Mariner's Museum

    The weather forecast has been for rain most of the week but we have had one perfect day after another.  We saved our visit to the Mariner's Museum for the "rainy" day, but since this is the last day we are here in Williamsburg, sunshine or not, today we went to an indoor museum.   It was highly rated in Fodor's and TripAdvisor which isn't always a decision factor for us, but it sounded like something just up our alley.
   The museum has several focal areas:  the boats of the Chesapeake Bay area, the story of and artifacts from the Civil War armored ship the USS Monitor, and a big gallery of various small sailboats, rowboats, and watercraft from around the world.  There was also a special exhibit on surviving at sea after a shipwreck.   The first thing that we saw was a huge light from a Chesapeake Bay lighthouse.  It looked like a beautiful chandelier.
   The museum does a great job of telling the stories that go with the boats.  This includes fishing and hunting from boats on the Chesapeake, the Civil War battle between the Virginia and the Monitor, the recovery of portions of the Monitor over 150 years after its sinking, and spoken and written accounts of survivors sea disasters.  Movies, narratives from letters and logs, old photos and many life size models bring the stories to life.  The only drawback was that the museum was kept at refrigeration chill and we had to step outside to warm up.
    We came back the camper and spent our last afternoon in the outdoor living room.  Rick was getting ready to grill some chops when the thunder began.  We packed up our chairs and carried the hard cider indoors just as the rain began to pour.  Temps are supposed to be about 10 degrees cooler tomorrow as we head back to the Blue Ridge Parkway and up into the mountains.  Time to pull out our jeans and fleece shirts.
     We will be following the parkway and staying in some little campgrounds along the way.  Once again most of the campsites are without WI-FI and many without power.  I will check in as we hit pockets of cell access.  We are now slowly heading back towards home - always both a sad and a happy time.  The hills are calling me.