Answering Important Questions

Turns out the Newport in Newport News, Virginia, comes from Christopher Newport, a naval explorer and founder of Jamestown.  Of course, that's not the question anybody really cares about with the name Newport News.  The answer to that second question is that nobody really knows.  Could be it came from the fact that he brought news to settlers in the area.  Could be based on the Old English word "Ness."  But the result is a name that is really fun to say, so I'm glad that somebody came up with it.

And let's not pooh pooh Captain Newport, who may be an ancestor of my brother-in-law's family, the Cooks.  Not the Captain Cooks (yes, I know that might be confusing) but rather the Noblesville Cooks; one of whom, Sandy, now lives in Newport News.  See?  It's like the Circle of Life.

Here is Christopher Newport, standing in front of the university that bears his name.  No word yet on whether relatives get reduced tuition, although I'm sure my sister and brother-in-law would be interested since they have three sons who'll be looking at schools in the next few years.

Newport News is on the James River, near where it meets the Elizabeth River and the Chesapeake Bay and goes into the Atlantic Ocean.  It's near Virginia Beach, which is on the other side of a tunnel that people spend their entire day planning around.  The tunnel is called the Hampton Roads Beltway - or HRB, or <insert expletive here> HRB.  Since it is the most direct route from the north to Norfolk on Interstate 64, it tends to back up frequently.  But on a Sunday morning, when Sandy and I were headed to Norfolk to see Cirque du Soleil's Quidam, we had no trouble.  As a result, we had plenty of time to check out Neptune Park at Virginia Beach which is accurately named.

Here's Neptune:

And here's the beach:

Yes, it was as fabulous as you assume it would be.  Big win.  Cirque du Soleil was good, too.

Sandy and her friend Bill, and my friend Ken, and TripAdvisor all said that the Mariners' Museum in Newport News is excellent.  And it is.  I spent nearly three hours there, which is more than twice the time I normally spend at a museum.  When Bill asked me what my favorite part was, I really couldn't answer because there were many good parts.  Even Congress thinks so, having designated it America's National Maritime Museum.

Some of the exhibits are "only" interesting and well done illustrations of maritime history.

For instance, they have a well done exhibit about Admiral Nelson.  They have a lot of information about steam ships, and a good history of shipcraft.  I was there on April 15, which was a year and a day after the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, about which they have a good exhibit.  And they have a bunch of miniature ships built by a man named August Crabtree, a couple of which are shown here.

They have an exhibit featuring dozens of artifacts that literally are A (advertisements, angels) to Z (Zug, Switzerland, and the Zuiderzee in the Netherlands.)

The museum also includes the International Small Craft Center, a collection of several dozen smaller boats including a handmade boat made by Cuban refugees and, at the other end of the scale, a couple of Chris-Craft motorboats.  Laurie, I took this picture especially for you.

They currently have a temporary exhibit called Abandon Ship which is about what it's like to be stranded at sea.  This part of the museum doesn't exactly make you want to get into a boat, and there's a sign that says "might not be suitable for young children."  Agreed.

But wait, there's more.  Everything I've listed, plus some more, is only about 60% of the museum.  The rest is dedicated to Civil War naval history and conservation, focused on the great ironclad battleships of the Civil War:  the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia.  These two ships faced each other during the Battle of Hampton Roads (I think it's funny that a naval battle is named "road" but there you have it - yes, yes, it's named after the town, I understand) with the result being a draw. However, the battle showed the overwhelming superiority of ironclad ships over wooden ships, and that was a sea change, if you don't mind my interjecting a pun, in how navies operated.  The museum has a large and excellent multi-media exhibit about this history.

They also have the Monitor herself, or at least a bunch of her, which is being restored/conserved there, after having been pulled up from the deep in 2002.  Here's a picture of a cannon being soaked in some sort of magical solution to help remove 150 years of corrosion.

Newport News is also near Jamestown and Williamsburg, but that will be the next post so be sure to stay tuned.  And I must show you a picture of what I found on my bed when I arrived at Sandy and Bill's - they set a very high bar for hospitality, and that doesn't even count amazing dinners.

Some of you serial readers may still wonder what a "voosier" is.  What kind of dramatist would I be if I had answered that question at the beginning of the post?  A voosier is a Hoosier who lives in Virginia.  Thank you, Sandy and Bill, not only for your great hospitality, but for adding another word to the English language.