Long ago I had earmarked Norfolk as a long-weekend destination because of a mention of the Nauticus museum in some publication. Must have sounded pretty cool for me to plan a five-hour drive down just to see it: a World War II battleship, a nautical museum and the US Navy Hampton Roads History Museum. What’s not to like?
Bah. It’s a joke. A scam for the tourists. I saw no point in paying for the science/nautical part of the museum and the Hampton Roads History Museum, while nifty, is pretty small. And on the Battleship Wisconsin you’re restricted to the upper decks only because it’s technically still part of the Navy’s Reserve Fleet and could be recalled to active service – even though it’s not going to be.
So that adventure only burned about three hours. Happily I had discovered that the MacArthur Memorial was only a couple of blocks away and I was able to wander up there and kill the rest of the afternoon.
Norfolk is an interesting place. It’s very obviously the “city” compared to the “suburbs” of Hampton and Newport News where I’d been staying. It’s very pretty and very much a place on the move but it’s also one of those towns that empties out at 5 PM on a Friday and stays more or less dead until 8 AM Monday. Better for me, but it makes it a little creepy even in such a beautiful place.
One more stop in the Hampton Roads area tomorrow and on to the beach.