After a quiet overnight anchorage in Mobjack Bay, we continued south to Tidewater Yacht Marina in Portsmouth (across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk).  We felt fortunate to get a dock here for July 4, and when we arrived we saw a lot of available dock space taken up by several 100+ ft. yachts.
The weather couldn’t have been more cooperative – the afternoon rain went away, the temperatures dropped to the comfortable mid-80’s, and the fireworks were the most spectacular we have ever seen.  Of course, what else would you expect from the city that is home to the world’s largest naval base?!!
It looks like we will be here at least until Monday morning – hopefully not longer, because we are anxious to get home to our air-conditioned surroundings.  This has been a brutally hot couple of weeks!  There is a tropical depression off of the Carolina coast right now (July 7), so we need to wait and see where that moves in the next 24 hours — wave heights on Currituck and Albemarle Sounds have been between 3 and 4 feet, and waves that size on a shallow body of water are something we would rather avoid.   I have to say, if you must be stuck in one place for awhile, Norfolk is one place you’d want to be — we’ve enjoyed several ferry rides, had some delicious meals, spent time in one of my all-time-most-favorite bookstores, watched the world cup soccer games on a tv screen the size of our largest living-room wall, and enjoyed the air-conditioned comfort of one of the most beautiful shopping malls around.  Tomorrow we hope to have dinner at a rooftop restaurant in the Hilton, one block away from the waterfront.

One of our dock neighbors.

We enjoyed an excellent (egg-cellent?!) breakfast at this “diner” we’ve been frequenting for years.  They’ve done well, we noted,  as we walked into a newly-renovated, upscale place with the same great food. How nice!

With temperatures still in the 90’s, it was fairly easy to get Mr. Smith into the mall.

and, he quickly disappeared into the  crowd at the Apple Store!

A classic, *real* bookstore with cafe,  beautiful cards, and an always-friendly staff.  They even had my “membership” card on file from many years ago!

Don’t know the occasion, but there were bagpipes playing as our ferry  stopped to pick up passengers. The pipers got on the water taxi instead of the ferry, and continued to play while  riding up and down the Elizabeth River.

We enjoyed a 1997 bottle of Howard Park Cab/Merlot – a gift from Doug’s boss when he retired. Just enough terroir for me, and still smooth.