My son's ship is leaving very early in the morning. Is there someplace we can watch the ship leave?
I think the best place would be at the top of the old Chamberlain hotel in Hampton, but I don't know how easy that would be to access. I think it is an old folks home now. You can probably see it from the ramparts of old Fort Monroe.
Otherwise, you can stop on South Thimble Island which is just before you get to the end of the Bridge Tunnel (from the Eastern Shore of Virginia) on US 13 - there is a restaurant and fishing pier there.but you probably will have to pay the toll to get there, and I don't know how easy it is to access from the south end. Of just go out on Willoughby Spit which is where the south end of the Bridge Tunnel ends up.
You might be able to see it from Fort Story - if it was going south.
You might be able to see it with binoculars from Nauticus (in Norfolk) but that's a bit south of the navy base.
Ellen