Touring The - Nauticus Naval Museum Norfolk, VA & USS Wisconsin (BB-64)
Nauticus was incorporated under the National Maritime Center Authority in February 1988. The following month, Rear Admiral Jackson Knowles Parker USN, (Ret), retired commander of Norfolk Naval Base, became the Founding Executive Director. Construction began at the former site of Norfolk's Banana Pier on the downtown Norfolk Waterfront in February 1992 and Nauticus opened to the public in June 1994. Other attractions close by include the Virginia Zoo, Norfolk Scope and Harbor Park, home to the Norfolk Tides.
There is a great parking garage across the street from the Naval Museum. Park here and walk to many other great museums in the area. Including the Gen. Douglas MacArthur museum. The USS Wisconsin (BB-64) is next to this Museum. You enter the USS Wisconsin (BB-64) through the museum and this is where you purchase the tickets to go on the Wisconsin.
The City of Norfolk opened the Half Moone Cruise and Celebration Center—located at Nauticus on April 7, 2007. The 80,000-square-foot, passenger-friendly facility features views of the Elizabeth River; an enclosed, elevated passenger gangway; a retractable bridge leading into a 16-slip marina; a terrazzo floor tile in the entrance; a separate lounge and check-in area for cruise line VIP passengers; a security-focused Customs and Border Protection area and an embarkation stations. Its first passenger ship, RCI's Empress of the Seas, arrived on April 28 2007.
The Half Moone also serves as an event venue with approximately 23,000 square feet of event spaces, each of which include interpretation and exhibits. Among the areas available for special event rental are the Bermuda Room, which displays artifacts and objects that tell the historic connections between Virginia and Bermuda; the Half Moone Vista, which includes some facts about the original fort; and the Lido and Promenade Decks, which address functions of those traditional decks on board cruise ships.
The name—Half Moone—is taken from the name of the fort that was built on the same site in 1673 in the form of a half moone. The fort was built to protect Norfolk's burgeoning maritime industry.
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Littoral combat ship USS Independence (LCS 2) Arrives at Naval Station Norfolk | AiirSource
NORFOLK, Va. (April 14, 2010) Littoral combat ship USS Independence (LCS-2) arrives at Naval Station Norfolk for the first time as part of it's maiden voyage. Operations at sea during this maiden voyage consisted of testing the ship's capabilities and limitations. (US Navy video by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Scott Pittman/Released)
Courtesy Video | Defense Imagery Management Operations Center | Date: 04.14.2010
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Great American Cleanup with Norfolk and the Navy - Norfolk Perspectives with Bob Batcher
See how the Navy is working with the community in the city of Norfolk to encourage a healthy clean city by participating in the Great American Clean Up.
Keep Norfolk Beautiful encourages residents to volunteer to clean up the bay, beaches and streets this year. Sign up soon and get more information at
Auburn Coach Wife Kristi Malzahn Agrees with Match & eHarmony: Men are Jerks
My advice is this: Settle! That's right. Don't worry about passion or intense connection. Don't nix a guy based on his annoying habit of yelling Bravo! in movie theaters. Overlook his halitosis or abysmal sense of aesthetics. Because if you want to have the infrastructure in place to have a family, settling is the way to go. Based on my observations, in fact, settling will probably make you happier in the long run, since many of those who marry with great expectations become more disillusioned with each passing year. (It's hard to maintain that level of zing when the conversation morphs into discussions about who's changing the diapers or balancing the checkbook.)
Obviously, I wasn't always an advocate of settling. In fact, it took not settling to make me realize that settling is the better option, and even though settling is a rampant phenomenon, talking about it in a positive light makes people profoundly uncomfortable. Whenever I make the case for settling, people look at me with creased brows of disapproval or frowns of disappointment, the way a child might look at an older sibling who just informed her that Jerry's Kids aren't going to walk, even if you send them money. It's not only politically incorrect to get behind settling, it's downright un-American. Our culture tells us to keep our eyes on the prize (while our mothers, who know better, tell us not to be so picky), and the theme of holding out for true love (whatever that is—look at the divorce rate) permeates our collective mentality.
Even situation comedies, starting in the 1970s with The Mary Tyler Moore Show and going all the way to Friends, feature endearing single women in the dating trenches, and there's supposed to be something romantic and even heroic about their search for true love. Of course, the crucial difference is that, whereas the earlier series begins after Mary has been jilted by her fiancé, the more modern-day Friends opens as Rachel Green leaves her nice-guy orthodontist fiancé at the altar simply because she isn't feeling it. But either way, in episode after episode, as both women continue to be unlucky in love, settling starts to look pretty darn appealing. Mary is supposed to be contentedly independent and fulfilled by her newsroom family, but in fact her life seems lonely. Are we to assume that at the end of the series, Mary, by then in her late 30s, found her soul mate after the lights in the newsroom went out and her work family was disbanded? If her experience was anything like mine or that of my single friends, it's unlikely.
And while Rachel and her supposed soul mate, Ross, finally get together (for the umpteenth time) in the finale of Friends, do we feel confident that she'll be happier with Ross than she would have been had she settled down with Barry, the orthodontist, 10 years earlier? She and Ross have passion but have never had long-term stability, and the fireworks she experiences with him but not with Barry might actually turn out to be a liability, given how many times their relationship has already gone up in flames. It's equally questionable whether Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw, who cheated on her kindhearted and generous boyfriend, Aidan, only to end up with the more exciting but self-absorbed Mr. Big, will be better off in the framework of marriage and family. (Some time after the breakup, when Carrie ran into Aidan on the street, he was carrying his infant in a Baby Björn. Can anyone imagine Mr. Big walking around with a Björn?)