The Elizabeth River is a short but heavily industrialized and militarized corridor with a long and eventful history. Portsmith is the older city on the eastern bank. Norfolk is the younger but more successful city on the western bank. This Sunday afternoon was White Pepper's first encounter with large opening bridges. With Jan following "Cruiser Bob's" succinct guide and myself on VHF channel 13 we managed fine. Later that afternoon we docked at Tidewater Marine in the shadow of the famous Portsmith Naval Hospital.
New crew member, Cindy Elliott, Jan's sister, was due to join us Wednesday. On Monday we took the ferry ($1 exact change) to Norfolk and spent time exploring Granby Street, the Naval museum (Nauticus) and the US Wisconsin. The Wisconsin is one of the 4 Iowa class battleships. It is long, low and lean. It is the final expression of battleship architecture--much like Chartes is the ultimate expression of the cathedral.It is docked permanently in Norfolk and serves the community much as the US Lexington does Corpus Christi.
Tuesday we checked out historical Portsmith and it's revitalized shopping district.
On Wednesday Cindy flew in early. We had enough time to go over to Norfolk and visit the Chrysler Art Museum. The Chrysler is a jewel. It is rated as one of the top 20 art museums in the country, but it is still a shock to find such an amazing institution in residential Norfolk. To get there we took the city bus which is free. Mr. Chrysler spent seven decades and a good chunk of his family fortune collecting art. He endowed it all to his museum. I have no idea why he choose Norfolk. Wednesday afternoon was free admission. After three hours seeing one amazing display after another the three of us relaxed with a glass of wine and jazz combo in the lobby of the museum. It was quite an afternoon.
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