Monday, September 28, 2009

Fun times in Norfolk

Yesterday our family met up with Amber, my college roommate, at Schlotzsky's in Norfolk. I think that place is my favorite sandwich shop in the world! It's a little chain out of Texas and they have the most amazing sourdough bread. The original purpose of our trip was to check out an acoustic festival being held at the park next door. It wasn't quite what we expected and the atmosphere wasn't an enjoyable as we'd hoped either. The music was nice, but from the advertisements we thought there would be more of it! They did have a book fair alongside it though that featured local artists. I bought a book for H3 entitled "The Little Pot" and the author signed it for her. The story is about a little fruit pot who was trying to figure out what the potter meant for him to be. It's a very cute story based out of a verse in Galations and well-illustrated. I hope H3 will enjoy it!

After browsing the book fair, we stopped into Nauticus, a local naval museum. Since the festival was free, we didn't bring a lot of money with us and didn't feel like paying the $11 to see the exhibits, but then we discovered that the self-guided tour through the USS Wisonsin (a WWII battleship that served in the Korean War and Gulf War as well) and accompanying exhibit were free! We took about 1 hour to browse the exhibit and the ship and it was then that I really wished I hadn't left my camera at home! In the rush to get out the door for church I completely forgot it! Amber took a couple pictures so I'm going to try and track down some from here. Anyways, I was pleased to note that the tour was very stroller and wheelchair friendly, so maybe one of these days I can bring my parents here or Grandpa. I'm sure he'd enjoy taking a look at it! The Wisconsin was decommissioned in 1991 and is technically in mothball state, waiting to be permanantly retired as a museum ship. We did find out though that the engines were cooled and sealed in such a manner as to prevent rust and would be in perfect working condition if needed again! They are kept at a constant temp of 40 degrees!

There seem to be a lot of festivals in this area over the next couple months and most are free, so hopefully we'll get to explore a few more of them and in the future I will try to remember my camera!

~H2

2 comments:

Carissa Blanchard said...

I LOVE sour dough bread!! I know Grandpa would love to see that ship! Glad you had a nice day! I hate it when I forget my camera! Maybe you could start posting some of your magnificant recipes that you are always talking about on FB! Do you have a recipe for marshmallow brownies? I am picturing brownies with marshmallows on top and chocolate drizzle of some sort. I'm sure I could creat such a thing...doesn't that sound good? YUM!

JJ said...

I don't have a recipe for marshmallow brownies, but I do have one for mint chip gooey fudge brownies. Would that work? Marshmallow brownies do sound really good. Mmmmm. I feel inspired. Next time I go to the store I'm going to try and come up with some!