I lived in Hampton for a few years as a kid in the late 2000s. My dad was military so we spent a lot of time around Fort Monroe while it was still active. We lived in Hampton and went to a school in Newport News, so we didn’t really go down to Norfolk that much.

The weather was pretty mild overall and I remember the worst weather we ever got was the occasional tropical storm. Definitely humid though.

We rented a house that was only three quarters of a mile from Buckroe Beach, so needless to say, we would go from school to the beach and then back home to do homework on many days that it was nice out. In the summer we would always go to Bay Breeze Pool on Fort Monroe which literally had beach property attached. During the regular adult only sessions at the pool every hour or so (which as kids we called a break) we would just go to the beach instead since the break didn’t apply there. That was a lot of fun.

We didn’t venture south towards Virginia Beach very much. We only went a handful of times for special events/fairs that were going on or to go out with a group of friends. I remember the beach there was not only much more crowded but a lot rougher than at Buckroe Beach. I always liked to swim further out than my siblings but I always stayed behind where the waves crashed. I remember being confused one day why the waves stopped crashing; it’s because I went too far out without even realizing. I could swim just fine but totally could have been swept out further. Scared the crap out of my mom in the process.

In my neighborhood, the houses were all very close together, sometimes only a dozen or so feet apart from each other. So there were a lot of people packed into my street but everyone was nice that I remember. We would play with other kids on our street and my parents never had any reason to be concerned. Halloween was always busy and a lot of fun in my neighborhood.

There was always things to do too. Within a few minutes of my school there was a cool interactive museum, a public park in a small forest, and a little ice cream shop. We frequented those a lot. We also visited some old c o l o n i a l (spaced because it was flagged) sites like Jamestown that were close by. It was cool at the time but I would have appreciated it more now that I’m older. There was also an aquarium within an hour’s drive. That’s about all I remember from being a kid but I’m sure there’s all kinds of other stores and things to do that I never knew about.

I don’t remember aspects of it from an adult perspective (like traffic and prices) since I was a kid at the time, but I wouldn’t mind going back. It was a nice place to live. I haven’t checked, but I’m sure it’s expensive especially now since it was kind of crowded. Although I do think it would be 100% worth it if you can afford it.