Day 30...Elias' Soccer Game

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2012

     We went to Sara’s at about 8:30 a.m. this morning so we could ride with her to Eli’s soccer game at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek.  This is the 2^nd year he has played soccer.  His team this year is called The Avengers.  The names were already picked for each team before the season started.  They haven’t gotten their uniforms yet so we don’t know what colors they are.  The opposing team wore gray pinnies and Eli’s team wore black pinnies.  I checked the spelling for “the colorful practice shirt, bib or vest (a pinny) that players wear when a drill or activity calls for the players to be broken up into teams”.  To me the colors were too close to each other.  It was hard to distinguish between the two teams.

     Both teams played hard.  It was the second game of the year so they need more practice with basics and working together as a team.  Here the teams practice together once a week during the 9-10 week season.  They also play almost every Saturday at either 9, 10 or 11 o’clock.

     The referee was very good about talking to each child in a low, calm voice.  I was impressed with his manner. 

Day 29...Elias at School

FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2012

     Gary, Sara, Cara and I went to Eli's school for Running Day this morning.  Of course, I walked instead of running.  All of the second grades at Luxford Elementary go out to the track each Friday at 10:25 and run or walk the track for at least 45 minutes.  They are divided into 4 groups and are given a colored dot for each lap they finish by the teacher in charge of their group.  Each of us earned 4 red dots from our supervising teacher for the 4 laps we completed. 

     Then we took lunch to Eli and ate with him in the cafeteria.  Cafeterias are all pretty much the same.  I felt right at home.  

     I forgot my camera, but we are planning to repeat the walking and lunch next Friday so I will take my camera then.  

Day 28...Errands Day

THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012

     We took the alternator to be fixed, bought Krispy Creme donuts,  bought new fuel and temperature gauges, bought Eli shorts, went to the post office, went to the dry cleaners and bought groceries.  Things will be more interesting of course when we start traveling again in a week or so.  The wind is really whipping so we couldn't leave now even if we wanted to.  Travel across the Chesapeake Bay in windy conditions is very uncomfortable. 

Day 27...Mermaids on Parade

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2012

     Gary and I along with our daughter Sara and granddaughter Cara went to the Norfolk waterfront.  First we all toured the Hampton Roads Naval Museum in the Nauticus Building in Town Point Park. 

These were bronze copies of letters written by soldiers.

     While Gary took the tour of the battleship WISCONSIN, Sara, Cara and I went mermaid hunting. The mermaids were introduced to Norfolk in 2000.  At one time there were about 100 of them.  Some are still there, some have been moved, some have been vandalized and some have been stolen so we didn’t know what to expect during our search.  According to the website, “Sculptures would be fashioned after the logo adopted by Norfolk the year before — a free-spirited, young mermaid that signified the "new" Norfolk. And the promise that at the end, an auction of mermaids would raise more money for the arts.  Mermaids reflected nautical and Norfolk themes, civic pride, the diversity of the region, or whatever else artists and sponsors could dream up; a mermaid covered in coins is sponsored by a bank, a mermaid sporting a chef's hat and apron sits in front of a bakery.  Other sponsors selected schools, hospitals, recreation centers and other public areas to display their mermaids, giving their communities a close-up view of Mermaids on Parade.”

     Here are the ones we found on our walk.  We were able to find out almost all of their names but couldn't find out one of them. We also took a picture of a couple of "friends" for Cara.

Mermaid Cara 

Princess Azalea

Miss Definitely Downtown

Gem of the Sea

Plated Mermaid

Flower Garden

Jewel of Norfolk

Ocean Patina

Low Tide

?????????

Cara and "Friends"

Day 27...Battleship WISCONSIN

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2012

      Today Susan and I along with our daughter Sara and granddaughter Cara went to the Norfolk waterfront.  While they went on a hunt for mermaids, I took the tour of the battleship WISCONSIN. 

Bow of WISCONSIN

      It cost $12.95 to tour the deck and another $12.95 if you wanted to see anything inside. The inside tour lasted about an hour and a half and was conducted by a gentleman that served on the ship in 1947 as a medic.

     The tour started in the officers' ward room.  Then we toured some crews’ quarters, the captain’s cabin, the communications room, the war room and the bridge. 

Bomb-proof helm station (3' thick walls)

Looking forward from bridge (These windows have to be cranked down when the guns are fired or they will be blown out from the shock wave.)

     The ship is one big maze of passageways and would be very easy to get lost.  The passageways have a numbered code painted on the walls that tells you what deck, how far from the bow or stern, how close to the centerline and what the area is used for.

      The deck was just a walk around on your own tour.  Compared to our little 30 foot boat, the things on this ship are huge. 

16" guns

     The pictures below do not really give the feeling of how big things really are.  The picture of the base of the gun turret is deceptive.  The distance from the deck to the top of the black boot is about the height of a two story house. 

Base of one of the 16" guns

     Each chain link on the anchor chain is about a foot long and probably weighs about fifty pounds each.

