Tonight is our sixth and last night in Norfolk at Waterside Marina. It will take an hour to get out on the main bay, then the prediction is 3 – 4 foot waves for the 2 hour trip past the Chesapeake entrance where we’re exposed to the Atlantic, and then 2 – 3 foot waves afterward as we go up to Chesapeake Boat Basin in Kilmarnock VA. It probably gets worse a day or two after that, so we may stay a day or two extra in Kilmarnock.

The prediction got a bit worse tonight as opposed to last night. If it gets any worse tomorrow morning we’ll stay here instead.

It’s been great to be right downtown Norfolk. We have been able to walk everywhere except for the Naval base tour and the Chrysler Museum, and the museum was pretty close.

We were thinking of attending the oldest (Episcopal) church in Norfolk, but as we walked to the old town we noticed an old tower sticking above other buildings. It looked almost haunted. On closer inspection what it needed most was a good cleaning and maybe some paint on non masonry parts. The tower belonged to the Epworth Methodist church that was built in 1896. We went there on Sunday. The attendance was small for such a large church, and the large organ unfortunately was little used. I guess if it had a larger congregation they would have cleaned up the tower?

After church we walked a block to the Hunter House Victorian Museum. This was built in 1894 by a merchant for his wife, son and two daughters. Turns out none of the children married, all remained in the home and the last daughter donated it to the city when she died in 1965. Everything was still as it was when the family lived there.

After that we walked to the Moses Myers home. This house underwent its first major restoration in 1892. Moses Myers was a prominent Jewish merchant and for a while the richest man in the US. The family remained prominent in Norfolk for many years. His grandson sold the Norfolk Naval base land to the government and his great grandson Barton Myers was mayor of Norfolk.

We last visited the Willoughby Baylor home, built in 1794. This has been converted into a small history museum for Norfolk. After this we were just across the street from the Episcopal church, the oldest building in Norfolk. We went there to find the first (of 5) entrance we tried, the one from the churchyard (cemetery) had been left open, probably inadvertently since all others were locked. Anyway we went on in and looked around. We found the cannonball that lodged in the exterior wall from the Revolutionary War.

We visited the Naval base on Monday and the MacArthur museum (learned a lot there) on Tuesday and the Chrysler Museum of Art (and glass) on Wednesday. Where would we be now if that disagreement between MacArthur and Truman had gone the other way? How many more might have died back then? Tough decisions.