Day #300 – Norfolk, VA

Wow, day #300, and over 5,000 miles traveled.  I can hardly believe it.  Where has the time gone?  All in great memories of a wonderful adventure that we are lucky enough to have been able to take.  We truly are grateful.

This morning Patti,  Andy and I spent time figuring out where and when we will be stopping for the next month.  If all goes as planned, we should be in New York City some time around the middle of June.

Patti, Deb and I decided to have a girlie day in Norfolk.  We did a few chores this morning and then headed into town.  We walked through the beautiful streets and came across the Wells Theater.

After that we needed a little “retail therapy” and headed to the MacArthur Center.  It has been a looooooong time since we have been in a large retail area and it was fun!  That skill never leaves you I guess.  It is large and anchored by Nordstroms and Dillards.

After shopping we decided to stop and have salads at California Pizza Kitchen.  Yum, haven’t had one of those in months and it was delicious.

Next we headed over to the MacArthur Memorial.  It is right in the middle of the city and pays tribute to General Douglas MacArthur.

He and his wife (she lived to be 102) are entombed there.  All of his medals have  a place of honor and many, many personal items of interest.  It was quite informative and we enjoyed it.

We walked past the USS Wisconsin again and were still in awe of its size.

It even makes White Cloud look small in comparison and it is 221 feet.  Note the helicopter aboard.  They also had several tenders of various sizes.

Back to the boat and preparation for our “crab cake cookoff.”  We all bought fresh crab on Oriental, NC and plan to try several different recipes tonight and see which one we like best.  I’m not a real competitive person, but this is my kind of competition…Olympic eating!  Stay tuned for the results and the winning recipe.

This tour boat, the American Rover sits right off the stern of Good News at the dock.  They take people on harbor tours several times a day.

Day #299 – Norfolk, VA

We had a nice night last night with Bob and Deb and Patti and Brad.  We went to dinner at a restaurant located right in the plaza in front of the boat.  The girls had to talk the guys into going to that particular restaurant, but they gave in eventually.  Hooters…you can see it in the distance.

As you can see from the picture off the bow, we are located right in the heart of downtown.  Great walking location and the city is being vastly updated and rejuvenated.

We all got boat chores done this morning and then the girls walked (where else?) to the grocery store. It is a great specialty market.

We were each only going to buy a couple of items since we were walking.  They told us they would drive us with our groceries back to the marina.  That was all we needed to hear and, as usual, didn’t pass up the opportunity to provision.  What a smart business decision  on their part.  One of the employees drove us in his personal vehicle.

We got a bit of rain after lunch.  When that was done Andy and I walked uptown to the Maritime and Naval Museum.

Andy toured the USS Wisconsin.  Here is the view as you turn the corner downtown.  It appears that the ship is coming down the street.

This picture shows an example of their old and their new architecture in the city.

The mermaid is the symbol of their city and they are everywhere.

This is where Good News sits at Waterside Marina.  You can see Naval ships that are being rebuilt across the river in the distance.  Under the crane, that is not a high rise building, that is a ship without its bow.

The SS Cole is in dry dock in this harbor being refitted with a new bow.  Quite a site to see all of these huge ships so close to where we are docked.

We were all so tired from the last week of traveling and up at dawn, we decided to stay one more day in Norfolk to do some more exploring.