Family Visiting Virginia Beach

When going on vacation, it's nice to buy a souvenir. T-shirts are fine, but if you want an alternative near the beach, why not buy a silver charm? Silver Stream near the Mirror Maze offers a wide range of jewelry for purchase in every price range. Why not buy a silver star fish or sea horse to start a travel charm bracelet? I've purchased several pieces here, and I can say that I've had good success with the quality of handmade pieces available here. The best thing is that buying something here won't break the bank... but it won't shrink in the wash either.

If you want to look at the store's website or find other locations, visit:

www.silverstreamjewelry.com

We love the beach, but it's fun to add some other activities to a family vacation. Mini golf courses are plentiful near the boardwalk. The best time to visit them is during the day, after lunch, when they aren't too busy. It doesn't matter if you're a bit sandy. They know you've been swimming all morning!

Why did we choose Pirate's Paradise?
First, while within easy walking distance of any hotel by the beach, we were in a car. This mini golf course offers parking on the corner of 22nd and Pacific just across the street from the facility itself. This costs $2.45, which is fine. Parking in this area is at a premium. Second, my son has played all the mini golf courses in that area, and he said this one was a little harder than the jungle course down the road (which I'd suggest for younger kids.) Now, I'm not saying this is difficult. It's putt-putt, for goodness sakes! But there are at least water hazards!

What is the course like?
Compact and curving, this is an 18 hole course that will keep you amused for a game. Within our party of four, each one of us scored at least one hole-in-one. Par for the whole thing is 40. The worst score we had was 55. (Tiger Woods wasn't with us.)

Cost?
Admittedly, it's a wee expensive. The cost is $9 per adult, $8 for seniors, $7 for kids 5-12, 4 and under free. However, there's no limit on replays from 9 AM - 6 PM. While we had no interest in replaying, again, this is a great time to go because the courses can get crowded at night... especially at the height of the tourist season. That said, Pirate's Paradise is open from 9 AM to 2 AM if you want a late activity in the summer.

Anything else to keep in mind?
No groups larger than 5. If yours is bigger, split into separate parties.

Bottom line?
An amusing afternoon activity for the whole family.

I ran my first marathon in Virginia Beach at the Shamrock Sportsfest, which is a highlight in my LIFE, much less a highlight of my vacation. Apart from this special event, however, Virginia Beach offers one of the ten most visited aquariums in the United States. There are beautiful beaches, great seafood, and nice sunsets. Navy ships and a variety of different types of museums are available for educational exploration. You should walk around the Virginia Beach Boardwalk at least once even though it can get very crowded in the summer---sometimes with a young and rowdy group of people that give it a perpetual 'Spring Break' feel. The city has gone to great lengths to bring a family atmosphere back to the Boardwalk, and when I last visited the area in 2001, I saw that they were having great success (see boardwalk entry). The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is also a man-made marvel, the world's largest bridge tunnel complex (17.6 miles long), worth a drive across. There is no doubt that Virginia Beach is a very family-friendly destination.

Quick Tips:

There are other beaches to go to besides the Boardwalk, and I would suggest you seek them out at least once when you have young children swimming with you. IF you are visiting in the winter around the holidays, go drive through the Boardwalk. They have a spectacular lights presentation set up to see. It is several miles long, and there is a fee per each car, but your kids will delight at the reindeer and frosties that will wave light-bulbed arms at them. Fall and winter are actually not a bad time to visit the area. Of course, you can't go swimming, but walking on the beach bundled up is still nice (and there won't be tons of people!). Also, during the off-season hotels are very cheap and easy to come by.

Best Way To Get Around:

You need to have a car in Virginia Beach. Cabs are available, but the fares will add up quickly. Family attractions are spread out around the city, and you will want to be able to get to them easily.

