Have Some Fun This Weekend

This weekend the weather should start to cool off. It is a great time to enjoy the end of summer. At Nauticus take advantage of your Norfolk Library card with a buy one; get one free admission offer to all Norfolk library card holders. You must present your valid library card for this special offer. No other offers apply. Free admission is of equal or lesser value is included and it good for the entire month of September.

For the senior folks in your life, they are offering anyone ages 62 and older a $12 admission all month.

A special event for September is a 30-minute, narrated tour from the unique perspective of a restored and Coast Guard-approved Navy Whale Boat, which served with the Battleship during the Persian Gulf War. Tours for up to 12 people at a time and departs from the Nauticus marina. Call for times.

Across the Elizabeth River is First Saturday in Downtown Portsmouth with a Farmer’s Market from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the corner of Court and High streets.

The courtyard of the Portsmouth Art and Cultural Center, at 400 High St., will have artist Glenn Richardson demonstrating his woodcarving abilities using chainsaws. His art can be seen in two exhibits. The performance, entitled a Mushroom Chainsaw Massacre, uses an arsenal of Stihl-made chainsaws. He will carve mushrooms and other sculptures out of solid cedar blocks, creating an amazing spectacle –and smell– as the cedar wood is cut.

Further down the road is dolphin watching trips with the Virginia Aquarium. It continues for another month. This year reports a high number of dolphins. 

Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center staffer Alexis Rabon who has been educating boat guests for four seasons said “just yesterday, we saw an estimated 70 dolphins and the sightings were nearly constant throughout the entire hour and a half. We saw them riding along with the boat at the wake and the bow, breaching, and slapping their tails. Many of the dolphins were juveniles.”

While my family and I have not done a trip this season, we have in the past two seasons. It is well worth it. The boats depart several times daily, weather permitting, from the Virginia Beach Fishing Center at Rudee Inlet. Guests enjoy a 90-minute ride along the Virginia Beach coast. Boat schedules are available on the Aquarium’s website: www.VirginiaAquarium.com or by calling 757 385-FISH. Tickets are sold at the Virginia Beach Fishing Center at Rudee Inlet (200 Winston Salem Ave.) prior to departure. The cost is $21 per adult (ages 12 and up) and $15 per child (4 -11 years old). Discount ticket vouchers can be purchased with Aquarium admission. The vouchers must be traded for tickets at least 30 minutes prior to boat departure. Vouchers are $18 per adult and $13 per child.

Speaking of animals, the Virginia Zoo now has two new female ostriches to the Africa – Okavango Delta exhibit. The other new animals include a baby siamang, two new Hartmann’s mountain zebras, and three African crowned crane chicks. 

Finally, there is a plea to help the Virginia Living Museum which experienced for the second time this year. If you happen by the museum, you can make a contribution to the flood relief fund.