Story Ideas

1. The Civil War in Newport News -- where naval warfare changed forever. The story of the Civil War is the story of the people -- men and women, black and white, slave and free, rich and poor, decorated generals and eighteen-year-old privates. Come and meet them in Newport News. Walk the deck of a full-scale replica of a Civil War icon at the brand-new $30 million USS Monitor Center. Hear soldier, slave and civilian stories at Endview Plantation and Lee Hall Mansion. See Civil War uniforms and weapons at the Virginia War Museum. Re-live the 1862 Peninsula Campaign at fourteen stops along Virginia’s Civil War Trails. 
   
   
2. World-class museums in world-class buildings. Tour the amazing Virginia Living Museum with its dramatic Coastal Plain Aviary and unique elevated outdoor boardwalk. Go eye-to-eye with a sea otter, touch a horseshoe crab and walk through a cool, moist Appalachian cove and a southeastern cypress swamp. Experience The Mariners’ Museum, where you can step inside an aircraft carrier ready room, send a message in Morse code, imagine steering a wooden sailing ship of old and marvel at the extraordinary miniature ships of August and Winfred Crabtree.
   
   
3. What a neighborhood! Travel back in time at Colonial Williamsburg and the James River Plantations. Go aboard replicas of the ships that English colonists sailed across the Atlantic Ocean at Jamestown Settlement. Follow the stirring progression from colony to nation at the Yorktown Victory Center. Explore the Battleship Wisconsin in Norfolk and ride roller coasters to your heart’s content at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Marvel at the $1 million Lancaster train and antique toy exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth. Discover a three-billion-year-old moon rock at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton.
   
   
4. The stars are shining on Newport News. Each year, the Ella Fitzgerald Music Festival brings the finest jazz artists in the world to the Ferguson Center for the Arts. Past festivals have featured performances by Arturo Sandoval, Cassandra Wilson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jane Monheit, Diane Krall, Chick Corea, Dianne Reeves and Ann Hampton Calloway. The state-of-the-art Ferguson Center is also home to a year-round performance schedule, including symphonies, operas, jazz ensembles, dance companies and professional touring productions.
   
   
5. Lights, lights and more lights - Celebration in Lights! Light up the holidays with Celebration in Lights, a two-mile drive-through of spectacular color set in Newport News Regional Park. More than 650,000 lights create a dazzling kaleidoscope of color. A dozen theme areas present traditional holiday scenes with animation, archways and freestanding pieces rising 30-feet into the night sky. Held annually from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day since 1993, Celebration in Lights is Virginia’s oldest drive-through light event.
   
   
6. Forty-five miles of hiking and biking trails, 54 holes of great golf and a fine kettle of fish! Hike the Noland Trail, encircling beautiful Lake Maury and enjoy a gorgeous view of the James River from the Lion’s Bridge. Choose your irons as you challenge fifty-four holes of great golf on three Newport News courses, including the Newport News Golf Club at Deer Run, currently rated 4 stars by Golf Digest. Anglers, go salt and freshwater fishing on the same day or test your skills at one of the longest fishing piers on the East Coast.