Top Rack to Waterside (Norfolk) to Hampton Downtown Public Piers

Day #233; Loop Miles to Date = 3,040

We are now officially a bit behind on our blog posts...so let's try to catch up...

We ventured off last Wednesday to Norfolk...a really easy 10 mile trip, and docked right downtown at Waterside. It was easy walking to restaurants and some tourist sights. Highlights of this 2-day stop were some really awesome wings we found at a restaurant called the Brick Anchor Brew House...probably the best we have had on the loop...and the tour that we took of the Wisconsin Battleship that is berthed permanently in Norfolk. The Wisconsin in itself is simply awesome, and it is part of a museum complex called Nauticus, which we also spent time wandering around. We really enjoyed our time here, learning about the importance of Norfolk as a port in American history as well as in current times.

On Friday, we had another short day as we traveled to Hampton, VA and are staying at the downtown public piers...a really good deal as we are getting 4 nights dockage for the price of 3. The entire Hampton Roads area (Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth) has substantial historical significance in American History. This area played a major role in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and as well during WWll. We have been lucky, because our friends on ACT lll still have their friends car to drive around, so we and California Lady have had access to stuff that we would ordinarily need a rental car to see.

We spent a full day on Saturday touring the Yorktown Battlefield - very interesting, with much Revolutionary war history to absorb. And then yesterday we spent the day in the National Maritime Museum in Newport News. This was truly awesome...it is the home of the Monitor, the ironclad battleship that is being restored. If you recall, it was found back in the 90's in about 250' of water, 15 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras where it sunk during a storm shortly after the Civil War battle that it was so famous for. Most of the recoverable portions of it have now been raised, and they are in various stages of restoration at this museum. This was a fascinating day...we all left this experience with very full brains! There was so much history to learn (re-learn?) and this museum is definitely worth the effort for anyone heading this direction.

So in a nutshell...we spent a day in Norfolk focused on the WWll era, a day at Yorktown absorbed in the Revolutionary war, and a day at the Maritime Museum focused largely on the Civil War. It was like 3 years of high school history classes smashed into 3 days!

We are watching the weather, thankful that Tropical Storm Bonnie petered out for the most part. We are left with the rain after effects, but no real wind to deal with. Our plan is to set off tomorrow for our entry into the Chesapeake Bay...our tolerance for rain will dictate how far we go, and whether we choose to anchor out or snag a spot in a marina. We'd love to anchor out some, but we'll see.

  

While we were still at Top Rack, we went to downtown Portsmouth one night to go to the Commodore theater. This is a restored one-screen theater that now shows first run movies with a dining experience combined. It was a really fun outing...we all saw the new Iron Man - Captain America movie...had a blast.

The Naval Hospital in Portsmouth from the water.

Norfolk has a certain fascination with mermaids, as seen here and below. These sculptures were everywhere...this is just a sampling.

Pics of the Wisconsin Battleship will simply not do it any justice. Just for reference, that little boat you see stored on the side deck is the captains' launch. They used this to take the captain to shore when the ship was anchored off shore. Well that little boat is about the size of our Sandrobber...and this picture only captures about 1/2 the length of the Wisconsin.

We were lucky enough to witness a ceremony while we were touring the battleship. In this small ceremony, this sailor is re-enlisting.

Ok...you are asking yourself why we would bother to share a picture of a buoy with you...since we have passed literally thousands of these. Well...this particular buoy, located at Norfolk, marks Mile 0 of the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway. Since we left Marathon, we have been following the AICW a mile at a time, and now it comes to an end as we approach the Chesapeake. Hard to believe that just a few short months ago, when we left Marathon, we were at Mile 1193!

These are 3 large Army ships that were at port across the river from the Naval Base. We kept our camera idle while passing the Naval Base, and didn't snap any pictures of all of the cool ships that we saw from the land side a few days previous.

Here is Jeff (Act lll) describing some of the Yorktown battle action to Sandy atop one of the redoubts at the battlefield. A redoubt is sort of like a raised fortified bunker from which they defended larger battle lines behind and to the sides of these locations.

Panoramic view of the redoubt. The manpower required to dig all of the trenches and bunkers and these redoubts is mind boggling when you see it up close.

We didn't end up with any really cool pictures of the Monitor and much of the Maritime Museum...but here are a couple of shots of some of the classic small boats that they had on display in one small section of the museum.

This one deserves special mention we suppose. It is a sailboat that is 5' wide and 6' long. Back in 1968, some "smart fellow" sailed all the way across the Atlantic Ocean in this thing! At the time it set a record for the smallest vessel ever to make this crossing. This record stood for more than 25 years, which we assume means that someone did it in something even smaller!  There is a fine line between courage and stupidity sometimes...

This classic just looks like it would be fun to drive!