Norfolk, Va., - Hampton River, Va., May 17, 2008

We left Waterside Marina about 11 and only went about 15 miles to anchor in the Hampton River next to downtown Hampton. We went past quite a few ships in a naval shipyard, including the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the fourth Nimitz-class supercarrier. Her call sign is Rough Rider, the name of President Theodore Roosevelt’s volunteer cavalry unit during the Spanish-American War. After nine deployments she is in Norfolk after having several upgrades.



We took the dingy ashore. It was the first time we’ve used the dingy since Marathon, Fl., and it needed some air before we could use it. There was a Wine Festival going on in a park next to the dingy dock so we walked over and went through it. We didn’t buy a glass for the wine tasting, but Darrell had a beer and Beth had something called a Winerita. It was a blackberry wine slushy.

We visited the Jacques Cousteau Society exhibit, which is the U.S. headquarters for the Cousteau Society. We saw photography, artifacts from past Cousteau expeditions, and some of his inventions. One was the Sea Flea one if his early submersibles, which he designed in 1969. How far we have come! We had just seen some of the most current ones at the Nauticus Museum in Norfolk.

While walking around we ran across this boat in a marina. Whoever owns the boat is obviously a live-aboard. There were palm trees and decorations all over. Notice what the signs say.

We also walked into the Virginia Air & Space Center, but it was too late in the day to be able to see everything in the museum so we didn’t get tickets. We had thought about just going to the IMAX theatre in the center, but the next showing wasn’t for 90 minutes.

So, back to the boat.