Swamps get a bad rap for being hot, humid, and stinky and a terrible place to be in summer. But don't believe it! Swamp Stomp at First Landing State Park this summer has been a blast. For those who aren't familiar with the concept: the program involves a short hike through the woods, under trees laden with Spanish moss. The park ranger hauls up big netfuls of muck from the bottom of the swamp and spreads it on the boardwalks. Then you root through it to search for the water bugs, amphibians, and invertebrates that live there.

This event is super hands on, and kids are encouraged to touch and explore, to gently hold and examine the things they find and compare them to pictures and information provided by the ranger, who does her best to make sure that everybody finds something! Anouk found a tadpole (with legs, halfway through metamorphosis!) and a couple of water scorpions and man, you would have thought she'd found gold nuggets. I love to see her getting less squeamish with bugs and squiggly things and to learn about the landscape that she lives in.




Besides learning about swamp life, we also heard, as we hiked, some fun facts about the dune ecosystem of the park, the variety of trees and vegetation (did you know this is the farthest north Spanish moss can grow?), and water quality (did you also know that the tannins in leaves make the swamp water super pure to drink? -- but I'm not going to try it any time soon).

Swamp Stomp is held at the park every Tuesday and Friday throughout the summer and is only one of the fantastic programs that First Landing puts on. Check out the full roster of offerings here.

PS: BUG SPRAY. We've found picaridin to be the best against mosquitoes, ticks, and those awful biting flies.

We've been on vacation for the past week! We go to the Outer Banks of North Carolina every year so you would think that we've seen everything there is to see there. But we're still making discoveries of new and cool places to visit! Flippers Arcade is one of those places. It's not in the Outer Banks but on the way, in Grandy, which is the perfect place for a pit stop on the way home to keep the fun going.

Flippers isn't huge but it is packed with arcade games. There are traditional skee ball and air hockey and a few racing games but the real highlight are the dozens of pinball machines that line the back and side walls. There are over 60 machines in all, and seeing all of them was almost as fun as playing them. There was a Metallica pinball machine, South Park, Flintstones, and Game of Thrones, among others. In the way back of the store are some vintage arcade games, including Asteroids, Cetepede,  Pac-Man and Tron.






My only complaint was that the tokens work out to be a little pricey, since almost every game requires two (to four) to play. And not many machines give tickets so the kids were a little upset when it came time to trade them in, there weren't many options for low ticket counts. Luckily there's pizza and soda and ice cream and candy available for purchase which you can distract them with.

The Atlantic Coast Kite Festival is one of the things that makes the Virginia Beach area so special! It's a two-day event in early May each year (for 13 years running), the first day at the Oceanfront being the one that appeals to most of the professionals and the biggest crowds. But the second day, at Portsmouth City Park, is the one we like as it's smaller and more kid-friendly (and easier to find parking, which is a big factor with kids, let's be honest.) We went last weekend with friends and the kids in our group are still talking about it almost two weeks later.

There are several different areas at the Portsmouth festival: one for amateurs with their homemade and store-bought kites, and one for the pros, with their giant sky-dancing creations. There's a judging ring: for the kite competition, with prizes for beginners all the way up, and a spot for kids to compete in the parachute race. There's a kiosk where you can learn to make your own kite from master kite-builder Archie Stewart. And in between there's all the fun that Portsmouth City Park has to offer.

But you don't need to wait for May to fly a kite in Hampton Roads! We love any beach or Mt. Trashmore for flying ours. Where are your favorite kite-flying spaces?

One of our favorite hangouts this winter and early spring has been Outlook Beach at Fort Monroe. It all started when our friend Sam visited one day in February and saw a pod of migrating humpback whales swimming through the shipping channel! Well, after that we all had to go and try to spot them. And spot them we did, many times, even up close enough once or twice to hear the sound of their spray.

The whales moved on as spring approached but the boats are still there, in the channel that runs right by the beach, and that's almost as cool for little ones. From big container ships to small tug boats to teeny tiny sailboats, they're all there. Tons of boats go by every hour, close enough again for the kids to see the words on the side and imagine all the types of cargo on board.

