Great Dismal Swamp to Norfolk, VA

We are in Virginia!  

We are safely in a marina in Norfolk where we will spend a few days exploring and installing a new water heater.  

But first.....  We left the visitors center in The Great Dismal Swamp this morning about 8:30 and cruised into Virginia!  We watched Calvary Church on the way, as has become our habit...  We will be glad to be home and attend church in person again in a couple of months.  

We continued on in slow motion bumping a few logs and after a few hours we reached  the Deep Water Creek lock.  

This lock drops more than the other lock on the canal went up.   7-8ft.   Nothing like the river systems but still it felt substantial when holding ropes...

Eventually the lock opened....

And we were free to go....

And down the river another seven miles into Norfolk VA. 

Here we reached the REALLY big boats.   This is the largest Navy Base in the world...

And the ships are large....

Really large.  

And one is a museum.  The USS Wisconsin, a decommissioned battleship.  

No really big carriers here though....  But these things are HUGE.  

We docked at Waterside Marina, pumped out and hooked up utilities and then took off to explore parts of the town.  
Did I mention how big these boats are?  


They are huge...

27 miles today.   Slow miles....
Norfolk is a beautiful town ..   it's evident the outsized place the Navy has here.  

Military towns are cool....  Even their art reflects it.  

We also visited the Chrysler Museum of Art.  

Mr Chrysler (son of the founder of Chrysler Motors) collected glass and art from all over the world and donated it here.    I toured the glass part.  The others went through more but I needed a bit of a break.  


He had glass from early Muslim cultures and Italian cultures and English and Dutch and Chinese and American.  

 
Rare artifacts and expensive creations by brands like Tiffany.  


The problem with taking pictures of glass is that the camera can't get the glisten or the 3rd dimension of the art.   I loved this sunset which actually moved like a sunset.   It's a Tiffany and I can't imagine what it's worth...


The items vary tremendously...



After our museum visit we stopped in at the studio to see people learning to make things from glass.  This was fascinating.  
Next we visited the Cement Mixer turned Kaleidescope.    

And then went to an old church building for dinner.  

And it did not suck....

Finally the long walk back to the marina 

(We need to learn to use scooters.   My wife and sister in law would rather walk but my feet and back suffer. )

For a nice sunset and then beating my wife... at family games.... (She has won the last three nights and the rest of us are getting a little tired of it....)

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