Norfolk, Virginia

About an hour and a half drive to Norfolk, passing cornfields and more lush, green fields. Spent a couple of hours in the Norfolk Botanical Gardens and only managed to see a small part of them. A small tram travels around the gardens, stopping at various points so people can get off and explore without having to walk everywhere. The rose garden was beautiful - about 30,00 roses! The rhododendrons weren't in bloom but they must be spectacular when they are. Weather was quite muggy this morning.
After lunch we drove into Norfolk, parked the car and picked up our tickets for the two hour Naval Base cruise. The working port is huge and the actual Naval Base was an hour from shore. It's the largest in the world and the amount of money tied up in it is mind blowing. There were no aircraft carriers in port as the Dwight D Eisenhower had deployed two hours earlier, with 7000 people on board. The USNS Comfort was in port - it's the largest hospital ship in the world. It's secondary purpose is to provide hospital services in support of US humanitarian relief missions. There were a couple of enormous ships that are affectionately called "floating Walmarts" as they can supply almost anything! The newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford will cost about $12.5 billion to build - building commenced 6 years ago!
Checked into our hotel and asked the manager for suggestions for dinner. He organised a zippy little golf cart for transport (free) to the Freemason Abbey restaurant. Apparently Norfolk hosted a big basketball conference some years ago and the buggies were used to transport people around the city. They were so successful that the city decided to keep them and use them for tourists - it was great fun and the meal was fantastic & a lovely way to end the day. The buggies don't operate after about 8.45 so we eventually had to walk back to the hotel.
Some shots of the Botanical Gardens, including the Japanese a garden, the perennial and border gardens and the geese & goslings we came across by the lake. The last one is of the USNS Comfort but the weather had turned very nasty at that point and it was too wet to be able to get really good shots.Read more