Friday, June 1, 2012



Norfolk is the largest Naval Staion in the world.

Mermaids are located throughout the city.

F.R.E.D offers free transportation
throughout the Downtown Improvement District

Spent the day in Norfolk. We started with a ride on Fred, a free transportation service within the Norfolk  Downtown Improvement District. Fred is a battery operated golf cart that seats six including the driver. It has a solar panel on the roof for recharging and is available on demand for residents, workers and guests. We wanted to visit Fort Norfolk, deemed the best-preserved War of 1812 site in America, so Fred took us to the end of the Downtown District and we walked across a bridge to the actual fort. The brochure was more interesting than the fort itself, but it was a nice walk and ride. On the way back to the marina area, we used Norfolk's relatively new public transit system that is called Tide. Tide is a modern electric trolley that extends 7.4 miles through downtown Norfolk. In the afternoon, Diane and Karen visited the Chrysler Museum of Art and toured the Freemason Historical District. We planned to go to a ball game in the evening, but thunderstorms rolled through. For dinner, we went to Omar's Carriage House Restaurant. The carriage house was built in the early 1840's to serve a mansion that faced Freemason Street. In the center of the restaurant ceiling there is a large opening where hay was dropped for the horses. We had a great meal, met Omar and then took Fred's last trip of the evening back to the boat. Shortly after getting back to the boat we were entertained with serious lightning, thunder and heavy rain. Diane heads back to Asheville, NC tomorrow and we are looking forward to our next guests, Doug and Ellen, who are flying in from Miami later on Saturday.