While Athens is certainly influenced by Athens State University, visitors will happily discover that it is much more than a "college town." Its quaint tree-lined streets and wonderfully maintained Greek Revival homes offer the feeling of serenity. Its location to the much larger cities of Decatur (less than 20 miles) and Huntsville (about 30 miles) make Athens a nice base for exploration of northern Alabama.

Set on a finger of land reaching through the James and York Rivers to Chesapeake Bay, Hampton is the oldest English speaking community in America.The Virginia Air and Space Center houses the Apollo 12 command module and moon rocks as well as the Hampton Roads History Center. Fort Monroe, the largest stone fort built in the U.S. was built 1819-1834 to protect the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.

Newport News combines modern shipbuilding with historic maritime history on a slender Eastern shore peninsula between the James River and Chesapeake Bay. There is no real downtown here; the city extends along I-64 and US 60 to touch the largest privately-owned shipyard in the country.

Norfolk, Virginia's second largest city, and Portsmouth, the nation's oldest naval shipyard, jut out into the blue waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The world's largest naval base is located here, the center of the Hampton Roads area, where seafaring is second nature. These cities have renewed over the years with a new waterfront marketplace and revitalized downtown.

Though linked by a lean length of bridge and tunnel to the state’s largest metropolitan area, Virginia’s Eastern Shore seems a surprising world apart.