Suggestions for Hampton, VA

[cmdionne]

Next week I'm going down to Hampton VA with my girlfriend and a couple of her friends to see a Phish show. The g/f and I have tickets for the friday night show, while her friends have tickets for saturday. This leaves us with a free saturday around Hampton. If my buddy in the navy isn't at sea (haven't heard from him, so I think he might be) I'm gonna hang out with him in Norfolk, but I wanted some ideas for fun things to do around Hampton. I've also thought about driving up to Chincoteague Island (I remember someone here went there a few months back) but wanted to know if any of you had some good ideas of what I could do that day WSS or otherwise. Thanks.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I was also considering the zoo in Norfolk, anyone have anything to say about it? Worth checking out?

 

[fishiker]

If you want to spend some time indoors the BassPro is nice.

 

[hollowdweller]

Hampton is cool.

I saw the Dead there in 84,85,86,87,88,and one of the surprise shows they did there 89?

Anyway it's sort of a cold time of year for it but they have a botanical garden there somewhere. Capt. George's if it's still in business is a great place to eat.

We also went to a really cool old Church there that was from the 1600's or 1700's. Fort Monroe is pretty cool also.

Enjoy that Phish show. I have only caught them once. 94 Charleston Municipal Auditorium. But I saw Mike Gordons excellent band at the All Good this year and also on the Public Radio show which is taped live here in Charleston Mountain Stage. Also caught Gordon on Mt. Stage with Leo Kottke.

Hampton was always such a cool venue. In the 80's there was a lot of space between the Red Roof(where we always stayed) and the Coliseum. Tons of people would gather there.

One of the most memorable things was one year there was a bunch of kids there from Canada that had like a 7 or 8 peice steel drum band. They did a smoking version of Santana's Oye Como Va all on steel and when it comes to the part where they yell they would all jump way up in the air with their sticks and hoot. Great times with Jerry.

PS say hi to my sweet spot in the tapers pit I always was at

 

[cmdionne]

Hampton is cool.

I saw the Dead there in 84,85,86,87,88,and one of the surprise shows they did there 89?

Anyway it's sort of a cold time of year for it but they have a botanical garden there somewhere. Capt. George's if it's still in business is a great place to eat.

We also went to a really cool old Church there that was from the 1600's or 1700's. Fort Monroe is pretty cool also.

Enjoy that Phish show. I have only caught them once. 94 Charleston Municipal Auditorium. But I saw Mike Gordons excellent band at the All Good this year and also on the Public Radio show which is taped live here in Charleston Mountain Stage. Also caught Gordon on Mt. Stage with Leo Kottke.

Hampton was always such a cool venue. In the 80's there was a lot of space between the Red Roof(where we always stayed) and the Coliseum. Tons of people would gather there.

One of the most memorable things was one year there was a bunch of kids there from Canada that had like a 7 or 8 peice steel drum band. They did a smoking version of Santana's Oye Como Va all on steel and when it comes to the part where they yell they would all jump way up in the air with their sticks and hoot. Great times with Jerry.

PS say hi to my sweet spot in the tapers pit I always was at

Very cool, I love listening to live Phish stuff from the mid 1990's. I would have loved to see the Dead in the 80's but I was in my single digits age wise.

This is actually the first time I'm seeing Phish, I didn't really start to get into the jam scene until about 2003 (right as they were breaking up), and thought I would never get to see them, so I'm really pumped. I saw Trey, Mike and John at Rothbury this summer, but I was so out of it due to lack of sleep and partying by the last day that I couldn't really enjoy anything. I really did enjoy Fishman with Yonder earlier in the weekend (before I was too out of it), that was a sweet show.

I'm not sure where we're staying (g/f is in charge of that, I know we have a room somewhere), hopefully its the red roof though. Just checked the weather, and it is a little colder than I thought it would be, but will still be a nice escape from the endless Detroit winter. I'll check into that botanical garden though.

 

[hollowdweller]

You can bring the survival ethic to the festivarian lifestyle.

There is a certain art of survival involved in going to a multi day festival and being able to #1 remember it all and #2 be awake enough the last day to appreciate it.

Without going into great detail my secrets are

#1 drink a ton of water.
#2 don't drink too much alcohol
#3 have a couple shots of expresso about 2 hours before the last band goes off but dont' take anything that will keep you up all night and mess up your sleep.
#4 If it's very hot stick with vegitarian food.

 

[cmdionne]

You can bring the survival ethic to the festivarian lifestyle.

There is a certain art of survival involved in going to a multi day festival and being able to #1 remember it all and #2 be awake enough the last day to appreciate it.

Without going into great detail my secrets are

#1 drink a ton of water.
#2 don't drink too much alcohol
#3 have a couple shots of expresso about 2 hours before the last band goes off but dont' take anything that will keep you up all night and mess up your sleep.
#4 If it's very hot stick with vegitarian food.

I actually did what I should have (what you said) except for getting sleep. First off the weather was great, highs in the mid 70's and getting into high 40s at night. I drank more than enough water, drank less than a case of beer over the four days, and no "party favors".

The problem being was that I went with a group of hardcore partiers who would party until dawn and then sleep until late morning, start drinking and then take a nap, maybe catching a band or two at night. I wanted to see music but still hang out, so I would party til dawn and then get up a few hours later and head into the venue. I only got between 2-4 hours of sleep each night, and I was fine until about the last 5 hours of music. A couple more hours of sleep somewhere in there and I would have been golden.

My "survival" skills served me well, I knew I had to take care of my feet (everyone elses were trashed by about day 3), stay hydrated and I realized that I couldn't drink or drug if I wanted to party til dawn and still see all the music I could. I kept my diet simple and easy, jerky and almonds, fruit, cliff bars and gatorade (a little lot food interspersed to keep it interesting). I stayed out of the sun as much as I could. Anyway it was my first multi-day festival and I learned alot, and this year I should be able to make it all the way through.

 

[hollowdweller]

I actually did what I should have (what you said) except for getting sleep. First off the weather was great, highs in the mid 70's and getting into high 40s at night. I drank more than enough water, drank less than a case of beer over the four days, and no "party favors".

The problem being was that I went with a group of hardcore partiers who would party until dawn and then sleep until late morning, start drinking and then take a nap, maybe catching a band or two at night. I wanted to see music but still hang out, so I would party til dawn and then get up a few hours later and head into the venue. I only got between 2-4 hours of sleep each night, and I was fine until about the last 5 hours of music. A couple more hours of sleep somewhere in there and I would have been golden.

My "survival" skills served me well, I knew I had to take care of my feet (everyone elses were trashed by about day 3), stay hydrated and I realized that I couldn't drink or drug if I wanted to party til dawn and still see all the music I could. I kept my diet simple and easy, jerky and almonds, fruit, cliff bars and gatorade (a little lot food interspersed to keep it interesting). I stayed out of the sun as much as I could. Anyway it was my first multi-day festival and I learned alot, and this year I should be able to make it all the way through.

I hear you. When we went to the All Good our camp was so far from the stage we just got up and stayed in the stage area from about 2pm to about 3am they ran the bands so close together.

It's a real art to catch all the music for sure.