This Weekend in Hampton Roads (Virginia Beach, Norfolk: school, prices, shops)

[dfskinner]

Went to the Beach on Saturday night and walked around Atlantic (Don't forget about the $1.00 residents beach parking at 9th and 25th parking lots, just show your DL w/Va Beach address). A lot of young people out, wife and I wanted to see what changed on Atlantic, several new stores for the year; Harley Davidson, Candy Spot etc.....

We also went to the Strawberry Festival in Pungo on Sunday, very nice, seemed bigger than previous years. Got there a little late, approx 5:45pm, things were getting ready to close down, next year we need to go earlier.

Went back to the beach Monday evening, walked our dog on the boardwalk. Still lots of people even on Monday evening.

All in all good time had by everyone. We've been living here for over 20 years and things just see to be going on earlier, I'm looking at the calendar of events for the beach and norfolk; seems far to few events in late Jul and early Aug. You'd think they'd spread these things out and not compete against each other, just our two cents....

[Rita Mordio]

This year at the Strawberry Festival, I was seriously about to give people a taste of my mind. Anyone who's kept up with current events knows that our local farmers lost over half of their strawberry crops (some lost ALL) because of a nasty fungus outbreak.

I kept hearing, "If this is the Strawberry Festival, why can't we buy fresh strawberries?" and other rude comments about the shortage. In case anyone didn't realize this: A Fungus took out a LARGE NUMBER of Strawberries.

Take a look at grocery stores that usually carry local produce. You'll find that there are none! All of the strawberries are either from Florida or California. Take a look at the strawberries at the Farmers' Markets - not exactly what you'd expect.

Sorry, had to rant a little bit - 'cause that really ticked me off.

dfskinner, yes, it does seem quite silly to have a ton of events going on at the same time. What this means is more choices for us whom live here and those of us looking to vacation here. While we are in a huge "Sister City" area - each individual city seems to love this competition amongst ourselves. Also, events that will draw a larger crowd usually occur on weekends with high predicated tourism.

I will have to add that I never realized how "famous" our beloved Mt. Trashmore was until this past weekend.

[Rita Mordio]

This weekend is the Black Beard Pirate Festival in Hampton! Right off of Settlers Landing Rd, this is a great festival for pirates of all ages! I've gone to this festival for the past several years - it is amazing. There will be events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The event is free! ((Kuharai would probably attend this year if her husband wasn't all festival-ed out))

Down at the "oh-so-fab" Towne Center in Virginia Beach, the Second Annual Art and Wine Festival at the Fountain event will take place on Saturday. I swear this has to be the third or fourth event at Towne Center that involved Art and Wine this year!

And now appearing in Buckroe Beach in Hampton, the First Annual Sand Soccer Shootout! This will be held on Saturday and Sunday.

I'm guessing that not much is going on because it is not a high tourist week and the Pirate Festival is huge.

As the week progresses, if I see more events pop up, I'll be sure to post them!

[janeannwho]

Originally Posted by Kuharai

This weekend is the Black Beard Pirate Festival in Hampton! Right off of Settlers Landing Rd, this is a great festival for pirates of all ages! I've gone to this festival for the past several years - it is amazing. There will be events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The event is free! ((Kuharai would probably attend this year if her husband wasn't all festival-ed out))

Down at the "oh-so-fab" Towne Center in Virginia Beach, the Second Annual Art and Wine Festival at the Fountain event will take place on Saturday. I swear this has to be the third or fourth event at Towne Center that involved Art and Wine this year!

And now appearing in Buckroe Beach in Hampton, the First Annual Sand Soccer Shootout! This will be held on Saturday and Sunday.

I'm guessing that not much is going on because it is not a high tourist week and the Pirate Festival is huge.

As the week progresses, if I see more events pop up, I'll be sure to post them!

The Irish band Fiddlers Green will be hitting local Irish pubs over the weekend. They are orginally from Ireland, but the members have gone their separate ways over the years and are reuniting this year for a tour. They will only be here for the weekend and then , poof, gone. So Friday night I will be jigging with the Irisha and Saturday I will be horn piping with the Pirates. Whooohooooo!

[damian]

Also, this weekend is the 41st annual Newport News Greek festival. Located off of J Clyde Morris Blvd near I-64, the Greek festival attracts 20,000 people from Thursday to Sunday. The event is free, there is great Greek food, sweets, Greek music and dancing, as well as a huge marketplace/bazaar inside the Church's banquet Hall. It is a great time for the entire family

[janeannwho]

Originally Posted by Kuharai

This year at the Strawberry Festival, I was seriously about to give people a taste of my mind. Anyone who's kept up with current events knows that our local farmers lost over half of their strawberry crops (some lost ALL) because of a nasty fungus outbreak.

I kept hearing, "If this is the Strawberry Festival, why can't we buy fresh strawberries?" and other rude comments about the shortage. In case anyone didn't realize this: A Fungus took out a LARGE NUMBER of Strawberries.

Take a look at grocery stores that usually carry local produce. You'll find that there are none! All of the strawberries are either from Florida or California. Take a look at the strawberries at the Farmers' Markets - not exactly what you'd expect.

Sorry, had to rant a little bit - 'cause that really ticked me off.

dfskinner, yes, it does seem quite silly to have a ton of events going on at the same time. What this means is more choices for us whom live here and those of us looking to vacation here. While we are in a huge "Sister City" area - each individual city seems to love this competition amongst ourselves. Also, events that will draw a larger crowd usually occur on weekends with high predicated tourism.

I will have to add that I never realized how "famous" our beloved Mt. Trashmore was until this past weekend.

Well as we had no idea there was a Strawberry Festival and just happened upon it, we did find it disappointing that there was a lack of strawberries, but it is good to know it was by default and not design. I guess I would have liked a sign or something to tell us that there was a strawberry fungus. It was a nice festival indeed. Last year we went to the Peanut festival in Suffolk and discovered very few peanut related things there, so we thought it was a trend.

[Rita Mordio]

Originally Posted by janeannwho

Well as we had no idea there was a Strawberry Festival and just happened upon it, we did find it disappointing that there was a lack of strawberries, but it is good to know it was by default and not design. I guess I would have liked a sign or something to tell us that there was a strawberry fungus. It was a nice festival indeed. Last year we went to the Peanut festival in Suffolk and discovered very few peanut related things there, so we thought it was a trend.

I think they might not have wanted to put up a sign because it might actually hurt the festival more because people might have a "these might be tainted as well" sort of response.

On any normal year, there's tons of strawberries and strawberry-related stuff. This has been the first year in a long time that I haven't left with 5+lbs of strawberries.

Yes, it was pretty disappointing... but very understandable.

[ptowngirl]

I went to the Blackbeard Pirate Festival yesterday and all in all it was quite fun and interesting. It was HOT though -- I felt sorry for all of the pirates in their long sleeves and long pants! Being it was so hot, too, I found it ironic that the wonderful fireworks display was cancelled due to high winds (I was really looking forward to them too!) :-( The music at the festival was nice and it was neat to see everyone decked out in their pirate garb. Like I said, all in all a great time!

[Erma]

Oh yea, we are very careful with fireworks and high winds in this area. Got to be careful, as we do have alot of house fires in the winter months and one townhome can take em' all down! Go to waterside the 4th of July or Mt. trashmore if you like fireworks. People picnic all day at Trashmore and the fire works are worth the wait!

[BikesareBetter]

Ft. Monroe rocks the show as well in terms of 4th of July Fireworks. It is in Hampton. Try and get through that tunnel on the 4th you aint gonna get no where. (wow, that is good English)