Well, I suppose that’s not strictly true, but there sure is a whole lot of old on the Virginia Peninsula.
I got set up at the Newport News City Park. There was water and electricity at the site, good phone reception – which means I also had internet access – and lots of TV signals that I could catch with my antenna. Let the good times roll!
As soon as I got set up, I decided to head over to Virginia Beach. I wanted my “sea to shining sea” moment.
Just six months earlier, I was on the Pacific.
I actually thought that it would be warm enough to go into the water. It was 70º, after all. But, I was rather chilly. Heck, even the hamburger I bought at the Dairy Queen was cold!
The Norwegian Lady Statue seemed like an appropriate addition to the chilly breezes coming off the water.
The Norwegian Lady Statue is there to commemorate the aid given to the crew of The Dictator, a Norwegian sailing ship that grounded off the shore in 1891. Eight of the seventeen people on board were saved. Captain Jørgensen washed ashore later, alive, but semi-conscious. Unfortunately, his wife and four-year-old son were among the people who died as the ship broke apart in the surf.
The figurehead of the ship eventually washed ashore and was placed in a vertical position facing the ocean as a memorial to those who perished in the shipwreck. It remained there until 1953 when it was damaged in Hurricane Barbara. It was taken down and stored in a city-owned building for safe keeping. Somehow, the figurehead disappeared.
Interest in Moss, Norway and Virginia Beach grew, and there was a drive in both cities to replace the memorial. Norwegian sculptor Ørnulf Bast was commissioned to create two nine-foot bronze statues – one for each city. They were unveiled in 1962. Moss and Virginia Beach are now sister cities.
Driving around a beach city on a chilly day after tourist season is over is kind of …pointless?
Another sight I made a point of seeing was The Cavalier. It was a hotel built in 1927 that was known as the world’s largest hirer of big bands, such as Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Lawrence Welk and Glen Miller. In 1929, Coors Brewery founder Adolph Coors mysteriously plunged to his death from this sixth floor room. It also served as a U.S. Navy radar training school in WWII. The sailors stayed in the stables and they drained the pool for use as a classroom.
It was under reconstruction, and will reopen in 2016.
One of the domes was sitting in a lot across the street.
I love my HISTORY Here app, but it doesn’t necessarily tell you if something is “tourist friendly.”
One of the items that I saw on the listing for the area was Drydock Number One. It is part of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. You should have seen the confused expressions of the guards at the gate when I showed up and told them that I wanted to see Drydock Number One. The politely informed me that the public wasn’t admitted. I had to hand him my drivers’ license, which they kept until I turned around and was on my way out.
Why would I want to see a dry dock, you ask? Well, I’ve never seen one, have you? Also, it was completed in 1834, although it was opened while it was still under construction. It serviced the USS Delaware in 1833. During the Civil War, the remains of the USS Merrimack were transformed into the ironclad CSS Virginia, a Confederate warship. It was built from Massachusetts granite at a cost of $974,365.65.
According to HISTORY Here, it is still in use today. I make that out to be $5.444.63 a year. I’d say we’ve gotten our money’s worth.