The Beach Pub is a Virginia Beach Fixture. It has been family owned and operated on Laskin Road near the Boardwalk for as many years as I have been alive. There are pictures of family members lining the walls along with some local celebrities who have to compete with the crayola masterpieces created by young diners. It is almost always full of people waiting at the door to sit down at peak times(reservations are not taken), and it is known among locals for the incrediable value of the quickly served and good food. Different nights of the week, diners will find various specials such as 'All you can eat Flounder' going on. Most of the seafood is fried, and kids will love the popcorn shrimp on the children's menu. In fact, this is a very child-friendly restaurant. While the restaurant is almost always busy, the Beach Pub still closes down at various times of the year to provide activities for their patrons' children. For adults, there is a fully stocked bar (hence the Pub part of the name) and you can have a frozen mudslide to cool you down with dinner. I think the best time to go to the Beach Pub, however, is at BREAKFAST. You will not find a restaurant that gives you more food for your money anywhere in Virginia Beach. The owners are Southern, and they appreciate hearty appetites. Try the crab-meat omeletes. They are wonderful! And your kids will appreciate the 'non-stuffiness' of the place.

The Jewish Mother serves great Deli-style sandwiches that are always delicious. This restaurant is a wonderful place to go with children because the atmosphere is very relaxed and the service is fast and friendly. In fact, kids will be given crayons and invited to write on the walls! Parents will like the locally owned restaurant, too, as live music is often featured at night (normally jazz). The restaurant is known among locals as a fabulous stop for dessert and coffee (and what kid doesn't like dessert?!).

Pasta e Pani is a family owned and operated Italian restaurant conveniently located on Laskin Road. The atmosphere when you walk into the restaurant is nice with white table cloths and a well appointed bar, but the dining area with the lace curtains on the windows and the open kitchen where you can see the wood burning stoves feels like a comfortable room in a house.

We started our meal with a complimentary appetizer, and we were all pleased by the quick service. I had a delicious chicken scallipone for dinner while my husband chose a mushroom stuffed pasta. My son ate a cheese pizza that could easily have been split between two children. During our meal, my mother-in-law pointed out the mayor of Virginia Beach dining with her husband. That seemed like a good endorsement to me!

After a nice dinner, the decadent dessert tray was shown at our table. The cheesecake proved to be as tasty as it looked! When all was finally eaten, the tab also proved reasonable. With alcohol, dessert, and tip, the bill for four was still under $100. I enjoyed dinner at this establishment.

The Wild Monkey is a great little restaurant at which to have lunch when shopping in Norfolk. The dining area is small, and you can see the cooks working in the kitchen, but the atmosphere is very eclectic with a monkey or two hanging from the lights, and the food is very good. There is Monkey Pasta for the kids that is very tasty and a wonderful assortment of healthy sandwiches and large pitas for the adults.

On chalkboards hanging on the walls, you will also find a good wine selection with taste descriptions. If you like the vintage you order, chances are you can pick up a bottle to enjoy later at the Taste Unlimited just a couple of doors down from the Monkey. Dinner is served as well at the Monkey and more substantial entrees such as Monkey Meatloaf and lasagna are available.

Note of Special Interest: If you are a runner, a running specialty store is within walking distance of the Wild Monkey. Every employee at that store is a runner, and they will help fit you in the right shoe after watching you run in the store.

Vivo's is in the Hilltop district of Virginia Beach. The owners have made a habit out of creating a restaurant "concept" and making it work in Virginia Beach. They do this by mixing a bit of atmosphere with a good menu. Vivo's fits the bill perfectly.

The restaurant is located in a non-descript stripmall, but many locals seek this place out. The interior has muted lighting, mahogany stained tables, striped boothes, and deep-red carpets. There is an interesting cantilever ceiling painted a bright red in one dining room that is crisscrossed with a string of lights. A copy of that Da Vinci painting I always call Venus on the Half Shell hangs on one wall. Mirrors make the room look larger than it is. I noticed Louis Armstrong was singing softly in the background the evening I perused the menu.

After some debate, I had the pleasure of ordering the Manicotti Renaissance, an absolutely yummy pasta dish stuffed with spinach. My companion had the scampi dinner, which also looked good. We ordered the Focaccia Bread to start (an extra charge), which looked like a small pizza on the plate. I was told the entree portions were very large, so unless you are very hungry, you might not want a more substantial appetizer.

