In 2003 Hurricane Isabel pounced ashore in Hampton, VA, doing all the insensitive things a hurricane is supposed to do, including putting my first visit in question. Six days after the storm I arrived in the town I knew one thing about: the cupcake-shaped temple we call the Mothership. I returned the next year to witness what I thought would be my only Coliseum show: the less-than-infamous set flip-flop show. Two years after that I left the Midwest, set up in my parents’ remodeled ground floor, made new friends, found a good job, started writing for the local paper, got a house, and prayed for Phish’s return.

I didn’t even try to get a ticket to the first night in 2009. The second night I was taken for $600; money I only saw again after fifty or sixty angry customer calls to PayPal. Shut out of two nights in my backyard—that stung. The final night I got to see the band with all my old friends from Chicago, and to be honest since then my life has been a series of blessed and fortunate events. If everything goes as planned, my girlfriend (Sarah Paige) and I will be engaged before summer tour. I’ve been able to see Phish 23 times since Hampton 2009, and I’ll be in New York later this month. Sarah and I aren’t photographers, but I hope you appreciate a photo tour of the place we call home. Special thanks to Julia Mordaunt, Beth Rowles, Molly Ward, and Melissa Kennedy.

Old MacDonald’s Farm was owned by the same family from the 1600s until the 1950s. In 1968 construction on the Hampton Coliseum began, so the farm was re-christened Bluebird Gap Farm…

…and it re-located down the street.

Walked on me and danced a jig.

Trigger a blastoplast, ramshackle laker recedes.

Things I needed bad.

Hampton Roads is one of the largest harbors in the world.