Posts Tagged ‘walking in Virginia Beach’
Friday, May 10th, 2013 by Katherine Jackson
Editor’s Note: The month of May signals the start of “FREE & FUN” (two of our favorite words!) just about every weekend in Virginia Beach, and this weekend is a prime example! The soothing sounds of steel drums will fill the air beginning tomorrow evening as the PANorama Carribean Music Festival returns for another two-day run at the 24th Street Seaside Palladium. Grab your beach chairs and plan to relax and get into the island groove! Also returning this weekend is a family favorite: monster trucks on the beach! Kalbones Off Road Monsters On The Beach is loud, fast, and exciting. A course is built right on the beach at 6th Street with bleachers overlooking from the boardwalk. Sand dunes and junk cars combine to make the race course fast and fun for drivers and spectators alike. New for 2013…Freestyle Motocross! Thrill to the high-flying action of freestyle motocross as part of this year’s shows! This is a ticketed event, with prices designed to fit the family budget.
For those who prefer things a bit quieter, Local Walking Tour Guide & author Katherine Jackson shares a blog post about a drive in the country and a walk in the park…………..talk about relaxing!
Take your pick* – we’ve definitely got something for everyone in Virginia Beach. Have a blast and see you on the beach, or in the park! (*pun intended……………read on and you’ll get it!)
A Drive in the Country and a Walk in the Park
 Sunny and warm, last Sunday was a perfect day for a drive in the country and a walk at Munden Point Park. Virginia Beach has a number of outstanding parks – 265 according to the city’s website – but Munden Point Park in the southern part of the City tops the list. Twenty-two miles from the oceanfront, the park is well worth the drive, and a pleasant drive it was – past horses grazing in pastures filled with buttercups, past farm fields growing green with new crops, past crossroads called Pungo, Back Bay, and Creeds. Situated on the North Landing River, the 100-acre park doesn’t have walking trails per se, but I spent more than an hour exploring the riverfront, walking along the wooded edges of the fields, and wandering through landscaped areas where giant azalea bushes attracted scores of butterflies. The park, once famous as a waterfowl hunting site, is now a naturalist’s playground where birders sight herons, orioles, nuthatches, warblers, goldfinches and other species. As I walked along the edge of Oakum Creek, a pair of geese with their young ’uns paddled away from the shore. Parts of the park have been planted as ornamental gardens, but parts are left as tangled woods where cypress trees line the waterfront with their knees pushing out of the water. The park offers lots of amenities – picnic shelters with grills, a disk golf course, canoe rentals and a boat ramp – but a highlight is the view of the river. Benches provide quiet places to sit and watch the wind ruffle across the river and weave through the marsh grasses on the far shore.
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Tags: BeachStreet USA, buy local, family fun, free, fresh fruits & vegtables in Virginia Beach, Monster Trucks on the Beach, Munden Point Park, PANorama Carribean Music Festival, walking in Virginia Beach
Posted in Events, Living the Life, The Beach Report
Monday, March 25th, 2013 by Katherine Jackson
 Sand dollar, shark’s tooth, dolphins, pelicans, and sunny skies: It was another beautiful day in Virginia Beach. Although the morning dawned with a misty rain, by noon the weather front had moved away and carried the clouds with it. We headed for the beach at low tide. A cool breeze was drifting in from the ocean, but the sun was so warm that it almost felt like spring. Wishful thinking, I know, but it won’t be long now. Almost every time I walk on the beach, I drag home some small treasure: a keyhole limpet shell or a piece of sanded beach glass. But this was a banner day on Croatan Beach. I found something I haven’t found in a long time, if ever: a shark’s tooth. According to a guidebook to the coastal environment by Peter Meyer, sharks teeth aren’t from live sharks; instead, they’re “fossil teeth, from sharks living thousands to millions of years ago.” He explains that their skeletons decompose, but the teeth are the hardest substance in their body and “can survive for eons.”
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Tags: beach treasures, walking in Virginia Beach
Posted in Living the Life
Friday, November 30th, 2012 by Katherine Jackson
This week’s Beach Report features local walking guide Katherine Jackson who shares her latest VB walking experience, a trip down the boardwalk through the awesome Holiday Lights at the Beach display. If you haven’t checked it out yet this is a fun, fit way to do it. And don’t forget tomorrow night (12/1) is the Townebank Holiday Parade at the Beach. Bundle up and come out for some hometown, family fun!
‘Tis the Season to Walk the Boardwalk
The Boardwalk is decked with boughs of holiday lights this time of year, making for a festive walk along the Virginia Beach oceanfront. Although “Holiday Lights at the Beach” is designed to be enjoyed by car, the lights go on before the Boardwalk closes to pedestrians at 5:30 each evening. When I walked onto the Boardwalk one afternoon around 4:30, candy canes, nutcrackers, and elves were a-twinkling. There were twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords-a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids-a-milking, seven swans-a-swimming, six geese-a-laying, and five golden rings. You know the rest.