Service was quick and efficient. The wine list was adequate. I enjoyed a glass of Rothbury Chard in my always-breaking-that-red-with-pasta-rule fashion. I would certainly recommend this Vivo to anyone who enjoys Italian. It was a nice (but not TOO nice) restaurant in which to savor a good meal.

Cost? Dinner for two with wine (by the glass) was a reasonable $50 (without tip).

Isle of Capri is located on the top floor of the Holiday Inn though it is independently owned and operated. Its position in the building affords diners an absolutely marvelous view of the boardwalk and ocean below, so reservations should be made by the window if possible.

The service at the restaurant is very good, and the wine list will be sure to please. The food is spectacular, but I am a HUGE fan of Italian cuisine. When I ate at Isle of Capri, I chose the manicotti which was very good, but my aunt and uncle highly recommended any of the many veal dishes available on the menu. Veal is an Isle of Capri specialty.

The restaurant is often full---especially between 7 PM and 9 PM, so reservations are a very good idea. November, January and February are slow months for restaurants in Virginia Beach because of the slowing of the tourist industry in the cold weather. However, Isle of Capri remains a favorite, special spot for many locals as the food is so good. This is the place to go to eat alone with your spouse unless the kids are older or very well behaved.

Bodega is a tapas restaurant boasting "Small plates…. Big drinks." The idea is that you may order several different plates with smaller portions and share with your dining companions. Or you can build your meal a la carte ordering your vegetables separate from your main course. This is what we chose to do, and we found that the food at Bodegas is excellent. I had a spinach, mushroom and pasta dish (surprise, surprise!) that was made all the better because it was served in a reasonably sized bowl---not the bathtub of food that is common at most American restaurants. My dining companions enjoyed their selections as well, which ranged from beef tenderloin to salmon.

We bought a bottle of Fess Parker Chardonnay to enjoy with our food. This is not a vintage you can acquire in every state, but it is very good and readily available in the VA Beach area. I visited the Fess Parker Vineyard in Santa Barbara County, California in 1999, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the wine produced there to be well suited to my tastes ($18-$30/bottle in a grocery store). For those of you who liked Davy Crockett as children, you should recognize the name Fess Parker. He was indeed the actor who played Davy in that Walt Disney series, and the tastefully placed (hard as that is to believe) coonskin hats on the labels of Fess Parker bottles of wine testify to the history of the man who lends his name to his family run business. Try a bottle with your meal ($25-$50 in a restaurant).

As for the atmosphere at Bodega…. The restaurant is small though there is a large bar to one side, and I never felt crowded at our table. It gets busy on play nights, so get there early. I don’t think they take reservations though you would have to call to make sure.

The service is quick and friendly.

THIS RESTAURANT HAS CLOSED ON LASKIN ROAD AND MOVED TO ANOTHER LOCATION IN VIRGINIA BEACH.

I would only recommend The Purple Cow to people with children. The place definitely caters to families. It looks like a fifties diner, right down to the black and white checked tile floor and the juke box in the corner, and it is painted in festive purple and pinks that add to the fun atmosphere.

The food is what you would expect to find in a diner: big burgers, mini-corn dogs, milk shakes. The purple milk shakes taste like vanilla, but your kid will love them because any purple milk shake drinker's tongue will turn purple, too!

The service was quick and friendly. I enjoyed my mushroom and bacon cheeseburger and fries. However, one of my dining companion's chilli hot dog was cold by the time it got to the table. The chilli also came from a can, so I'd stear clear of this old favorite. My son loved his food. Of course, kids aren't very cuisine discriminating.

If you want a kid-friendly restaurant with a little different flair, try the Purple Cow. I noticed it is a small chain with locations in Arkansas and Texas, too, but the place still retains some old-fashioned personality nice for an evening out with the whole crew.

