Things to Do in Chester

Teachers and doctors. Moms and sisters. The River City Rollergirls don't really care who you are, as long as you're ready to hit someone—and foster an environment that values diversity and gender equity in the process.

The skater- and volunteer-operated league sprouted in early 2006 as Richmond's first all-women's flat-track roller-derby association. At the start, the league featured just two teams—Poe's Punishers and the Uncivil Warriors—but has since expanded to include new members, including the Carytown Cadets, the Hollywood Undertakers, and the Jackson Wardens. All teams take falls and crack skulls as part of the Eastern region of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association. But off the track, players put away their growling game faces when participating in community-outreach programs.

No matter the day, a sense of competition fills the air at King Pin Lanes. The sound of clattering pins and congratulatory high-fives echoes as bowlers roll strikes down the alley's 32 gleaming lanes. Automatic scoring systems allow visitors to focus on their upcoming bowls instead of adding up frames, and for kids 8 and younger bumpers pop up from each gutter to help little ones get into the competitive spirit. Every Friday and Saturday, DJ Connection spins tunes to soundtrack cosmic bowling sessions with requests dominating after 9 p.m. At Tapz Bar & Grill, King Pin Lanes' full-service restaurant and lounge, bowlers gather all week long around plates of nachos or freshly grilled burgers for conciliatory snacks after intense games or bowling shoe insults.

One of the Science Museum of Virginia’s current exhibits includes a few basketball players—just don’t expect LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. These basketball players are two rats, playing a live one-on-one game to demonstrate operant and classical conditioning. Throughout the three-story museum, more hands-on examples of science await at five permanent exhibits. Inspect a rock from the moon, explore a life-size space capsule, and generate energy by pedaling a stationary bike. Kids can even build their own playground with materials such as mats and foam blocks.

Inside the IMAX Dome, a screen 10 times the size of a typical 35 mm screen shows a wide range of educational films. Outside the museum, plants in the BayScapes Garden thrive without pesticide, fertilizer, or the encouragement of a motivational speaker, and an onsite greenhouse offers free planting areas for visitors to contribute greenery and learn about sustainable farming.

Over its 30 year history, The Dive Shop has trained over 10,000 new scuba divers and earned the honor of being a five-star PADI Instructor Development Center, without ever switching owners. The same teachers who helped the first class of students discover the underwater world now aid their children and grandchildren in making the same discovery through Open Water Certification diving courses and introductory lessons. They start beginners off in the safety of local pools, before plumbing the depths of Lake Rawlings during certification dives.

Edgar Allan Poe holds a distinguished reputation in American literature, given his proclivity for dark work, such as “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” But the Poe of legend is often at odds with the real Poe: the student who had to gamble and burn his furniture to make it through college; the career man who traveled extensively to find better opportunities; and the devoted husband who never recovered from the death of his wife. He even enrolled at West Point … though he was thrown out eight months later.

The Poe Museum educates guests on the writer's life, helping them reconcile the reputed Poe with the real Poe. Located within the Old Stone House that lies just blocks from Poe's first Richmond home and his first employer, the Southern Literary Messenger, the museum showcases exhibits and significant artifacts, such as Poe's walking stick, his boyhood bed, and even a lock of his hair. This collection reveals his journey, showing what drove him to become a master writer of short stories, lyric poetry, action-movie screenplays, and, of course, horror stories.

Shockoe Bottom, one of Richmond’s oldest neighborhoods, is also home to some of Richmond’s scariest ghosts and classiest haunting scenes. During the Capital Creepers Eerie Nights tour, which is guided by ghastly ghouls dressed in historical duds and painted with Hollywood-quality makeup that would fool even the deadest ghost, fright fanatics will discover all the dark and gory details about the haunts of Richmond’s past, present, and future, which are much more thrilling than the commonly known tales of the still-warm ketchup on Colonel William Mayo’s 1737 city plan and the guy on the corner who screams “I’m a ghost” every 15 minutes.