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Tags: BeachStreet USA, Holiday Lights at the Beach, TowneBank Holiday Parade at the Beach, Virginia Beach boardwalk, walking in Virginia Beach
Posted in Events, Living the Life, The Beach Report
Wednesday, September 26th, 2012 by Katherine Jackson
 Cottage - Virginia Beach North End My friend Trish and I set out for a walk on the second day of fall. We couldn’t have asked for better weather: blue sky, warm sun, dry air and a brisk breeze. And what could be more ideal than getting the health benefits of a four-mile walk while catching up with a friend? Knowing that she walks her dog Charlotte every day, I asked Trish to take me on her favorite walk around her neighborhood, a quiet area at the North End of Virginia Beach, about four blocks back from the ocean. As it turned out, Trish’s favorite walk is on the cart path at the Princess Anne golf course, in the evening after the golfers have finished for the day. Two o’clock on a Sunday was not the time for a stroll on the golf course, so we headed toward the beach. Before we left her street, Trish pointed out a tall pine tree where an eagle has perched during the month of September for the past three years. In another tall pine, a pair of osprey built a nest, and on a windy day, Trish found one of their three youngsters flapping around in her flowerbed. It had been blown out of the nest and was trying to fly back. The city’s Animal Control Bureau placed it with a wildlife rehabilitator until it was strong enough to survive. Good thing, because from time to time Trish also sees a grey fox that lives somewhere nearby.
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Tags: Virginia Beach landmarks, walking in Virginia Beach
Posted in Living the Life
Monday, March 5th, 2012 by Katherine Jackson
During the week, the Virginia Beach Municipal Center is a bustling compound with thousands of cars and trucks whizzing in and out of its parking lots. However, on the weekends, when most of the offices and court buildings are closed, it’s a much more peaceful place. With its extensive network of sidewalks and expansive, well-tended lawns, it’s good place to walk. The red brick buildings in the Municipal Center run the gamut, from the Court building to the Fire Station to City Hall, but the landscaping is what makes a walk in the area so enjoyable.
Princess Anne Courthouse photo by Katherine Jackson
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Tags: Princess Anne Courthouse, Virginia Beach Sister City Association, Virginia Beach history, Virginia Beach Municipal Center, Virginia Beach volunteers, walking in Virginia Beach
Posted in History and Museums, Living the Life, The Great Outdoors
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 by Katherine Jackson
On a sunny Saturday  in February, I took a walk on Cape Henry Beach, which is adjacent to the Chesapeake Bay. It’s not a beach I often walk on, and it turned out to be a treat. The sun had coaxed the temperature into the upper fifties, the sky was a cloudless blue, and the air was so clear, I felt as if I could wave to my friends who live across the bay on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. I started my walk via the beach access at the end of West Great Neck Road, and I headed east toward Cape Henry, where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Initially, houses and condos line the beach, but farther along, I passed into First Landing State Park where only sand dunes abut the beach. The warm weather brought out lots of beachwalkers, photographers, dog walkers and a few bird watchers with binoculars. I saw one toddler in a pink sunhat who might have been taking her first beach walk. One man was digging for treasure with a metal detector, and a few people carried buckets for shells. Out on the water, fishing boats skimmed the surface and large cargo ships awaited their turn in port. Flocks of seabirds landed on the beach to look for lunch. All told, I covered 3.92 miles. I know this because I carried my iPod, which has a built-in pedometer and an FM radio. The local public radio station was playing lots of new music, and the reception was outstanding on this clear day. Cape Henry Beach is relatively flat, but it’s a good idea to check a tide chart when planning a walk. Parking is available on some residential streets in this area, including West Great Neck Road. You also can start and finish a walk on this beach via the parking lot at the First Landing State Park Bay Center, where you will pay a small parking fee. I recommend that you take this beach walk in the late afternoon while the sun sets over the bay and turns the sky a hundred shades of yellow, orange, purple and red.
Tags: Beach walks, Cape Henry Beach, First Landing State Park, free things to do in Virginia Beach, walking in Virginia Beach
Posted in Beaches, Living the Life, The Great Outdoors
Friday, February 3rd, 2012 by Katherine Jackson
 This week’s Beach Report is courtesy of ShoreLines blogger and Virginia Beach Walking Tour Guide Katherine Jackson, author of Walking Virginia Beach.
A Whale of a Walk
I can’t make any promises, but I’ve heard that beach walkers at the North End of Virginia Beach have been spotting humpback whales offshore. That’s right, whales off the coast of Virginia! According to a recent newspaper article, Winter Wildlife Boat Trips, sponsored by the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, are reporting record numbers of whale sightings, especially in the waters off Ft. Story. You can see a portion of the ocean at Ft. Story from the beach at Eighty-ninth Street. Humpback whales are described as graceful acrobats that perform dazzling acts such as slapping their flippers and tail on the water; “spy hopping,” which means raising a third of their body above the water to look around like a periscope; and “breaching,” which means launching their entire body out of the water.
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Tags: humpback whales, walking in Virginia Beach, whale watching in Virginia Beach, Winter Wildlife Boat Trips
Posted in Living the Life, The Beach Report, The Great Outdoors
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