Il Giardino does not take reservations on Sunday nights during the off-season winter months. This is because Sunday nights are two-for-one dinners! Not advertised extensively, this is a GREAT deal if you are not visiting in the summer. Il Giardino is a nice restaurant with an upscale atmosphere. It would suit a romantic dinner for two or a hearty meal with the well-behaved family who loves Italian cooking. The hand-made manicotti is excellent. The wine list is good. The service is quick and friendly. The place does have a tendency to get loud when crowded---a frequent occurrence in the high season---but I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of pasta.

This restaurant has a trendier feel to it than most of the other places I have eaten in Virginia Beach. The hard wood floors and tasteful, purple lights hanging at the bar make me think of a lot of restaurants in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, Georgia. This is another place to go WITHOUT the kids or with OLDER and well-behaved children. The food is excellent. The service is very professional and quick. The specials are as marvelous as the many culinary delights always found on the menu. The lump crabmeat soaked in Riesling wine and served on a piece of sourdough, as an appetizer can be just the beginning of a wonderful meal. I really enjoyed a fresh spinach salad served to me at One Fish Two Fish before dinner as well. Seafood is, of course, a main choice, and you really can't go wrong with any choice of fish. The great views from most tables of Long Bay Pointe Marina are enhanced at sunset when brilliant colors melt from the sky into the sea. An excellent special occasion restaurant, One Fish Two Fish can be expensive. However, you won't be disappointed with the food.

Taste Unlimited is a deli/specialty store from which you get sandwiches to go. ALL the sandwiches here are WONDERFUL, and there are several choices available for the vegetarians among you. The breads they use are great.

While your sandwich is being prepared, you may browse the specialty items in the store or ask for help choosing a nice bottle of wine to be enjoyed with your lunch or later in the evening. I found the proprietor of the Taste Unlimited on 36th street to be very helpful when choosing a vintage that would suit my tastes.

If you have children visiting VA Beach with you, it is nice to be able to call your order in for pick-up. For VA Beach locals, Taste Unlimited also offers catering for special events.

There are Taste Unlimited locations in Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Chesapeake.

The Virginia Marine Science Museum is an all-day excursion. When you first walk up to the entrance, you know you will be in for a big treat because your kids will immediately run to see the harbor seals playing in a tank outside of the front doors. When you go inside you can get a ticket for just the museum, or the museum with an IMAX movie. All of it is worth the money. As you walk through the well-organized exhibits, you and your family will see sea turtles and otters and SHARKS! There is a bird aviary, too, that you walk through on nature trails. There are boat rides available (for an extra fee) out into the harbor. There is a cafeteria restaurant for light snacks. There are, of course, gift shops open for you to stop in and get souvenirs of the visit. I would have to say that I always buy something to take home. There is a good selection of marine life toys to keep little ones happy in the car, great children's books, and some things (like jewelry and collectible lighthouses) that are a little nicer and better suit the tastes of Mom. I would say a visit to the Virginia Marine Science Museum is a MUST for anyone in the area.

Operating Hours:
Open daily from 9-5 p.m.
Extended hours in the summer.

For more information call 757-425-FISH (3474) or visit website at www.vmsm.com.

There are a lot of great places to run in Virginia Beach. The biggest challenge is staying off the busy roads. I like to park at the Convention Center (anyone in the city can direct you there) and run to the Boardwalk when I am in town. There are sidewalks along the streets, and the reward of a couple miles' effort is the beautiful ocean view once I make it to the Boardwalk. There, be careful of the throngs of tourists and occasional bicyclers. You can run as far as you'd like along the Boardwalk before looping around. I also like to run around Ft. Story when I am in town. There is a campground by the beach there that has good shade and nice, dirt-packed nature trails on which one can go as long as the sun doesn't get to you.

There are normally campers and beach-goers out and about, but there will be stretches of path where you will be running alone. I like to run on the beach, too, but only when the tide is out and the sand is packed hard. This is the most fun to do in the early morning or evening when the beaches aren't over-crowded, and a runner isn't jumping over ankles to dodge incoming waves. Basically ANY where you run in Virginia Beach is going to consist of flat and easy terrain. It gets hot in the summer, cold in the winter. Hydrate and dress appropriately.

