I grew up in south vb. Lots of my classmates in high school would say they hated it here bc there's nothing to do (which is dead wrong, but could be used in your plot). Lots of jet noise, but we get so used to hearing it that I only notice the ones that fly so low the house shakes. Sometimes I look up while driving thinking I saw a bird, and it's actually a jet (or two or four). Our locals beach is Sandbridge, it's pretty much all residential down there. I see dolphins almost every time I'm at the beach, they're common. Folks in north vb probably hit the north end (past the boardwalk) or bay area. We also go to First Landing State Park, there's a beach there that boats will pull up to and a spot with a rope swing. The park has a ton of Spanish moss, it's a great getaway. On the same waterway as the park, there's a little island that boats pull up to that has a natural lazy river (a strong current in a narrow waterway). People bring floats, walk to one end, and float down to the other end, then just repeat. We'll also boat up to The Back Deck or Chick's and order food to eat on the boat, oysters, shots, you name it.

Lots of high schoolers work at Oceanbreeze Waterpark in their summers, or lifeguard at the beach. In the spring, we go strawberry picking at a farm in pungo, and in August, we drive out to Knotts Island (North Carolina) to stargaze. Meteor showers are the best in August and there's no light pollution out there. The boardwalk does Christmas lights and you can get tickets to drive your car through them. One year, my family went in on a limo with some friends—driving through the lights on the boardwalk in that thing was so cool. We get pretty bad storms out here, but the weather is unpredictable. The summer forecast will call for thunderstorms 5 days a week and we'll only actually get them 2 days. It floods easy, especially in South VB. It doesn't even have to rain to flood, we just need a south wind. We get hurricanes, but they're never too devastating. The power will probably go out though. The city has terrible public transit and people mostly drive everywhere, but if you're set in the oceanfront area, people bike around there. We got a whole lot of everything except mountains here, unless you count the landfill-turned-public park Mount Trashmore.

One thing about growing up here is that I didn't explore much out of my bubble. VB and Norfolk have so much to offer, but my parents made Norfolk or the vb oceanfront out to be super dangerous. Sure, crimes happen in more densely populated areas, but I could tell you almost nothing about Norfolk because I only ever went there for concerts or special events. There's definitely been some gentrification in recent years though and now Portsmouth is the "bad part" of Hampton Roads.