Virginia Beach, Virginia Camping Trip: July 15 to July 22, 2023

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and winds long to play with your hair. 

– Kahlil Gibran 

July 15, 2023

Viriginia is for Lovers

We left early in the morning on Saturday, July 15 for the long drive down to Virginia Beach for a week of camping fun with our daughter and her family, who were towing their own travel trailer. The day was hot and humid with occasional light rain. We traveled across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel on our way down and were surprised to see they are drilling a second Thimble Shoal Tunnel next to the original one.

We stayed at the Virginia Beach KOA Holiday campground, about 3.5 miles south of Rudee Inlet and the beach. The campground has a lot of amenities, including a nice playground, camp store, laundry room, bus service to the beach, jumping pad for the kids and a nice outdoor play area with games such as ping pong, corn hole and ladder ball. They are currently building a new swimming pool with a lazy river which should be opening before too much longer. Unfortunately, it was still under construction while we were there, but they had a giant inflatable water slide for the kids to use to make up for the loss of the pool. There was also live music the night we arrived and we enjoyed that a lot. Another plus was the daily text updates we received letting us know each day's activities, which included a different food truck on the premises every day.

Live music at the KOA

From prior experience with KOA campgrounds, we knew to expect campsites to be fairly close to each other, and we were correct in that assumption, although there were many others with more space than the site we had. Our site was shaded, which was nice, but it was also riddled with thick tree roots and we weren't able to set up our site the way we usually do.  The bathhouses were large and clean with plenty of  shower stalls all along one side of the building for all to use.

We generally prefer state park campgrounds, but the KOA was more convenient to the beach, even if it was more expensive than we generally like to spend.

 July 16, 2023

Sunday's forecast was expecting the weather to be hot and humid with some rain, which was exactly what we got. We decided not to take a chance of the beach and went to the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Center instead. It's a really nice aquarium and we enjoyed roaming around the various exhibits and seeing all the sea life.

Later we drove in to Rudee Inlet so our granddaughter and her father could do some crabbing. They did manage to catch a few and gave them to a couple were crabbing next to them. Meanwhile, we strolled along the walkway from the inlet over to the beach to scope things out a bit for our return later in the evening.

Seashore Cathedral mural at Rudee Inlet	"Seashore Cathedral" mural at Rudee Inlet
Mural under the bridge crossing Rudee Inlet

After returning to the campground for dinner with drove back to the beach so we could walk on the "boardwalk" and find some ice cream. We found Kohr Brothers Frozen Custard, which is one of favorites while visiting the Delaware/Maryland shore. We were very pleasantly surprised to find it in Virginia Beach!

If you've never been to Virginia Beach before, you should be aware that their "boardwalk" is not the typical wooden-slatted raised walkway you find in New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. Instead, it's a very broad paved walkway stretching 3 miles along the beach and there is a bicycle path running next to it, divided by a beautiful flora barrier. Also, most of the buildings along the boardwalk are hotels with a few restaurants and an occasional small shop. The main shopping area is a half a block away on Atlantic Avenue. There is live entertainment on the beach every night during the summer and some great sculptures on many of the side streets leading away from the beach.

King Neptune

"School of Fish", one of many sculptures along side streets at the boardwalk

July 17, 2023

Monday was hot and humid with more showers in the forecast. We started off early on a bicycle ride on the General Booth Blvd Trail, which starts a little south of the KOA, then takes you across Rudee Inlet where you can take the bicycle path along the beach up to 40th Street. We completed the 11.9 mile ride in a little over an hour. One of the things we liked about Virginia Beach was the large number of interconnecting bicycle paths. We wished we knew more about them before we left on our trip!

View of Rudee Inlet from the bridge

Our granddaughter isn't a big fan of ocean waves, so we decided to give the beach at First Landing State Park a try. The park received its name because it is believed to be the area in which Captain John Smith and 100 colonists arrived when sailing from London in 1606 to establish the new world's first colony. Upon landing, they were attacked by native warriors and returned to their boats, later settling further inland at Jamestown. 