The Boardwalk can get quite crowded in the summer, which is not always fun for me. Still, if you are visiting the area, you should take a stroll down the Boardwalk at least once. There are several attractions in that area that will be good for kids. There is an amusement park area with kiddie rides. There is the Old Coast Guard Station full of boat memorabilia and local history. There is the ocean to one side. There are often pieces of local art displayed in grassy areas and bands playing for free. Art festivals are often set up along the sidewalk as well. Contact the Visitors' Center to see if anything unique is scheduled at the time of your visit. I would actually recommend taking a family to another place such as Seashore State Park to swim because the crowds are smaller, but there is certainly a beach at the Boardwalk which stretches on for miles and has lifeguards in attendance.

About five years ago, I went walking along the Boardwalk in the evening and found the crowd to be 'Spring-Breakish' and wild in the high-season. If this had remained the case, I would not want to take my son to that area of town at night. I did not find it fun to be jostled by foul-mouthed teenagers drinking underage. However, this situation has changed. Virginia Beach has made a huge effort to return the Boardwalk back to a family atmosphere in the summer. Street performers can be found on practically every block. My son LOVED the magicians we saw performing tricks the evening we took a stroll down the Boardwalk in 2001. He and many other children also delighted at a sidewalk puppet show performed for free. Men on stilts walk down the sidewalk. Bands fill the night with music. There is a heavy uniformed police presence that moves through the crowds to keep everyone safe. Fireworks explode over the water one night each week in the summer. Contact the Visitors' Center to make sure the festivities have begun on the Boardwalk at the time of your visit.

One note of caution: The haunted houses are for teenagers and adults, NOT kids. My husband did take our 7 year old through the fun house, a maze of mirrors, and even that proved to be a little scary for him. And my son is NOT an easily scared kid. Voices whispered on the other sides of the mirrors. IF your kid wants a little bit of a scare, or if YOU like that sort of thing, just be sure to ask the ticket seller how he or she would rate the experience (G, PG, R, etc....) at the haunted house of your choice. Ticket prices vary but average $5/person.

Seashore State Park is on the Chesapeake Bay. It is a great place to take children as the water is shallow and the surf is more suited for beginning swimmers. Kids will also delight in watching tankers in the distance as they come and go from the Norfolk Terminals. There is a nice family atmosphere, and I would highly suggest it to people enjoying the ocean with children.

The children's museum in Portsmouth is just a short ride away from downtown Virginia Beach. It is a wonderful excursion for the whole family. There are tons of interactive exhibits to amuse the child in us all. There is a child-sized city with a city bus that can be driven, a fire truck with flashing lights, a grocery store, and costumes that can be tried on by kids for make-believe play. If you like trains, there is an entire room devoted to this hobby, but music lovers will find walk-on pianos and a giant guitar to play, too. This museum will take up the better part of an afternoon. After you are through playing and looking around, take the kids around the corner to a child's dollar store to buy cheap amusement for the car ride back to the city.

The hours for the museum are 9-5 Monday-Saturday. 11-5 Sunday. To get there from Virginia Beach simply take I-264 West into the downtown tunnel to Portsmouth. Take exit 7 to downtown Portsmouth/Naval hospital, and then follow signs to the Children's museum. There are several other museums in the area as well if you would like to check them out. Call the Children's Museum at 757-393-8393 for hours during holidays.

Many special events take place at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, from symphony concerts to Broadway musicals. It is not an especially pretty auditorium, and I have been told that the acoustics are bad if you are sitting in the wings. None-the-less, many fine performances can be seen at this facility.

I saw "Cabaret" in December 2000 and found the production to be very professionally done. Theater companies on national tour perform all the plays from the Broadway Series at Chrysler, so you should expect good acting and direction for your money. I bought my ticket from the box office the day of the performance without a problem, but there is always a fairly full house for big name plays. If you are a VA Beach local, you should look into season tickets for discounts. If you are staying in VA Beach on vacation, allow at least thirty minutes for travel time to Norfolk. Be careful of parking because towing IS enforced. I’d highly suggest grabbing an early dinner at one of the many fine restaurants in the area (check Bodega Dining Entry for great suggestion) before the show. I haven’t eaten at the Blue Hippo, but I was told it is a good place to grab a bite before a play, too.

