In the morning Keith and I journeyed into Norfolk over the bridge and through the tunnel among all the Navy ships. The harbor is a very impressive sight. An Aegis cruiser was entering the port accompanied by a fire boat with plumes of water streaming from its water cannons. We parked near the shore and walked to the impressive Nauticus site at the National Maritime Center http://www.thenmc.org/ . This includes the battleship USS Wisconsin. Nauticus is a combination maritime and science museum. It is very well done with a combination of old fashioned museum and computer displays. The most impressive was the mock-up of the Aegis control room where a moderator demonstrates the different armaments. Then each seat has a control panel and one is asked to select the correct response to a threat in real time. It is not as easy as it sounds, especially when more than one threat presents itself at one time. For the finale everything comes in at once and the ship blows up. After this excitement we toured the battleship Wisconsin. However, unlike the battleship North Carolina in Wilmington one can’t go inside as the ship is still commissioned and could be pulled back into service as it was in the first Gulf War. After our tour we met Martin at a Marina filled with sailboat for an elegant dinner.
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