We Let the GPS Decide Our Virginia Beach Adventure (And It Got Weird)
Virginia Beach has plenty of beaches, boardwalks, and tourist attractions. We managed to spend the day at a former landfill, an auto repair shop with movie cars, one of the tallest statues we’ve ever stood under, searching for a geocache hidden in an airplane wing, and a Guy Fieri restaurant.
Honestly, I’d call that a pretty successful day.
One of my favorite ways to explore a city is by creating a Mystery GPS Tour. The idea is simple: I load the day’s stops into the GPS, but nobody else knows what comes next. Zach knows we’re heading somewhere interesting, he just doesn’t know what. The only wildcard is geocaching. Whenever my son Mason spots a nearby geocache, the GPS suddenly isn’t taking orders from me anymore.
Stop #1 – Mount Trashmore (Sort Of)
If you’ve never heard of Mount Trashmore, you’re probably picturing a giant mountain of garbage. Honestly, so was Zach. Instead, we found ourselves in a peaceful park with walking trails, an impressive skate park, and no obvious sign that thousands of tons of trash were buried beneath the grass.
We weren’t there for the park, though. We came to see Virginia Beach’s Peter Toth Whispering Giant, the 19th sculpture in his Trail of the Whispering Giants series. Dedicated on July 15, 1976, during America’s Bicentennial, the towering carving stands as a memorial to Native Americans and is one more stop in our quest to visit every one of Peter Toth’s monumental wooden sculptures.
Finding it turned into a mini adventure of its own.
We parked in the wrong lot.
Then another wrong lot.
We finally decided to walk…
…and then it started raining.
Back into the truck we went.
Third parking lot was the charm. And after a few soggy photos, we were back on the road.
More coming soon: Peter Toth’s Whispering Giant at Mount Trashmore is getting its own post, with more photos and the full story behind the carving.
📍 310 Edwin Drive (the Peter Toth carving is closest to Parking Lot 4) — Free — Mount Trashmore Park
Stop #2 – Lawyer Garage
Sometimes the mystery isn’t where you’re going. It’s why on earth this place exists.
We’d driven past Lawyer Garage more times than I could count while exploring Virginia Beach, and my brother insisted I’d love it. He wasn’t wrong.
The very first thing I spotted?
The Mystery Machine.
Scooby-Doo has been one of my favorite cartoons since I was a kid growing up during the Hanna-Barbera days at Kings Dominion, so there was no chance I was walking past that van without stopping.
Meanwhile, Zach immediately noticed the Rastafarian car, Mason found the chopped truck, and CarriAnna was…well…being CarriAnna. Somehow we all managed to notice completely different things in the same parking lot.
(And yes, I found another Barbie Box. Apparently I’m becoming something of an expert.)
More coming soon: Lawyer Garage had far too many movie cars, art cars, and strange little details to squeeze into one GPS Tour stop, so it is getting its own post.
📍 489 London Bridge Road — Free — Lawyer Garage on Facebook
Bonus Stop – The GPS Takes Over
There’s one part of every Mystery GPS Tour that I don’t actually control: geocaching. Whenever the app chirps, Mason is already halfway out of the truck before we’ve even stopped rolling.
This time, it led us to a retired U.S. Air Force fighter jet.
Not beside it.
Under it.
The cache was tucked up inside the wing in the usual prescription bottle, and it may have been one of Mason’s favorite finds of the trip.
I’m intentionally leaving the exact location out of this one. Finding the unexpected hiding place is half the fun.
Interested in learning more about Geocaching? Check it out here – Geocaching.com
A few snapshots from our geocaching stop:
Stop #3 – Hugh Mongous
Pictures don’t prepare you. Neither does standing at his feet.
Hugh Mongous is a 45-foot gorilla dressed for vacation in a bright Hawaiian shirt, swim trunks, flip-flops, and oversized red sunglasses. He stands guard outside Ocean Breeze Waterpark, and the best part is you don’t need a waterpark ticket to stop by and see him. Somehow, he looks even bigger in person.
The waterpark was open, but the earlier drizzle had made it a quiet day, which gave us plenty of room to walk around Hugh and take in just how enormous he really is.
CarriAnna had technically seen him before. During one of my parents’ regular drives around Virginia Beach with their dog, Zoey, my dad slowed the car so she could snap a quick picture through the window—because of course he did. This was the first time she’d actually stood at Hugh’s feet, though, and the first time the rest of us had seen him up close.
Mason couldn’t get over how big he was. There’s an observation deck beneath Hugh that gets you closer without letting visitors climb all over the statue, but even from there, fitting a 45-foot gorilla and four regular-sized humans into one photo proved to be a challenge. Mason tried, but either we disappeared from the frame or Hugh did. For the solo picture, I had to back all the way out toward the road just to fit him in.
I also couldn’t stop laughing at the name. I spent the entire week announcing that we were going to see Hugh Mongous, and nobody else found it nearly as funny as I did. CarriAnna was convinced I was talking about Harry Potter half the time.
As for Zach, his official review was simple:
“That was a big f🙊cking monkey.”
Honestly, that’s about as accurate a review as you’re going to get. Sometimes there just isn’t a more eloquent way to describe a 45-foot gorilla in flip-flops.
The kids don’t get to come along on most of our oversized roadside attraction adventures, so watching them stand at Hugh’s feet and take in the ridiculous scale of him made this stop even better.
📍 849 General Booth Blvd — Outside Ocean Breeze Waterpark — Accessible without park admission (just don’t be the person visiting Hugh at 2 a.m.) — Hugh Mongous
Stop #4 – King Neptune
As a girl who grew up with New Jersey boardwalks, and spent summers walking the boards in Ocean City, Maryland, I had certain expectations. Let’s just say Virginia Beach offers a very different kind of boardwalk experience.
