A Truly Excellent Experience... For A Dollar!

  Now, you probably have the impression there's nothing to do around here because we've hardly done anything, right? There's no mountains, deserts or beaches. There's no ancient ruins, missile silos or things on sticks. It's a nice house and all but, with nothing of note nearby, we're forced to go further afield to find anything interesting. Thus, we continue to search.

  Tripadvisor told us to go to Historic Williamsburg. Our bank account told us to skip it. I mean, fifty bucks each for a couple of hours watching people engaging in colonial LARP? Not. I knew there must be something engaging that would provide better value so I dove, head first, into Googleworld and found two places that might be interesting.

  Our first stop was the Army Transportation Museum. It's free and gets good reviews. Score. The only problem is, Google doesn't tell you the only way to see it is by entering Fort Eustis, an active army base. We didn't know any of this until we came to the gate and a soldier demanded our pass. Pass? Google didn't say anything about a pass. Of course, Google didn't mention needing a pass to enter the top secret radar base on top of Mt. Olympus in Cypress either, but that didn't stop us. The soldier with the rifle did. Anyway, without our passports to prove we weren't Russian spies we weren't going to get a day pass so we turned around and left.

  That left us with two options resulting from my exhaustive Googling, Costco and the Mariners' Museum. Leaving frozen food in a hot car while we tour a museum is unwise so Costco was relegated to option B and we headed off to check out what the mariners had in store for us. It's worth noting that the last time we encountered mariners was at a ballpark in Seattle and it didn't turn out well for them. We assumed this place involved different mariners.

  In my research I'd found this museum held artifacts recovered from the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. If you're not familiar with it you can click here and find out why it was significant.  We expected this to be an interesting way to while away an hour. Were we ever wrong. It wasn't interesting. It was fascinating! And it took us all afternoon to see the place. And (drum roll please) admission was only $1 each. Yes. ONE DOLLAR.

  We started with a fifteen minute summary of the place presented to us by a very knowledgeable docent, very obviously thrilled that people from Canada came to see his museum. From there we encountered a reproduction of the ironclad casemate from the CSS Virginia (if you clicked on the link back there you'll know what I'm talking about).

Outside, there's a full size replica of the Monitor recently built by a local shipyard so you can see what it would have looked like IRL:

  It's worth noting here that, in my high school American History class I was taught the resulting battle was between the Monitor and the Merrimack. I'd never heard mention of the CSS Virginia. Well, it's that old "the victors write the history" thing. Because we're in Virginia and they were on the side of the Confederacy, it's referred to here as the Virginia. Everywhere else it's called the Merrimack since no one wanted to confer legitimacy upon the Confederates.

  At the end of 1862 the Monitor sank in the Atlantic Ocean off the Outer Banks of North Carolina and, starting in 1998, expeditions began recovering significant artifacts.

  The turret, guns and engine are in huge tanks as they are subjected to various chemical treatments designed to remove rust and preserve them for eventual display. As the wreck lay upside-down in the Atlantic Ocean that position has been maintained for the artifacts being treated. Here's the upside-down engine in one tank:

And the upside-down turret in another:

These artifacts have been in these tanks for thirteen years and may be immersed for seven more before they are deemed safe to expose to the air. Until then, the museum undertook to build a display to show what the upside-down turret looked like upon recovery:

As well as one depicting how it looked, right side up, when new:

  The museum also included a significant display of merchant marine models, some up to thirty feet long, and another display hall of various types of small boats including the 2013 America's Cup winner. All in all, quite an impressive museum. And all it cost us was $1 each.

  It wasn't always that way. Until 2016 admission was in line with other museums at around $15 each but management decided they would better serve their community by dropping the cost and encouraging the local population to visit and revisit this magnificent collection. Apparently, it worked. They collect virtually the same admission revenues as before but expose the collection to fifteen times as many visitors. Well done.

  The only black mark on this place was an annoying tour guide leading a herd of old people around. It seemed wherever we went there was that loud voice doing a passable imitation of RFK Jr, followed by a lot of shuffling and glazed eyes. Maybe they looked uninterested because it was nap time or maybe they were equally as annoyed with him as we were. Either way, they didn't look nearly as thrilled with all of it as we were. If you go see this place, and I heartily recommend it should you be in the neighbourhood, (although who has any reason to come here, I don't know) make sure you call before you go. Just ask if the annoying tour guide is working on that day. You've been warned.

  One other thing. They have a gift shop. I say this because every attraction like this has one. I know this because Penny says, "Oh look. They have a gift shop." Otherwise, I would never know. Like all the other ones, I say, "Ok. I have to pee. I'll meet you in the gift shop." I do what I have to do and then spend fifteen minutes wandering around looking at things I'll never buy while I wait for her to be done. Every once in a while I buy something I need, like a t-shirt, so they're not so bad and, in this case, I thought this place might offer something interesting.

  Anyway, after I'm done in the washroom I go to the gift shop and... it's empty. No Penny. I start looking behind things and under tables but no Penny. The nice lady, alarmed at my behaviour, asks if she can help. When I tell her I'm looking for my wife she asks, "The lady in the pink shirt?" Pink? I thought it was white. "Ooooookay", I stammer, "Yeah, pink shirt." She points outside and there she is sitting on a bench, waiting for me. I relate all of this because of its rarity. An entire gift shop unshopped. I checked her temperature and asked if she knew where she was. All was ok, except for the unshopped gift shop. I'm chalking this up to her being excited by the upcoming Costco visit. Maybe not, but we did just have an eclipse so anything can happen.

  And so, our "we'll spend an hour in this place" became an entire afternoon of fascinating discovery and education. We still went to Costco, because it was there. We plan to return to the Army Transportation Museum, with passports in hand, because it's free. And it might end up being another hidden gem. Stay tuned.