Size of mooring & anchor chain

       

     The tour didn’t take you to places like the engine rooms which I would really  have liked to tour, but they said they are working on adding those areas to the tour.

Starboard side

Days 24, 25 & 26...Norfolk, Virginia

SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012

      Now that we’re here, we’ll concentrate on enjoying our visit with our Brian, Sara, Eli and Cara.  I am not going to write anything except for a few sentences unless we do some touristy trip or unless we do something interesting.  Sunday it rained almost all day long.  We had about 2.5 inches of rain in the area.  It was a cold, wet and dreary day with a high of 53 degrees.  Needless to say it was a good day to stay inside.  I worked to catch up with the blog, read and just enjoyed talking to everyone.  Gary, Sara and Eli played a Disney version of Monopoly.  

MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012

     Gary and I went to buy some groceries, a car CD player (So Gary can listen to Yanni.) and new long pants for both of us. The weather has been colder than we expected for a longer period of time.  We brought a few changes of warm clothes but needed more since we can’t always get to a laundry when we need one.  It was another yucky day.  I used the inside time to wash all of the dirty clothes we had accumulated.  I owe Sara $1.75 for each of 3 washer loads and the same for drying 3 loads.  I bet she’ll let me charge the cost or take it out in trade for dinner. 

TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2012

     Unlike the last two days, today started out sunny.  It would’ve been warmer if the wind hadn’t been blowing so hard.  Gary had to do some chores around the boat today and Sara had some things to do also so we decided to stay at the boat.  I did some financial stuff that irritated me enough to give me a headache.  Gary took the alternator off the motor so we can take it to be rebuilt tomorrow.  Some of the gauges are not working correctly so we’ll see if fixing the alternator will correct the problems.   We took a walk over to the fuel dock to get out after being cooped up inside for the last two days because of the rain.  Here are a few pictures of the marina.

Day 23...Dismal Swamp Canal Welcome Center to Bay Point Marina, Norfolk, Virginia

SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2012

     Gary and I were up bright and early as usual.  The park was not open yet so I took a picture to show you how the pontoon bridge looks when it is not stretched out across the waterway.  We were lucky last night.  No other boats came to the dock to raft up beside us. 

      We started out to complete our journey through the Dismal Swamp Canal at 7:30 a.m.  It was foggy when we began but soon cleared up.  We saw plenty of logs on the edge of the canal.  We were glad we didn’t hit any with the boat.  There were pilings on the side of the canal that had little trees and even grass growing out of their tops.  

     We knew we had plenty of time to make the 11:00 a.m. opening but wanted to be prepared for the unknown.  Further up the canal a farmer has permission to “slide” a portable bridge across the canal to move his livestock and farm equipment from one side to the other.  We knew it would be our luck that he would have the canal closed so we would have to wait.  We were lucky he did not. 

     Since we were able to make good time, we arrived at the Deep Creek Bridge at least an hour early.  LAST DANCE and TRAVELLER tied up to a concrete seawall just south of the bridge to wait for the opening.  Bob and Jane and Gary and I got out and talked until the bridge operator came to open the bridge.  This bridge/lock combination was bridge then lock so the lock operator drove ahead of us to open the lock after he opened the bridge.  We entered the lock where the water level was the same as the canal.  

   

 Then the lock operator looped our lines around the yellow bollards directly in front of us.  This time we would have to let our lines out as the water drains from inside the full lock.  We would gradually go down until we were at the lower level of the Joyce River.  It took us 30 minutes to go through this lock at the northern end of the canal.   The turbulence of the water filling the lock is greater than the water draining out.   This made it much easier going down than going up.    

    

     For the next 5 miles we passed more and more boat traffic and signs of civilization.  When the Gilmerton Bridge opened, it looked like rush hour on the waterway.  

     Getting into the Norfolk area was culture shock.  It was the difference between nothing in the canal and everything in Norfolk.  Bridges, buildings, fenders the size of our boat, the battleship WISCONSIN, marinas, two aircraft carriers, freighters, tugs and cranes, cranes and more cranes.  Ship Row was ship after ship.  No pictures.  We were afraid of the machine guns.

 

    

  

Was this tug named after you Aunt Kay?

     We continued through the area until we began to enter the Chesapeake Bay itself.  

     The current began to pull us out.  We were only running 1800 rpms and were traveling at 10.0 to 10.2 mph.  We’ve never moved so fast.  

     The Chesapeake was good to us.  It was reasonably calm as we moved through it to Little Creek and Bay Point Marina. 

     We will be visiting Sara’s family for over a week.  They were waiting at the dock with hugs and kisses.  I couldn’t take pictures while I was busy helping dock the boat.  I even forgot to take them as we visited before going home with them after we ate at 5 Guys and had frozen yogurt for dessert.     

      The photo theme for today is cranes.  This time I have tons of pictures to choose from unlike the last time I tried to use cranes as a photo theme.  The pictures do not show how enormous these cranes are. 

This is the hook for the enormous crane above.  It is the size of a school bus.