What We Love: Water

Old Coast Guard Station

The stately white building has stood sentinel at the Oceanfront for 100 years. Originally a life saving station, it’s now a museum showcasing aspects of our maritime past. We love the interactive collections, the fun programs and the really cool gift shop. Here’s to another 100 years! ~PEH

Fisherman Island National Wildlife Refuge

It’s remote—closed to the public except by guided tours—and therefore all the more seductive. Perhaps the best vantage point for viewing this pristine refuge is from a car, traveling north across the Bay Bridge Tunnel toward Route 13 and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, just a half-mile from Fisherman’s Island across Fisherman’s Inlet. As one of only 17 sites in the U.S. to be classified as a “Wetland of International Importance,” this southernmost island in the Virginia barrier chain plays a critical role in North American bird migration and was made a protected habitat in 1969. First exposed around 1815, the island’s forests, brackish ponds and coasts provided prime hunting and fishing for its early residents. Prior to its being named a National Wildlife Refuge, the island also served as a 19th-century quarantine station for European immigrants, and as a military installation for harbor defense during World War I and World War II.Even if you miss the spectacular fall drama of tree swallows, raptors and monarch butterflies swarming in to rest and feed before continuing their punishing journey south, there is perhaps no more tranquil, unassuming and wistful beauty than a panoramic view of the island’s gently irregular beaches, shoals and tidal pools, its mellow-hued salt marshes and its golden dune grasses late on an autumn day. ~BD

The Big Beach

The oceanfront hasn’t looked this good in 300 years, according to Virginia Beach’s coastal engineer, Phil Roerhs. The Big Beach, as Public Works proudly calls the strip that stretches from 1st St. to 89th St., has been augmented with more than 3.2 million cubic yards of sand dredged from the Thimble Shoals and Atlantic Ocean Channel and pumped ashore. At mid-tide, the beach is more than 300 feet wide in the bulkheaded areas and even wider north of 56th St., where there is a good dune system. The huge beach enhancement effort was a joint project of the City of Virginia Beach and the Army Corps of Engineers. The total tab was $25 million, of which the City contributed 35 percent. That sounds like a lot of money until it’s compared to the $600 million that tourists spend annually in the Resort City and the $40 million in tax revenues that visitor spending generates. Beach replenishment will be on a three-year cycle to replace the 250,000 cubic yards of sand lost yearly to erosion.

Bounty

Think what we pull from our waters. Softshells and shad roe. Spot, croaker, tautog, rockfish. Sea bass, flounder and blues. Crabs and oysters, clams and mussels. And then think about how threatened it all is. Thanks to all who labor to preserve and protect our biggest asset. ~JMH

Lighthouses

The first lighthouse in our region still stands. Construction of the Old Cape Henry light, built at Cape Henry in Virginia Beach, was authorized by George Washington in 1792. The octagonal structure, standing 90 feet tall, originally cost $17,700 and was lit by lamps that burned fish oil. It was the young nation’s first federal works project. In 1872, a crack in the light was discovered, and a new lighthouse, just yards east of the old, was commissioned in 1881. It still stands as well. We love both structures—the beige stone and verdigris cap atop of the old, and the rigid black-and-white patterned metal plates-on-masonry of the new. Located within Fort Story, the lighthouses are available for public view, and you can even climb to the top of the Old Cape Henry light. We really love that, and the spectacular view of the Virginia Capes that it affords. There are other lights in Hampton Roads too. Just across the Chesapeake Bay is the Cape Charles Light Station, built on Smith Island in 1894. Standing in the entrance of Hampton Roads Harbor is the Thimble Shoals Light, built in 1872 and rebuilt in 1914, a classic screwpile light. Other lights include the Newport News Middle Ground Lighthouse, standing in a shallow area of the harbor, built in 1891, and the New Point Comfort Lighthouse on Mobjack Bay in Mathews County, built in 1805. ~PEH

Boardwalk Art Show and Festival

Father’s Day weekend brings an ocean of corny cards, but it also brings the annual Boardwalk Art Show and Festival. For four days in mid-June, this nationally top-ranked outdoor art show produced by the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia attracts approximately 200,000 visitors to the Virginia Beach oceanfront to soak in great art, music and food. For going on 48 years, the Boardwalk Art Show has announced the arrival of summer at the Beach. ~BD

Mariners’ Museum

The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News presents maritime history through a permanent collection of more than 600,000 photographs, paintings, ship models, figureheads, nautical instruments and more. Among the best of its kind in the nation, this institution is about to get even better. In collaboration with NOAA, the Museum will open the $30 million USS Monitor Center in 2007 in order to tell the story of the first ironclad, steam-powered warship through exhibitions, conservation, research and education. ~BD

Virginia Marine Science Museum

One of our nation’s top ten marine science and aquarium facilities, VMSM has, since 1986, fulfilled its mission of education about and preservation of Virginia’s marine environment through ambitious phased-in expansions and state-of-the-art attractions. Highlights include an open-ocean aquarium, salt marsh preserve, river otter habitat, harbor seal pool, and IMAX 3-D theater. Additionally, since 1991, the VMSM marine Stranding Team has provided unduplicated rescue, research and rehabilitative services, which are soon to be expanded. ~BD

Breakfast at the Belvedere Coffee Shop

Classic. Kitschy. Folks come to the Belvedere Coffee Shop at the oceanfront for a number of reasons. The view of the surf. The fluffy omelets. The memories of coffee shops past. In the neat, tiny diner, reasons are as numerous as the ways to prepare eggs. We love them all. ~PEH

Harbor Pilots

The last hereditary trade and our safety edge for the world’s biggest harbor, these nearly invisible guys safely maneuver all the big-boy commercial traffic in our ports. ~JMH

Dockside Dining and Fresh Seafood

Surrounded by water, we love the fresh seafood that can be found across Hampton Roads. We also love dockside dining—good food and good views at such places as Bennett’s Creek Marina, Smithfield Station, Pier 21 and Blue Pete’s. ~PEH

James River

Oh, the wide and mighty James: a Native American habitat for 11,000 years, mother river of our nation, Colonial highway, plantation site, Ghost Fleet berth, shipbuilding cradle, host to fishermen, power boats, kayaks and weekend sailors. It’s the largest, longest river in Virginia, and its devastated stocks of shad and oysters need defending. ~JMH

Norfolk’s Waterfront

The comeback story of the last two decades! Anyone remember the scruffy riprap and crumbling warehouses? Waterside got things cleaned up and Festevents got us all heading there. Now, with four-story homes going up as fast as you can say Wisconsin, a swelling cruise ship scene, Nauticus reenergized, the success of MacArthur Center and red-hot restaurants, Norfolk’s waterfront is more than ever the place to be. ~JMH