This year we decided to celebrate the 4th of July at the beach and spend a few days enjoying the ocean. We left early Friday morning and arrived at Virginia Beach in the afternoon. Many people went to Virginia beach for the 4th of July weekend so it was pretty packed. As you can see in the picture below, hundreds of people are swimming and relaxing along the beach.
The weather was beautiful, but by the time we unpacked and had dinner, it had changed.
However, the storm ended quickly and we had a chance to enjoy a beautiful rainbow over the ocean.
The next day was just perfect. It was warm and sunny with a nice warm breeze. We did some roller blading in the morning and spent a lot of time on the beach taking a break in the afternoon.
There were a lot of people on the beach, but it didn’t feel crowded because of the size of the beach.
A guy next to us was building a sand castle. The sand was drying off quickly and his castle started drooping.
The waves in the ocean were not perfect for the boogie boards, but we still had a few good rides.
There was the Sandstock festival on the boardwalk at this time, so we spent a couple evenings walking there and listening the live music. It was quite a walk on the boardwalk.
The Sandstock festival is a Tribute to Rock & Roll, a beach-inspired variation on “Woodstock.” This year Sandstock featured nationally and regionally renowned tribute artists covering Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Fleetwood Mac and Chicago on two beach stages at the Virginia Beach oceanfront.
This is the ZZ Top tribute band.
A Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd.
This is the next morning. It was stormy and rainy all day, but there were many people walking on the boardwalk, enjoying the music and playing on the beach.
We went to the gift shop to buy some sweat shirts and stopped at the Raven restaurant for lunch.
In the Shack bar below, there was Jumbo Jenga, cornhole, cold drinks and live music… not to mention Thirsty Thursdays with $3 Orange Crushes. In the picture below, people are playing cornhole.
It was pretty crowded at the Chix Seaside Grille & Bar restaurant. People were gathered for food, drinks, and live music.
In the evening we walked to the Sandstock festival site again to listen to live music and stopped next to one of the many pieces of artwork along the boardwalk.
We walked almost to the South end of the boardwalk and took some pictures next to Neptune’s statue. Last time we stayed in a hotel close to this statue. This time we were staying in a hotel located on the other end of the boardwalk. Actually, we like our current location better. It is much quieter and has more room on the beach.
Getting closer to Sandstock.
Here is a view of one of the Sandstock stages. Merchandise vendors were featured on the beach as well.
The ocean is exciting to watch at any time, no matter what the weather is like.
Such a cute dog was lying on the beach.
Chicago tribute band.
Fleetwood Mac tribute band.
It was pretty crowded there, but it seems like everyone had fun.
On the boardwalk, walking back to our hotel.
The 4th of July was chilly and breezy, but it warmed up by the evening. We didn’t risk going into the water, although some people on the beach were a little crazier than us.
On a day like this, we just enjoyed Dave’s delicious gourmet meals while viewing the ocean. Dave is the best cook ever!
We also tried some local cuisine. Here were we visiting the authentic Mexican restaurant, which was very good.
We couldn’t miss having some ice-cream from DQ on our way to the concerts or while walking on the boardwalk.
Everywhere in the United States on July 4th people celebrate our nations independence with the day always ending with fireworks. In Virginia Beach, ships out in the ocean launched hundreds of fireworks while people crowded along the boardwalk and beach to watch. The fireworks on the beach were really nice!
We brought our portable chairs and felt very comfortable watching the fireworks.
The hot dogs from the street vendors never tasted so good on our way back to the hotel. 🙂
The day after the 4th of July was just beautiful, but it was time for us to leave. Someone wrote “Happy Birthday Blair” on the sand. Isn’t it sweet?
And ooohh, the sky and the sand were glorious the day we left!
We still spent some time on the beach, enjoying the sun, ocean, boogie boards and playing Frisbee. Virginia Beach is our favorite local beach. We always have so much fun there! The only drawback is it takes about 5 hours with the traffic to get there, but we will be back. 🙂
