We’ve been discovering Portsmouth and a little bit of Norfolk in the past few days. Our marina is just a few blocks from Old Towne Portsmouth and the ferry that goes across the Elizabeth River to Norfolk, so we’ve done a lot of walking since we got here.
Old Towne has lots of houses built in the early 1800s – and of course lots of statues.
This one was to honor Spanish War veterans.This is the founder of Portsmouth, February 27, 1752.Virginia was part of the Confederacy, so this is to honor the Confederate dead.Many of the houses have plaques describing who built the house.At some point the owners of this house wanted to add a third floor, but instead of building on top of the second floor, they raised the second floor to make it the third floor, and built a new second floor!The wall at the top of this building was built to make it look taller – and make it the same height as the building next door. Even in the 1700s and 1800s it was important to keep up with the Jones!The bumpout on this building was originally just one story high and housed the “outhouse “. It was an “inside” privy.Court Street Baptist Church, established in1789. This is the third building to sit on this site. Black members of this church held services in the basement of this church until May, 1865, when 318 members of the congregation founded their own church.St. Paul Catholic Church – yet another really old building.Monumental United Methodist Church had a fire at the top of the steeple so now they’re rebuilding it. Those are men at the top, building scaffolding so the actual rebuilding can be done. There isn’t enough money in the world to get me up there doing what those men were doing!Trinity Episcopal Church – this was built in 1762 and is still serving Episcopalian congregants.This is the ferry we took across the Elizabeth River to Norfolk on Sunday.
Sunday we took a 2 hour naval base cruise, followed by a visit to Nauticus, a maritime themed science center and museum, and a visit to the USS Wisconsin which is docked at Nauticus. The information about all the destroyers, battleships, and subs was so interesting – and so overwhelming!
Nauticus – and USS Wisconsin in the background as seen from our cruise.A partial view of the USS Wisconsin. It was built in 1944, was in service until early 1990s, then put back into service during Desert Storm. It’s not as large as many of the newer ships, but it’s still almost 3 football fields long!There are 2 submarines in the upper left corner – can you see them? They remind me of giant manatees.Just one of many we went past.Any time a ship has work done on it, it must go through a demagnetization. This is where it takes place for ships in this area. I have no idea how it’s done or how they get those giant ships through here, but the guide told us this, so it must be true.This is the Portsmouth lightship. It served as a mobile lighthouse from 1916 to 1964. It was later moved to a spot along the river and is now a museum. I had never heard of lightships until I saw this!
Monday was spent doing laundry, then having dinner at a unique restaurant called “STILL”. It’s subterranean and is meant to be like an old speakeasy. The food is tapas/share and was delicious! And there were 3 pages of old time cocktails – quite tasty.
You can’t see it in this photo, but the door had a small sliding panel where someone inside could look out to ask for the password. Fortunately we didn’t need a password to get in.Ducks behind our boat at sunset.I love the reflection of the sun off the clouds and water – how can you not love sunsets?
