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.

New York City

October 18, 2017

We stayed in Port Washington, New York for a couple of days waiting for good weather. We figured it would be a good time to visit New York City so we took the Long Island Rail Road (similar to CalTrain) into the city and arrived at Penn Station. From there we walked to the Empire State Building and went to the top for some fabulous views.

This is looking east towards Port Washington where Thistle is.

This is looking south towards the East River which we will transit soon. You can also see the Chrysler Building.

This is looking southwest towards the mouth of the Hudson River. You can see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

Next we walked to the Library, used in the filming of "Ghost Busters". It really is a beautiful and inspiring building.

In fact, New York City is full of fascinating and historically important buildings like Grand Central Station, 

St. Patrick's Cathedral,

Macys,

and Saint Thomas Church.

Next we walked up Fifth Avenue along Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we saw gorgeous works of art by Cassatt,

Degas,

Monet,

Pierre August Cot,

Bouguereau,

and this monumental work by Emanuel Leutze.

The museum also has a nice collection of sculpture,

and some nice American glass

including these Early American flasks.

After walking to Times Square in the evening we crashed at what has to be the worst hotel ever. As if the lumpy, noisy bed weren't bad enough, the shared bathrooms had horrible shower heads and no exhaust fans. The "breakfast" consisted of hot water and instant coffee packets, cookies, and bananas. We've stayed in nicer hotels in third world countries, but we were so tired from walking all day that we slept like logs anyway.

We walked to Washington Square and then to the 9/11 Memorial. I remember so vividly watching the events of that morning, and the museum does a great job of documenting it.

We also walked by Battery Park, Wall Street, the Charging Bull, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the tallships.

We took our last ride on the subway back to Penn Station, hopped on the LIRR, walked back to the public landing at Port Washington, took the water taxi back to Thistle and got a good night's sleep in preparation for the East River.

The next day we made the quick run (with the current) down the East River and to the anchorage near Lady Liberty. Then we made the 32 hour run around New Jersey, up the Delaware River, and into the Chesapeake Bay.

My Adventurous Gene

My dad was a pretty adventurous guy, and I guess that's where I got my "adventure" gene. He served in the Navy during WWII, flew airplanes, owned all kinds of boats, and enjoyed camping and traveling. And he loved to fix stuff and build things; heck, there wasn't much he wouldn't try.

Back in the 1960s this boat was featured in Popular Mechanics magazine. My dad decided we should build one, so I drafted up the plans from the magazine onto butcher paper, he cut the wood and built it out in the back shed, and then I sewed the sails.

We sailed it on the San Joaquin River Delta, and often towed it up to Camanche Reservoir for big family outings. He would sail back and forth from the launch ramp many times to get everyone and all their gear out to the island where we'd swim and play all day.

He made being a kid fun because he always had some educational project or activity going on. Possibly because he was still a kid at heart.

Thanks for all the good times Dad.

Rest in peace.

Newport, Rhode Island

Yachting, history, art, music, shopping, and Gilded Age mansions; Newport seems to have it all.

From the anchorage near the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, we took our dinghy into one of the many free public landings, and spent the morning exploring the town. After lunch we walked out along Bellevue Avenue admiring the mansions.

In less than a mile we arrived at the Breakers, queen of the Newport mansions. Cornelius Vanderbilt II had this "cottage" built in 1893 for his family's summer home.

Newport also has many normal homes of great historical value.

There are plenty of yachts belonging to the rich and famous in Newport Harbor. We saw this one, Adix, anchored in Antigua in 2015.

But the most fascinating bit of history we saw was the building where the game Rock-Paper-Scissors was invented in 1780. Apparently the Marquis de Lafayette and Comte de Rochambeau were really bored one day and, well, they invented that game to pass the time!

Newport, Rhode Island really is amazing. 

Fort Constitution, New Castle, and the Portsmouth Yacht Club

We spent a day in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area recently. We checked out Fort Constitution.

Judy and Malcolm at the Fort.

We walked around the charming village of New Castle.

The traditional siding on this home was fastened with hand wrought square nails.

We took a mooring at the Portsmouth Yacht Club and pretended like we were high rollers with Norman's Jaguar.

Stephen in Norman's Jaguar.

Malcolm looking cool at the Yacht Club.