As far as actual beach attributes go: Outlook Beach is clean. It's a small beach, really just a strip of sand, but that makes it more accessible for little legs. It is also bordered by a concrete boardwalk that's the perfect place to ride a bike or scooter. The breakwater rocks make sheltered little swimming or wading areas with the mildest of waves. Parking is ample (so far, summer may be a different story) and close by. And surrounding the beach is the awesome scenery of one of America's oldest and most historic forts.

Speaking of Fort Monroe, there are some really awesome events coming up, including concerts by the water, living history tours, and memorial day flag raising. Check them all out here.

Would it surprise you to learn that one of the prettiest and remote beaches in the HRVA area is just a few minutes from Downtown Hampton? Grandview Nature Preserve starts out with a walk down a gravel path that begins in a neighborhood but by the time you reach the beach, a half mile away, you have left it all behind. The two-mile stretch of beach is pristine, covered with driftwood and shells and clean fresh sand. You hear the cheeps of birds and the grasses moving in the breeze but not much else. It's like a world into itself.

Grandview wasn't always so remote. Back in the 1800s, Grandview was a swinging social destination. There were parties and dances in the glow from the old lighthouse and dozens of painters set up their easels to paint it. You can walk to what remains of that old lighthouse from when it finally succumbed to erosion and disrepair in the '50s, a lonely pile of rocks standing a few yards offshore. It's kind of eerie to look at them -- if you stare long enough you can almost see the old light standing up from them again.

The nature preserve covers 475 acres of salt marsh and wetlands, and there is excellent canoeing through the inlets. Besides that, it's a good place to observe migratory birds and sea turtles (be sure to save this number in your phone before you go  -- it's not out of the ordinary to see wildlife stranded and in need of help). In summer the swimming is great but the walk down to the beach may be too far for very little ones in the heat.

To read another local blogger's take on Grandview (and see her gorgeous pics), click here! Have you been to Grandview Nature Preserve? How did it compare to other area beaches, in your view?

We started off the new year by looking back -- way back --  with a walk along Fossil Beach at York River State Park. The park itself is gorgeous and home to some of the only "real" hiking in the Hampton Roads area, and well worth a visit just for the scenery, but an added draw is the cliffs along the York River that are dotted with fossils that formed 5.3 million years ago during the Pliocene epoch of the Cenozoic era.

The visit starts off with a short hike (1.5 miles or so; less than half that when the Mattaponi trail isn't closed due to damage), though the steep steps down to the beach may require help for the littlest kids. We spent some time looking through the fossils that previous hunters had found and left near the stairs and saw some treasures -- ray dental plates, scalloped Chesapecten jeffersonius shells (state fossil of Virginia!), even a few shark teeth (it's rumored that you can find Megalodon teeth at Fossil Beach if you're lucky enough).

For the first few minutes of our visit it seemed like the beach was just any other beach, covered in the same old rocks and shells, with fish jumping and crabs scuttling. But with a closer look we started to see what we'd come for: fanlike imprints and tiny holes in the rock that were sponge borings and bryzoans, ancient barnacles and brachiopods and even a few hunks of bone and coral.



 I recommend doing a little research before you go so that you know what you're looking for -- this is a good site. We stopped and looked things up as we went, thank you iphone, but I have a feeling there might have been a lot we missed without even knowing that we missed it. The tide was out when we visited (good timing because at high tide most of the beach is under water) and there was literally something to see on every rock or under every driftwood log. You can't keep the fossils you find in the park, but we did take lots of photos and next time we might try to bring along materials to make fossil rubbings.

I've lived in the HRVA area my whole life and never heard about the fossils at York River State Park. So exciting to discover them! What a way to start the new year, with a new find and new adventures. We're looking forward to more of them in 2016.


York River State Park will be hosting a fossil frenzy hike in February and another one in April. Details here. Mark your calendars!