Esther and I spent a long weekend in Virginia Beach last weekend.

We had driven through the Hampton Roads area before on the way to or from Williamsburg but had not seen any of the lighthouses in the area - except for a distant few of Thimble Shoal.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express at 26th & Atlantic Ave literally right on the beach. I highly reccomend it - the only downside is the line in the morning for the free breakfast (not bad as free ones go, either).

Here's the view from our 3rd floor balcony -



The first night we were there they showed a film for free literally beneath our room on the beach (Madagascar 2).

They also provide a shower to clean off before coming into the hotel.




The beach and the boardwalk are wide and well kept. There is very little commercial activity on the boardwalk- the stores are on the street side of the hotels lining the beach.

We decided to take a ride on Saturday 8-7 National Lighthouse Day to see a few lighthouses.

Our first stop was at Fort Story for Old & New Cape Henry Lights.

We went through an extensive security check upon entering the Fort which is actually an active Naval Base (part of Little Creek) at this time.

The security officers doing the search discovered a pair of needle nosed pliers that the honda service department had left in the engine compartment earlier in the week. They joked that they would have to take me into custody for attempting to smuggle them into the base.

We were cleared and given specific instructions as to which parts of the base we were allowed to be in and went on our way.

The base is also the site of the first landing in Virginia and there is a monument to that as well.

We drove on our way to the lighthouses. here are various views of the 2 lighthouses - individually and together.

New Cape Henry LH as you first drive up to it.



Old Cape Henry LH from below at the gift shop - missing a pane of glass and showing some cracks as well.



New Cape Henry lens from the gift shop area across the road.



Another view of Old Cape Henry from below.




Old Cape Henry from it's base after climbing the steps up to it.



New Cape Henry from Old Cape Henry base.



Old Cape Henry from the steps going down.



Here's a shot of both taken from near the First Landing monument area.



We had a very nice conversation with the volunteers in the gift shop about the lights here and in NJ- I was wearing a sandy hook t-shirt - and the lights in the US older than the ones here and in NJ.

Somehow the subject of National Lighthouse Day was not brought up by any of us, though.

We left the lighthouses here and continued on our way to the next light- Thimble Shoal LH .

We stopped for lunch on our way to the next LH- Thimble Shoal- and Esther took this photo as she thought a friend of our's would get a kick out of the sign.



I didn't do a Brady and take photos of our meal, though.

We drove over the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel and got this distant view of Thimble Shoal LH.



We continued on to Fort Monroe and while there got this very slightly better view of the LH.

We had to go through another security check to enter fort monroe- where Old Point Comfort LH is located. It was a bit simpler than the one at Fort Story- just some questions and showing id's.

We had no problem finding the LH- just follow the road to it from the checkpoint.

Here's a few views of the LH and the area around it.












This view shows the mound where some of the gun emblacements of Fort Monroe are.



Here is one of the guns on that mound.



This ship was sailing out to sea while we were there. Does anybody know what specific type of ship this is-



I got a closer view of it a few moments later.



We left Fort monroe and made our way to Newport News for the next light on our list- Newport News Middle Ground LH.

We continued on our way and following the directions on the Lighthouse Friends site i drove to Jefferson Park in Newport News where you are supposed to be able to see the Newport News Middle Ground LH.

Unfortunately it did not seem to be in view. In retrospect I believe the fishing pier was blocking the view of the LH.

We got back onto the road to travel to Portsmouth for our next stop the Portsmouth Lightship.

I had actually put my camera in the back seat and turned it off when the thought that the LH might be visible as we entered or left the tunnel portion of the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge tunnel that goes from Newport News, VA to Suffolk, VA.

I saw the LH as we came out of the tunnel and grabbed the camera and quickly turned it on but i was only able to get this poor shot of the LH.

I didn't have time even to zoom in much.



However on Sunday while Esther was at the beach I took a ride and got a slightly better (in some ways) photo of the LH. The weather was a bit hazier on sunday, unfortunately.

I had to make an illegal stop on the bridge portion traveling from suffolk to Newport News to get the photo- no police descended and I was there for literally less than a minute to get the photo.




We continued on our way to our last stop of the day- the Portsmouth Lighthship on Water St. in Pourtsmouth.

We lucked out most of the day and ran into no major traffic jams- luckily we were traveling in the right direction. If I had started in Portsmouth we would have hit a 5 mile backup on our way to Fort Story.

Unfortunately we got to the Lightship 15 minutes after closing time for the day. Luckily we got to speak with some of the volunteers there as they were packing up.

The gentleman we spoke to was wearing the uniform of the Lifesaving Service that day. He rotates the uniforms he wears to include the others used at the various types of stations involved with lighthouses. life saving and the coast guard.

He aslo gives tours at the Old Coast Guard Station in Virginia Beach (which actually started out as a LSS prior to being a CG station)located about 2-3 blocks away from our hotel.

It is very difficult to get a full shot of the lighthship due to where it is berthed.

