Norfolk and the Chrysler Museum

One of Norfolk's more famous residents; the USS Wisconsin, a WWII era battleship.

We've been anchored in Norfolk, Virginia for three days now waiting for good weather to travel South. The good thing is that the Dismal Swamp Route is supposed to open October 31st which coincides perfectly with the good weather. So, Dismal Swamp, here we come!

Norfolk has a huge commercial port that handles containers, coal, cars, and numerous other commodities. After the peaceful Chesapeake or ICW, it's always weird to come into this busy harbor with its huge ships, tugs, pleasure boats, and confusing array of navigation lights. And Navy ships, HUGE navy ships. Naval Station Norfolk is the world's largest naval installation and it's interesting to be so close to all these ships.

We haven't spent all our time looking at boats though. Yesterday we visited the Chrysler Museum of Art. They have a wonderful collection of American art like this Bierstadt

and this Renoir

and this painting by Gustave Jean Jacquet, who was a disciple of Bouguereau. You can see the influence, can't you?

The museum also has many gorgeous sculptures

and a huge collection of Lalique glass.

The museum also has decent displays of Asian, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, African, and Precolombian art. Like this 3500 year old figurine from Western Mexico. Traveling through Mexico and Central America in the last few years, we visited lots of museums, but I never saw anything like this. Thank you Chrysler Museum of Art for a very interesting day.