Evening Beach Adventure in Norfolk, Virginia

On one of our last nights in Norfolk, Virginia, I went to the beach. Martin and I had gone to this beach a couple days before and discovered its beauty during the day. This time, we didn’t arrive to the beach until after 6:30 p.m.

I had never been to a beach in the evening before.

All of my beach experiences consisted of arriving as early as possible – which usually meant around Noon – eating lunch on the beach and baking in the afternoon sun.

I must say, I enjoy night beach adventures even more than day beach adventures.

First of all, I didn’t have to obsessively reapply sunscreen.

Second of all, the ocean is even more beautiful at dusk. The sun set over the water, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was in the background, I saw a couple dolphins swimming in the setting sun’s rays, and everything was peaceful.

I also discovered that badminton is pretty much the best game to bring to a beach. It is light, fairly compact, and easy to play in the sand. I could have played it all night. Now, a glow-in-the-dark set would be even better at night!

I also enjoy having a couple of beers on the beach at night more so than during the day. Beer and the afternoon sun wipes me out, but beer and the evening sky over a nearly empty beach is a glorious capstone to a day.

The city of Norfolk isn’t on the ocean, so we drove to Virginia Beach (the largest city in Virginia) to find a beach. Virginia Beach is full of public beaches; our friends who live here have checked them out and prefer the beach at First Landing State Park.

First Landing State Park has a gorgeous sandy beach that looks at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. I’m fascinated with this bridge-tunnel. Apparently, it is named one of the seven engineering wonders of the world!

Crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

We drove over it on our way to Greenville, North Carolina, and it is one of the few things I would gladly pay the $13 toll for again.

The bridge-tunnel is 16 miles long!

Most of the time, it is a bridge, well actually it is two bridges. Each bridge has two lanes hosting vehicles going in one direction. But then, it has two tunnels each one mile long. The tunnels join the four lanes together and reduce them to just two narrow lanes.

Going into the tunnels is a little scary because it gets really narrow and you are supposed to keep your speed up so as not to slow down traffic, which was hard to do! When I entered the first tunnel, I met a semi-truck exiting and the top of the truck was less than 12 inches from the top of the tunnel! Eek! There is even a restaurant and gift shop on the bridge.

When Martin and I first headed out on this crazy adventure, I thought we would spend a lot of time in North Carolina, but so far we have spent a full week in Maine and a full week in Virginia. I love being able to stay with family and friends – especially ones I didn’t know very well. Our time in Norfolk has been magical, largely due to staying with our friends Rob and Leah.

Thank you, Rob and Leah, for introducing me to the wonderful world of evening beach fun!

Now, if I could just remember to take more photos while having fun…

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