Grew up there in the 1980s. Typical suburban sprawl in most areas - no car = no life. I can't think of a single part of town where that isn't the case. There are some places in Norfolk that are a bit more "city-like" (Ghent, over by Old Dominion U etc) but it's largely indistinguishable from any other 'burb city.
The beaches do such - they have to haul in sand every year to replace the stuff that washed out during the winter.
City: Virginia Beach
22mr.arrison wrote:Foldyourarmsandsaynah wrote:Norfolk was 61.7% for Kerry/Edwards, 37.4% Bush.
True, but Norfolk is an urban enclave and it's relatively diverse (even if it still seems to vote less progressive/liberal than 90% of the other east coast urban areas). Virginia Beach went 59.1% for Bush, 40.2% for Kerry, even moreso Bush-leaning than the very conservative Richmond suburbs like Henrico County. I'm just saying in my experience, I met the worst examples of Military right-wing nutjobs in "Hampton Roads"
Plus there's the "Regent University" empire in Virginia Beach. Oookie.
That said, I'm sticking to my opinion that Virginia Beach has the best mini golf known to humankind:
Oh, I was just responding to earlier in the thread when you said that if it wasn't for Norfolk/Virginia Beach Kerry could have taken Virginia. Virginia Beach, sure. Norfolk, no. Can't we just blame the entire western portion of the state, instead?
City: Virginia Beach
23whiskerando wrote:That said, I'm sticking to my opinion that Virginia Beach has the best mini golf known to humankind
to your point, in my time here I have worked at two different miniature golf courses. i was not trying to work at miniature golf courses. i got both jobs through friends or acquaintances. there are just that many mini golf places.
i've never gotten too caught up in towns. i can enjoy myself or be bored just about anywhere. virginia beach has some nice spots, some horrid shit, some great people, some assholes. i haven't noticed a trend that's more prominent than any other place i've visited.
if the point of this thread was to visit? don't visit. way cooler places to visit that aren't much further away. while working at one of the aforementioned mini golf places i would deal with loads of tourists and so very many of them were from Quebec that i finally just asked one guy "you know there are better beaches on your way here and past here right?" "Oui" "why come here?" "eh, vaycayshun uh?"
To that point I always noticed that the Queblowmes that have come down to visit have always been pretty nice and a pleasure to talk to either when I was working or when I'd start talking to them at the bars.
But I still don't know why they come here. The New England beaches are more interesting and anything south of us has a lower grime to saltwater ratio. Maybe they're just happy to be the hell out of canada. Maybe it's cheaper here than some other beaches.
City: Virginia Beach
24Foldyourarmsandsaynah wrote:whiskerando wrote:if the point of this thread was to visit? don't visit. way cooler places to visit that aren't much further away. while working at one of the aforementioned mini golf places i would deal with loads of tourists and so very many of them were from Quebec that i finally just asked one guy "you know there are better beaches on your way here and past here right?" "Oui" "why come here?" "eh, vaycayshun uh?"
To that point I always noticed that the Queblowmes that have come down to visit have always been pretty nice and a pleasure to talk to either when I was working or when I'd start talking to them at the bars.
But I still don't know why they come here. The New England beaches are more interesting and anything south of us has a lower grime to saltwater ratio. Maybe they're just happy to be the hell out of canada. Maybe it's cheaper here than some other beaches.
They might be making stops on an unhurried drive down to Florida, where the Journal de Montréal is distributed in substantial numbers and poutine can even be found. New England beaches hold little appeal for people who can go freeze their ass off on coarse sand much closer to home. My best guess is that Quebec people don't like things fancy and thus find low-key, populist and downmarket tourist destinations particularly comfortable. Cheap is a good guess too -- people here don't make that much.
My mom, who spent most of her summers in Wildwood NJ when she was a kid, remembers when Quebec people first started to show up there in large numbers after I-87 was finished. A motel down from her aunt's house remodeled and renamed itself "Le Motel Bleu" and everyone thought it was impossibly European and sophisticated to have francophones walking around.