Posted By HR Partnership on June 14, 2009

by Terry Bishirjian, Director of Communications, City of Norfolk, Virginia

I always say: the people God loves, He brings to Hampton Roads. Having grown up in a 1500-resident town in Illinois, attending college in San Francisco, building a 20+ year career in Washington, D.C., I and my PhD-holding entrepreneurial husband were looking for a home for the closing third of our lives.

We were looking for great people, weather and opportunity. We needed the arts, a community with a world view, and all of the resources of a big city, with none of the pretension, congestion, or corruption that detract from so many wonderful places.

We wanted natural beauty and cosmopolitan restaurants; farmers markets and top quality retail; antiquarian bookstores and internationally renowned cultural attractions; and we wanted a dream home where two people who had never made a single decision based on money could flourish and enjoy an idyllic quality of life on an extremely limited budget.

All of this we found in Hampton Roads.

From our waterfront balcony we watch the magnificent aircraft carriers of the world’s greatest Navy and largest Naval base churn their way out to sea on their global peacekeeping missions, as international cruise ships glide past them on their way to Norfolk’s downtown cruise terminal. Where else in the world can you see five carriers in port, where else can visitors stroll off-ship, walk three blocks and shop at Nordstrom’s?

Turn east and in 20 minutes nestle into a lounge chair on Virginia Beach and relax to the pulsing waves of the Atlantic Ocean; head north and in 30 minutes reenter the colonial days of Colonial Williamsburg or continue to New Kent County, just up the road, and enjoy the thunder of Thoroughbred racing at Colonial Downs; head west and climb into the Blue Ridge and embark on the Appalachian Mountains; go south and within an hour let the winds of the Atlantic blow you along the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Three hours’ drive or a 30-minute airplane hop and you are in Washington, D.C. New York is an hour away in flight.

Go for a sail on the spectacular Chesapeake Bay — the world’s greatest aquifer, blasted into an environmental treasure and wildlife sanctuary by a meteor eons ago.

Try to count the species of birds wings spread riding the winds aloft, diving into the Bay to grasp a silvery meal of tasty fish, or flapping their way north or south on their annual sojourns from Brazil to Maine.

Walk the beaches, soothed by the shifting sands and the timeless ebb and flow of the surf, washing all cares away. Pause and study the infinite variety of marine life contained in a small cove or a child’s pail of water.

Grab your golf clubs and enjoy the thousands of courses along the mid-Atlantic Coast. Play tennis year-round. Bike to the beach, to work or join the long-distance riders winding their way over hundreds of miles of scenic country roads.

Stroll the world-famous Norfolk Botanical Gardens, drop in on an elephant at the Virginia Zoo, marvel at the finest collection of glass in the universe at the Chrysler Museum, slip into Chrysler Hall for a performance of the Virginia Symphony, or head over to Harbor Park for a triple-A baseball game, or to Scope for hockey.

Let Hampton Roads breathe its life into you.

Categories: Visit HR
Tags: Hampton Roads, Norfolk, Tourism