Virginia Beach’s boardwalk isn’t really a boardwalk in the Jersey sense. No arcades, no little fudge shops, no pizza slices every fifty feet. Instead, it’s a wide concrete promenade lined with hotels, bike paths, and public art.
We found street parking a few blocks away and paid $1.50 for an hour. After walking three or four blocks, we turned the corner toward the boardwalk…
…and there he was.
King Neptune.
Towering over the boardwalk. Even after seeing pictures, I wasn’t prepared for how massive he looked in person.
It wasn’t raining anymore, but the heat had left the ocean hazy, and visibility beyond the shoreline was minimal. Everyone walked up to the statue almost silently at first, then we all wandered off in different directions.
The statue is enormous, but it’s the sheer amount of detail that really impressed me. Sea turtles, dolphins, starfish, shrimp, lobsters, an octopus… there are dozens of sea creatures worked into the sculpture. Some are easy to photograph, while others stretch across multiple sides, forcing you to keep circling Neptune to see everything.
Before long, everyone had chosen a favorite. Mine was the enormous turtle resting beneath Neptune’s hand, Zach picked the octopus, CarriAnna loved the dolphins, and Mason’s favorite was… well… the whole dang thing.
As we wandered around the plaza, we also spotted a little family of oversized hermit crabs tucked into the landscaping. They’re easy to miss if your head is tilted back looking at Neptune, but once you notice one, you’ll probably find yourself searching for the rest. We even stumbled across a bright purple sea turtle that definitely wasn’t trying very hard to blend into its surroundings.
After soaking in the statue, we wandered a block inland through a few of the little shops before heading back to the truck. One storefront even had a giant lighthouse built into the entrance. Naturally, I stopped for a picture. Apparently I can’t walk past oversized or unusual things… even when they’re attached to a gift shop.
Virginia Beach also has dozens of painted dolphin sculptures scattered throughout the resort area, each decorated with its own design. We only happened to spot one on this visit, but now we’ve got another scavenger hunt waiting for our next trip.
King Neptune may be the biggest guy on the boardwalk, but he’s far from the only work of art. Between the hidden sea creatures, painted dolphins, and other little surprises everywhere, it’s easy to miss a few! And we certainly did!
📍 31st Street, Virginia Beach Boardwalk — Free — King Neptune Statue
Lunch at Carib Shack (Technically Stop #5)
By the time we reached Carib Shack, we were starving. I’d grabbed a donut and a muffin before we left, but after a morning of mystery stops, giant statues, and wandering around Virginia Beach, lunch was long overdue.
I’d picked Carib Shack because it had been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Mason cared not. CarriAnna gave me a cursory, “Ooooooo.” Whether that was genuine excitement remains unknown.
The restaurant itself is tiny. You order from an iPad inside, wait for a text that your food is ready, then grab one of the few outdoor tables if you’re lucky enough to find one open. (it’s that busy!)
After about twenty minutes, we dug into lunch. Zach and I shared the jerk pork bowl that Guy ordered on the show, CarriAnna surprised herself by loving her chicken sandwich, and Mason tackled a burrito roughly the size of a small canoe.
It turned out to be the perfect way to wrap up our mystery tour.
More coming soon: Carib Shack is getting its own post, with more photos, everything we ordered, and our full thoughts on the food.
📍 2272 W Great Neck Rd, Suite 2242 — Takeout with limited outdoor seating — Featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
Family Awards
🏆 Nancy’s Pick
Lawyer Garage — Scooby wins every time, and apparently I’m now a two-time Barbie Box model.
🏆 Zach’s Pick
Hugh Mongous.
Official review: “That was a big f🙊cking monkey.”
🏆 Mason’s Pick
Lawyer Garage…although the airplane geocache made it a very close race.
🏆 CarriAnna’s Pick
King Neptune…despite Virginia Beach’s suspicious lack of cute boardwalk shops.
Final Thoughts
By the time we finished lunch at Carib Shack, the walking had added up, the heat had caught up, and everyone was full and ready to head home. Not bad for a day that started with nothing more than a list of GPS coordinates.
And that’s the whole point of doing a Mystery GPS Tour like this. It isn’t about building the perfect itinerary or ticking every attraction off a list. It’s about the unexpected mix of stops, the family reactions, and the tiny stories you only get when nobody else knows what’s coming next.
Some stops were worth circling three parking lots to find. Some had everyone quietly choosing a favorite sea creature. One sent me backing toward the road to fit a 45-foot gorilla into a picture. And one wasn’t on my itinerary at all, because Mason’s geocaching app decided it had other plans. Together, they made the day.
Virginia Beach may be known for its beaches, but thanks to the haze left behind by the rain and heat, we could barely see the ocean—yet we still managed to have one very Virginia Beach adventure. We left with plenty of stories, a few unexpected discoveries, and, as it turns out, plenty more to explore.
More from Our Virginia Beach Trip
This GPS Mystery Tour was just one of the adventures we packed into our Virginia Beach visit. If you’re planning a trip, check out the rest of our Virginia Beach adventures:
- 🎯 Virginia Beach GPS Mystery Tour (You’re here!)
- 🦖 Dinosaurs & Military History in Virginia Beach (Coming soon)
- 🗼 Kings Dominion’s Mini Eiffel Tower (Coming soon)
We’ll add more stops here as we publish them, so check back if you’re planning your own Virginia Beach adventure.