Puffin is now in Norfolk and to my surprise, there is insufficient time to do all the things we'd like, despite three days here already and counting. Puffin is docked at Waterside Marina, a city owned facility in downtown Norfolk that's an integral part of a massively renovated city downtown and waterfront area.

Unusually wide and handsomely landscaped walkways lead us like a brick carpet to the three-story Nauticus, a navel museum and other things nautical that includes an entire, floating battleship. The Wisconsin, armed with some of the largest guns ever made at sixteen inches, was built during World War II and only recently retired. It was an incredibly massive piece of engineering and metalwork.

The earlier mentioned herringbone brick walkways took us on to a large section of artfully designed townhouses. Perhaps unique in setting this area apart visually from other renovated cityscapes elsewhere were the foundation plantings in front of all the houses, which were then fronted by the brick sidewalks and sizeable trees bordering the streets and providing shade and a visually soft texture to the city's masonry.

These walkways continued on to an opulent three story mall and a food store that was a delightful mix between a large chain type and gourmet food store with lots of eye appeal.

Nancy and I also visited the old town section of Portsmouth across the Elizabeth River: a historic group of houses many of which date back to the America's revolution.

Tomorrow Puffin and Civil Twilight move on to North Carolina and Puffin's first lock adventure.