5 Best Sights in Williamsburg and Hampton Roads, Virginia

The Virginia Air and Space Center traces the history of flight and space exploration. The nine-story, futuristic, $30 million center is the visitor center for NASA Langley Research Center and Langley Air Force Base. Its space artifacts include a 3-billion-year-old moon rock, the Apollo 12 command capsule, a lunar lander, and NASA's new Orion space craft. The center also holds a dozen full-size aircraft, a 3-D IMAX theater that is five stories high, a variety of flight simulators, and hands-on exhibits that let you see yourself as an astronaut or launch a rocket.

In a waterfront park near the Virginia Air and Space Center is the Hampton Carousel. Its prancing steeds and bright-color chariots carry riders round and round to the tunes of carnival music. Expert artisans have meticulously restored the 1920 carousel, which was a fixture at the city's former Beach Amusement Park for 60 years, and the carousel and building are now climate-controlled and air-conditioned.

The museum features permanent and changing exhibits on Native Americans and the early colonists, the city's port, the infamous Blackbeard, contraband and the Civil War, and the development of NASA Langley Research Center.

Hampton University was founded in 1868 as a freedmen's school, and ever since has had a distinguished history as an institution of higher education for African Americans. Booker T. Washington was an early graduate. The Hampton University Museum, on the riverfront campus, is notable for its extensive and diverse collection, which includes more than 9,000 African, Native American, Pacific Island, and Asian art objects. Four permanent galleries are now located in the new Huntington Building. It is the oldest African American museum in the country.

Little of early Hampton survived the shellings and conflicts of the past, but the brick walls of St. John's Church (1728) have. Today a stained-glass window honors Pocahontas, the Native American princess who is said to have saved the life of Captain John Smith in 1608. The communion silver on display, made in London in 1618, is the oldest such service still used in this country. The parish, founded in the same year as the city (1610), also claims to be the oldest Protestant church in continuous service in America. You may listen to a taped interpretation or take a guided tour (by arrangement) and visit a small museum in the parish house.