If you are staying in VA Beach, allow 20-30 minutes of travel time to Hampton to see this museum. If you or anyone in your family enjoys learning about planes or space travel, however, this museum is well worth the trip. With an interesting architectural design, the roof of the museum looks similar to a seagull in flight. Inside the museum, you will find a wealth of information on a variety of air and spacecraft. In addition to reading about planes from every era of flight history, there are many hands-on activities that will keep children amused. My son enjoyed putting on Styrofoam "wings" and standing in front of a large fan while pretending to be an airplane. The point of this exhibit was to show him how much wind force is working against an airplane in flight. My son also enjoyed looking at a real moon rock in the NASA exhibit and crawling through "Mars." My husband was in heaven reading about the various aircraft suspended from the ceiling of the museum. As for me, I enjoyed the IMAX movie the best. Admission to the museum is cheaper if you do not include a movie, but the Cirque de Soleil presentation of man’s life journey was wonderful. I believe IMAX features rotate.

If you are a VA Beach local, you might want to ask about museum membership so that you can make multiple visits for a cheaper price. With an IMAX movie, a family could spend the better part of an afternoon at this museum. A great activity when it’s cold (or very hot) outside!

Cape Henry was built in 1791 and marks the site where the Jamestown colonists first landed in the New World in 1607. George Washington himself had a hand in getting federal funds for the Cape Henry project approved. While no longer in operation, the lighthouse remains a towering octagon at the junction of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean on the small military base of Fort Story. Now maintained by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, Cape Henry is open for tourists to walk to the top for a small admissions fee.

Buy tickets at:
583 Atlantic Avenue
Fort Story, Virginia

Phone:
(757) 422-9421

Hours:
November 1-March 15 10-4 p.m.
March 16-October 31 10-5 p.m.
Lighthouse closed from December 5-January 4.

There is also a small gift shop at the lighthouse.

The Shamrock 2000 was my first marathon, and it was chosen for its flat course. Due to Virginia Beach’s central location, many members of my family were also able to drive from various points up and down the Eastern Seaboard to cheer me on. Having family support made my experience more special, and the course is laid out such that supporters can easily move to different points along the way to yell out a runner’s name and help keep him/her going. My brother and his fiancée actually waited for me at the 23-mile mark. When I began to run by, they jumped onto the road and ran the next mile of the race beside me!

This would not have been possible at a larger marathon because it might have been disruptive to others in the race. At the Shamrock, however, runners are widely spaced toward the end, and I got a great energy boost that helped me keep running. If 26.2 miles is a bit too much distance for you to run but you’d still like to participate in a race, the Shamrock Sportsfest also offers a marathon and 5k walk as well as an 8K run that attracts elite athletes from all around the world. There is a child's sprint available, too. In 2000 this sprint took place during the marathon, however, so another adult that is not running with you would need to be available to supervise any children you might have signed up for the kids’ race. Also be aware that it is typically cold in Virginia Beach in March. Spectators will want to bundle up. Runners will find a windbreaker, hat and gloves especially useful. There were many runners in shorts, but know that if you choose this type of apparel, and the weather conditions are typical, you are not going to be very comfortable in the staging area before the start of the race. You might want to wear some disposable clothing to shed as the morning heats up. I actually had on a sweatshirt underneath my windbreaker that became too hot to wear after just a couple of miles of running. This was tossed to relatives waving at me from the sidewalk at Rudee’s Inlet (another good thing about having a support team watching out for you!).

Regardless of your time goal, you will have six hours to complete the race and have your time officially recorded. No matter what the time clock says, however, or how your knees feel in the end, you will be extremely proud of yourself when you run across the finish line. It will feel wonderful to have reached your distance goal. It will feel wonderful to know that you are a part of an elite group of runners who have taken on the 26.2-mile challenge and succeeded. It will feel wonderful to STOP RUNNING!