee Inlet which is just over one mile south of the Virginia Beach Expressway exit. As soon as we stepped onto the seafront we were greeted by this cheerful scene which is a kids play area on the sand.
Our plan was to walk the promenade for 2 miles to the statue of Neptune that lies beyond the pier and then stop for lunch before turning one block inward and walking back past the shops. The pier can hardly be seen in the image below, at this point it is a mile away.
When the pier does come into view it looks a little rickety, but we can see a few people out on the very end fishing so I guess it must be ok for walking on.
This image shows the meandering nature of the woodwork on the pier, while the front appears to have had some work the bit reaching out into the sea is..........less than refurbished.
But the truth is, no matter how rickety it was we were going to be on it anyway. Piers are fantastic, carrying you out into the sea to a point where dolphins swim close (or close enough to see anyway) and where fishermen haul unsuspecting sea critters up the side of the pier and into a box for the evening meal
The whole place reminds me of Daytona but it's not quite as 'finished' as Daytona. There is a large military presence here and they buzz the air in jets and huge chinook helicopters every 10 minutes, it is incredibly noisy and I have to say it would be bloody awful to be here for a week.
Walking out on the pier gives me opportunity to look back and grab a few shots of the beach from another angle, it's another beautiful day even with the military guys doing their best to spoil it.
Out on the rickety section it really is as dodgy as it looks but there are fishermen at the far end and it looks like they're catching at a good rate
looking back again it's clear that people don't mind the planes thundering overhead with dozens of huge hotels and condo complexes filling the shore line
Looking at the section we've already walked along, its now filling with people keen to get (what they decided is) a good spot on the beach. The condos reach as far south as they do north, I can only assume they have good soundproofing.
As we reach the end of the pier a huge pod of dolphins swims by, they spend a while leaping and splashing around, one of the fishermen tells us that this is when they catch the most, as he's telling us his friend is reeling in two nice fish with almost every cast.
In a little while a shout goes up and a guy on the pier corner is attempting to haul a one metre long shark up the side of the pier, though unfortunately (for him) the line breaks soon after he begins to haul the poor thing out and the shark is soon back in the sea swimming off but not before I grabbed this shot from overhead.
We stayed there quite a while talking to a couple of guys from the Bronx in New York who were down for the fishing, they say they come here a lot and always do well. The guy catching with virtually every cast 'ribs' his friend continually with such gems as "are you still fishing over there" its good fun and keeps us laughing, I also get some tips for fishing down in Florida later in the year.
We finally leave the pier and continue along the promenade where we stop for a drink as the sun really heats up, while sitting at the outdoor tables I can't help but think some lousy bugger has put these concrete balls here for the local drunks to run up and kick
The old coastguard station along the way looks pretty fancy, it is now open as a museum and gift shop and has good clean toilet facilities in the grounds beside it
Approaching that mammoth statue of Neptune at the 2 mile mark from our starting point, the statue was commissioned to celebrate the nautical history of Virginia Beach
At 34 feet it is quite a beast, made of cast bronze by Virginia sculptor Paul DePasquale the statue now looks over Neptune Park which is sited right beside the promenade directly in front of the statue.
From the park the sculpture looks quite ominous, the surrounding trees leave it looking like a giant trying to climb over the trees to get to the park
After making our target (the Neptune Statue) we turned inland for a block and found a nice little bar/restaurant with shaded outdoor seating where we had a long lunch with a cold beer accompaniment
After a two mile shopping tour that Sarah would describe as 'disappointing' we arrived back at the truck and headed north for 7 miles to view the Cape Henry lighthouse that guards the entrance to Chesapeake Bay on the south shore. The lighthouse is now part of an active military base so there is a bit of a security farce to go through on the way in, you are not permitted to go elsewhere on the point such as the beach, it's a straight in to the lighthouse and out again event, all in all not really worth the messing around though it is a beautiful building, it's stone built predecessor that stands nearby is not so photogenic.
This was another lovely day exploring America but I don't think I'd hurry back here, the military aircraft really were just far too frequent, I guess the locals are used to it but I can't imagine they get a lot of repeat business from elsewhere.