Virginia Beach, VA: A Beach City of Surfing, Sand and Soccer
Virginia Beach is an incredibly fun place. The beauty of this city is complimented by a pristine beach and cultural delights. The climate of the area is subtropical, with mild winters and warm summers. It is home to the Virginia Beach Sportsplex that hosts a variety of soccer and hockey games. Soccer scoreboards are alight with colors of the teams and attendance for the games is usually to a packed house. You would think that this type of perfection would have made the city a booming metropolis from the start, but Virginia Beach had a slow and methodical beginning.
The original inhabitants of the area were called the Chesepians and there isn’t much information on this group. It wasn’t until a sea voyage in the early 1600’s that brought a British ship to the area and they chose the name Cape Henry, after then Prince of Wales, Henry Frederick. Later English settlers were also slow to develop the area. The small town grew to a little beach resort area and in the early 1900’s the trolley and railroad businesses became the main lines for people to visit. After the construction of the highways and road systems, more people began to discover the charm of the area as a vacation and tourist spot.
News travels fast when people find a treasured location, and both real estate and tourist investment caused Virginia Beach to blossom. The U.S. Government established a Naval Base which brought additional jobs and revenue to the area.
There is a diverse mixture of cultures in Virginia Beach. This brings a wonderful blend for food, music and history. The area celebrates a higher than average income as compared to the rest of the nation with a lower crime rate. Due to its historic origins, Virginia Beach offers a visitor a rich selection of both modern interests as well as museums. Many of the plantations are still intact, boasting ages of over two hundred years.
The lush calm of the ocean and beaches offer an incredible array of sports; both on and off the beach areas. Their sports complex offers competitions from all areas of sports and they host the East Coast Surfing Championship and North American Sand Soccer Competition every year. The soccer scoreboards in the complex add to the support of the fans for each game. Since the area features bring in many tourists, Virginia Beach has added many golf courses open to the public. Music festivals are another topic that the area prides in. One of the largest music fests in the world are held each year and Virginia Beach rocks to the influx of thousands that attend.
The area has established a wonderful selection of parks for their residents and visitors alike. The parks offer every opportunity to see the natural beauty of the area as well as the specialized eight thousand acre national wildlife refuge.
Virginia Beach is one of the few vacation spots in the world that maintained the integrity of their natural beauty while adding themselves as a top hot spot for all kinds of interests. A visitor to Virginia Beach soon realizes that this is a little golden nugget of enjoyment that will bring them back year after year. This city should be congratulated on the efforts made to keep Virginia Beach rich with history and beauty.
Sources:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Beach,_Virginia
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dr-engineer-001/1520132394
