Over the Christmas holiday last year, my family and I took a quick overnight in the Hampton Roads area of Southeast Virginia. The main purpose of our trip was to visit the light show at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens!
We started our journey a few days after Christmas.
After a three hour trip down I-95 and I-64, we pulled into Yorktown, the site of the British surrender during the Revolutionary War!
The small town is surrounded by the National Battlefield and has a lovely waterfront with several shops and restaurants.
We grabbed lunch at the Yorktown Pub before taking a short walk along the York River. Christmas in this town was lovely, but nowhere near as busy as Summer.
Before leaving, we walked up from the Riverbank to Mobjack Bay Coffee Roasters.
The building looked like an old house and the coffee shop seemed to retain that character.
I had never been a few blocks off the river, so we spent some time exploring around the coffee shop.
From Yorktown we still had about an hour left to our hotel. Our route took us down Interstate 64 and onto 264, right past Virginia’s tallest building!
We were staying at the Moxy Hotel in Virginia Beach. In browsing Marriott hotels, the oceanfront rooms at this hotel were significantly cheaper than I would’ve thought.
I had never stayed at a Moxy Hotel before and I was impressed! The hotel makes you check in at the bar and even gives you a coupon for a free drink for everyone staying in the room. I have since stayed at a few and they all retain this fun character.
Exclusive to the Virginia Beach location is a slide in the lobby! It was really random, but much appreciated.
As promised in our booking, the room was facing the ocean!
It was relaxing to just sit and listen to the waves, even if it was barely above freezing.
After a bit of time in the room, we were back in the lobby to claim our free drinks from the hotel bar.
Since it was a few days after Christmas, it was adorned with Christmas decorations.
As the sun started to set, we prepared for the Christmas lights at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens.
We swung by the room to layer up and I grabbed a photo of the dark ocean with stars on the horizon.
On our way out of the hotel, the last rays of the sunset lit up the elevator bank.
From the ocean, it was about half an hour to the botanical gardens. My parents had visited during normal operation, but it was my first time.
I can’t say much about the garden itself, but the lights were stunning!
I especially liked this one part of the trail that made it look like you were underwater:
The whole walkthrough took a little over an hour.
As the Botanical Gardens are right next to the Norfolk Airport, we spent some time watching the planes before heading back to the hotel.
I was up bright and early the next morning to catch the sunrise over the ocean.
I grabbed this photo then promptly went back to sleep.
A few hours later, with the sun fully up, the view looked like this.
My family and I took a cold walk along the boardwalk.
We checked out of the hotel and I grabbed a few photos from around the property.
Before we left Virginia Beach, we stopped for breakfast at this little diner. There are tons around the area so take your choice!
After, we started the trek back up to Northern Virginia with a quick stop in downtown Norfolk.
We didn’t really do anything too exciting, but I had never been to the city and it was cool to check out.
Our last stop was a glow-in-the-dark mini golf course at the Virginia Beach Town Center.
I’m not the biggest mini-golf fan, but my sister is and it ended up being pretty fun!
Once completed, we stopped grabbed some coffee and made the last two and a half hour drive back up to Northern Virginia.
Turquoise Skies 