Paddling Little Creek: Quiet Water, Dolphin Encounters, and Norfolk’s Coastal Calm

The morning arrives like a promise: low tide turns the inlet into a mirror, gulls carve perfect circles across a pale sky, and the marina smells of salt and diesel. You clip a life jacket around your hips, step onto a foam-cushioned board and feel the creek breathe beneath you — a slow, tidal inhale that nudges you downriver and out toward wider water. This is Little Creek, and for an hour or two the place reduces to the rhythm of your paddle, the occasional slap of a tail, and a horizon that keeps offering one more quiet bend.