Nauticus, Norfolk, VA- Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012

We checked out of the hotel this morning and Julie paid a deposit for her students' rooms in April.  We set Lizzie for Norfolk, but heavy traffic into town and a couple of traffic accidents that we had to pass slowed us down some.  In spite of that, we got to Norfolk with time to spare.

We strolled around the area by Nauticus while we waited.  Julie found the Victory Rover, the boat that she and her kids will be taking on a tour of the naval base in April.  They're not running yet this year, so we weren't able to try it out.  Nearby, however, we found a very interesting and moving Armed Forces Memorial.  A large flagpole stands in the middle of a square courtyard, which juts out into the water.   Metal plates are scattered throughout the courtyard and made to look like windblown pieces of paper.  On each is a letter home from a soldier or sailor.  Letters from each of America's major conflicts, from the Revolution to the Gulf War, are printed on each scrap of "paper."  It's a well designed memorial that invites moments of reflection and remembrance.

We then began our tour of Nauticus.  We made our way towards the battleship docked next to the museum, the U.S.S. Wisconsin, for which we had a tour at 11:00.  The battleship was under construction for most of World War II, entering the fight in 1944, to help at Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Philippines.  The ship was decommissioned, but returned to fight in the Korean War.  More amazingly, the ship was brought back once more in the late 1980s and was in service during the Gulf War.  Many of the first Tomahawk cruise missiles that hit Baghdad on the first night of the war were fired from the Wisconsin.  Several navy vets were sitting in the officers' galley when we arrived.  One had served for 20-some years and has been retired for over 30.  He showed us the rooms of many of the staff officers.  When the regular 90 minute tour started, we had to wear hardhats due to the many low beams throughout the ship.  We saw some of racks where the regular sailors slept, the communications room (filled with Reagan/Bush era technology),  the captain's state room, the flag officer's quarters, the room where the tactical commands were given, and the bridge.  It was quite a full tour, even though we really saw only a small percentage of the ship. 

Once the tour of the Wisconsin was over, it was time for lunch.  The cafeteria at Nauticus wasn't open, so we had to leave to find lunch at a nearby cafe.  (For Julie's trip, she has arranged to get box lunches, so they won't have to leave.)  We got back to Nauticus and explored what the rest of the museum had to offer.  Its focus is the ocean and the naval history of the area.  We saw some displays about the Jamestown Tricentennial Exposition in 1907 and Teddy Roosevelt's "Great White Fleet," as well as a lot more detail about life on the Wisconsin.  Anna controlled the camera on the bottom side of an unmanned drone plane like the one that Iraqis surrendered to in the Gulf War (in fact, it might have been that same one).  Julie and Anna got to feel 78 m.p.h. winds in a "hurricane simulator." The girls got to touch a shark (although Emma couldn't quite reach it) and a got an up close look at the underside of a horseshoe crab.  We finished on the floor with displays on the Chesapeake, from the War of 1812 200 years ago, and the Cumberland, the Monitor, and the Merrimack from the Civil War, 150 years ago next month.

After Nauticus, we headed north, and expect to spend the night in Gettysburg.