Although there is a daily fee to use the State Park, we found it was less expensive than either paying for parking in Virginia Beach, or the cost for each of us to take the shuttle bus in to the beach. We just piled all of our things into one truck and drove about 12.5 miles up to the park.

The beach at First Landing leads into the Chesapeake Bay, and as a result the waves and currents are much calmer. Our granddaughter loved it there, so that was a big win for us. We could watch all of the ships rounding the bend from the ocean to head up the bay through passage at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. It wasn't crowded with plenty of space to spread out, and there were bathrooms, the park Visitor Center, and a gift shop with a concession stand.

First Landing State Park Beach

First Landing State Park Beach

Some storm clouds moved in and we had a brief rain shower, after which the sun popped back out. After spending a few hours at the beach we headed back to the campground for dinner, and then went to Shipwreck Golf in the Motor World park just a very short distance up the road from the campground. We were amazed that every one in our party managed to get a hole in one at different spots along the course! We had a great time!

July 18, 2023

Tuesday was expected to be another sunny, hot and humid day, but there was a light breeze in the morning, so we decided to load up our kayaks and head back up to First Landing State Park so we could launch them on Broad Bay. Our daughter and granddaughter did some more crabbing from the dock while we paddled down through the Narrows into Rainey's Gut and explored one of the canals leading in between the homes located there. We spent about an hour and a half on the water, then loaded the kayaks back up for the drive over to the beach where we spent a few more hours enjoying the water.

Kayaking on Broad Bay	Kayaking on Broad Bay
Bird posing for the camera along Rainey's Gut

After returning to the campground we had dinner, then bought some shaved ice from a food truck in the campground. We returned to our  camper where we played some games before retiring for the night.

July 19, 2023

Wednesday's forecast was cloudy with rain, so we decided to drive to Norfolk for the day. First up was a visit to the Nauticus Museum and U.S.S. Wisconsin. Nauticus is a maritime discovery center located on the waterfront in Norfolk. Their mission is to use the museum and the Battleship Wisconsin to "tell the story of maritime environment, industry and the military. We spent a couple of hours exploring the battleship and museum, and then walked along the waterfront where we were able to look at the many large ships docked nearby.

Ship in the harbor Mermaid Sculpture

Ships in the harbor Ships in the harbor

After returning to the campground a storm front moved in bringing with it high winds and heavy rain. We were under a tornado warning, but fortunately the worst of the storm stayed just south of us. We did have some damage to a canopy from the weight of the rain, but the storm quickly moved out to sea and the sun came out again to dry things up.

July 20, 2023

On Thursday another hot and sunny day was predicted, so we returned to the state park beach for the day, relaxing and enjoying the water. After returning to the campground to shower, we headed into Virginia Beach for dinner at Fish Bones for their seafood buffet. We were well satasfied with our meal and all needed to walk off our dinner so we did some shopping along Atlantic Avenue before heading back to the campground for the night and sitting by the campfire.

July 21, 2023

Friday was our last full day in Virginia Beach. Our daughter and her family went to the Ocean Breeze Waterpark for the day. Meanwhile we opted to head back again to First Landing State Park to ride the Cape Henry Trail on our bikes. We also road along the roads in the campground to check out the campsites, then headed to the beach there for one last walk on its shore. After returning to the KOA for  dinner with the family we decided to do another bike ride, this time along the southern end of the General Booth Blvd Trail and into Red Wing Park. After our ride we returned to the campground and started packing up for the ride home the next morning.

Cape Henry Trail View from the trail

Magnolia blossom Cypress swamp along the trail

View from the trail Lunch break at the boat launch

View of the Narrows from the trail One last walk on the beach

We enjoyed our stay in Virginia Beach. There is a ton more things to do and see in the area. We all  plan to return. Our daughter prefers the KOA, but we will likely give the state park a try. There aren't full hook up sites there, but they do have water and electric sites as well as a dump station. The sites were placed widely apart and most had plenty of shade as they were tucked in between the dunes and trees. The KOA is nice, but we'll definitely consider staying at First Landing State Park the next time we're in Virginia Beach!

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