Norfolk, Virginia is the main east-coast base of the US Navy and today I was focused on warships. Service men and women always seem to get up at the crack of dawn but, on this Sunday, neither of the two places I wanted to visit opened until noon. After sleeping in and taking a long Sunday brunch I drove to downtown Norfolk to visit Nauticus.
The main attraction at this location is the battleship USS Wisconsin. You are able to wander freely over a large portion of the ship from the upper decks down to the gallows, workshops, offices and sleeping quarters and it is huge – when first commissioned it had a crew of over 2,600. The ship fired many of the Tomahawk cruise missiles in the initial attack on Iraq and Kuwait in the first Gulf War and was only retired from active service in 2000. The Nauticus museum staff are still working to get some parts of the ship open to the public. I particularly wanted to see the seven floors under the gun turrets where the 1,700 pound shells were prepared and hoisted to be loaded into the 16 inch guns but the residue from the materials is dangerous and must be safely removed, observing stringent (and expensive) environmental standards, before that can happen. Apart from the ship there is also an excellent museum with exhibits on the history of the Norfolk maritime area and the importance of the port, exhibits by NASA on monitoring the environment and the importance of healthy estuaries and oceans, an aquarium and a fun 3D movie on the great white shark.
The only problem was that, due to the late opening, I didn’t have much time. The other location I wanted to visit was the US Navy base itself which offers 45 minute bus tours. However, the last tour was at 2 PM and I simply decided to stay at Nauticus to see all that it had to offer. I had visited the US Air Force graveyard in Tucson where they also offer a bus tour which, like the Navy one, does not allow you to get off due to security concerns. That tour was disappointing so I felt that exploring Nauticus fully was probably my best option. The ironic thing is that the Navy base starts its summer schedule tomorrow and they more than double the number of daily tours over a wider range of times.
After leaving Nauticus I drove over/under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to get to the Delmarva Peninsula and followed the coast north to Ocean City, Maryland. If I had got to this location on the original perimeter trip I would have completed my objective but I still have a big section to complete (from Morro Bay, California to Mobile, Alabama) in the fall.
To follow the geography please check out the map/video page here.
The Wisconsin
The museum had a cool way of showing the mass of the shells fired by these guns
Part of the executive officer’s cabin 
and the sailors’ quarters.