During colonial times, Norfolk (pop. 234,403; NAW-fik) was the largest city in Virginia and one of the busiest ports in North America. It’s still very much connected with the water, which you can experience firsthand at the Nauticus National Maritime Center (daily in summer, closed Mon. rest of year; $9.95; 757/664-1000), where the engaging displays inside are dwarfed by the massive hulk of the battleship USS Wisconsin moored alongside. Away from the waterfront, Norfolk has a couple more worthwhile destinations, including the lovely Chrysler Museum (closed Mon. & Tues.; $7; 757/664-6200), on the north side of downtown off Olney Road and Duke Street. The personal art collection of Walter Chrysler, the self-educated engineer who created one of the “Big Three” car companies and built New York’s Chrysler Building, is displayed inside a commodious Italianate building. Norfolk, a staunch Navy town, also holds the final resting place of controversial U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur, preserved alongside his personal papers (and his 1950 Chrysler Imperial limousine) at the MacArthur Memorial (daily; free), inside Norfolk’s old City Hall building at Bank and Plume Streets downtown.
Even if you’re just racing through, bound for the beach, Norfolk has one place where you really ought to stop and eat: Doumar’s Cones and BBQ (757/627-4163), a half mile north of downtown at 19th Street and Monticello Avenue. Besides being a real old-fashioned drive-in, this place stakes a claim to having invented the ice cream cone, since the owner’s uncle, Abe Doumar, sold the first ones at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. They still sell great handmade cones, very good BBQ sandwiches, and a thirst-quenching limeade. Pass by at your peril. . . .
For a stylish but inexpensive place to stay, try the historic Clarion James Madison ($79–139; 757/622-6682), at 345 Granby Street.
From Norfolk, you can take US-17 south across the aptly named Great Dismal Swamp, or follow the faster Hwy-168, which takes you past a feast of roadside fruit stands, BBQ shacks, and junk shops, straight down to Kitty Hawk and the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