Here's what you see as you drive up to it-



Here are some side shots that allow you to get the entire ship in them.

This one shows the volunteers packing up.






I also saw another ship that I hope someone can identify for me-



This completed our trip around Hampton Roads to see the local lighthouses.

I walked down the Boardwalk Sunday morning to get some photos of the LSS / Old Coast Guard Station. It was a bit foggy at the time, though.

The gentleman i spoke to on Saturday had told me that it was originally built as a Light saving Station and that it became a coast guard Station and was in use into the mid 20th century.

It was closed down and a new station built further up the beach. It was moved - and turned sideways- due to the land being sold for a hotel to be built. The hotel deal fell through so the city bought the land and made a parade ground out of it and added some other buildings in the same architecture style 9one of which is public bathrooms).

Dennis and Esther, Thanks for sharing your trip and photos
AND thanks to the existence of Forums so I can travel with you now that my active lighthousing has been severly limited!!
Rick

Rick I enjoy reading other people's stories and seeing thier photos as well so I figure I should reciprocate.

Dennis

Thanks Dennis. I know how much work that is, I still haven't done a report for my June trip. I really like the Virginia Beach area, especially because its not too far from me. We have escaped there several times. You saw some things there that I will have to check out. I am surprised that there weren't more people there along the beach. BTW your second picture of Thimble Shoals is actually the Middleground light. Your picture of Thimble Shoals is much better than any of mine. You didn't happen to head home across the bay bridge did you? I am still wondering if Assateague ever got painted.

Laura,

Thanks for pointing out my mistake- it has been fixed.

I could not force my camera to not focus in on the objects that were closer than the LH so that's the best I could get even with 12X zoom.

I probably should have tried walking down towards the beach to see if I could have gotten a better shot- I didn't because I was still hoping to get to the Portsmouth lightship before it closed. Unfortunately we didn't make it on time.

We did head home up the Delmarva Peninsula but made no stops except for lunch at a MD state park and bathroom stops.

Dennis

Bob says it is an AK (an oiler - i.e. a resupply ship) There is a deck on the back for a helicopter so they can do aerial replenishment.

The reason that Fort Monroe was so easy to get into is that it is closing as a base. Basically there isn't much there anymore except base housing (one house near the lighthouse was R.E. Lee's when he was stationed there). The Fort is a Historic Landmark.

The historic hotel there had to close because after 9-11 it was so difficult for people to get to it to have dinner or whatever. Which is too bad - there is a killer view of the Fort from the top floors and it is a really good landmark when coming into Hampton Roads.

Rosalie,

Thanks for the info on the ship. Esther asked me what it was and I had no idea.

Your other info- the base is closing- explains why what I believe is the hotel you are referring to looks like it has been converted to condos. A building just down from the LH had signs saying for lease on it. I thought it odd that an active base would have something like that on it.

Dennis

Bob knew right away about the ship.

The Chamberlain Hotel served for years as a destination for steamboat travelers from Baltimore. It is the only civilian building on the Fort and it has been a landmark to mariners since it was built. The hotel currently on the site was constructed in 1926 after the original burned in 1920. My husband Bob remembered coming down on the steamer



Much of the Chamberlain Hotel had been restored and featured an impressive lobby and dining room. The lobby display cases which depicted the history of the hotel and the steamers that used to bring visitors to the Chamberlain hotel resort. The Chamberlain's rooms which offer excellent views of Fort Monroe and the Chesapeake Bay are unfortunately no longer available because the hotel has gone out of business - a collateral effect from 9-11. I heard it was converted into an assisted living place or something like that. From the top you can see the star shape of the fort.



These were film pictures taken with a point and shoot camera in November 2000



This is a photo I took of a photo in the museum in the casements - it was taken from a plane in 1967



This is another display in the (free) museum - it shows the various gun placements protecting the Chesapeake and the ranges that they have.



This is a postcard that was sent to my grandmother in 1907



The Spirit on the Seventh Floor:

"You could try hanging a ''do not disturb'' sign at your door if you have seventh-floor room at the Chamberlain Hotel at Fort Monroe, but don't count on it staying quiet. When the original hotel was on fire many years ago, a young girl dashed back into the building to try to find her father. But he had already evacuated from the hotel and by the time she found out, she was fatally trapped inside on the seventh floor. Ever since they rebuilt the Chamberlain, hotel employees swear they can hear the girl banging on the walls and looking out the window, hoping against hope she will be saved."

Robert E. Lee had these quarters



when he was stationed here at Ft. Monroe as a young second lieutenant and engineer in the U.S. Army from 1831 to 1834. Lee was an assistant to Captain Andrew Talcott and played a major role in the final construction of what was then called Fort Calhoon.

The first fort was originally called Ripraps before it was called Fort Calhoon because it was where ships dropped their ballast. During the Civil War, in addition to aiding in controlling entrance to the harbor of Hampton Roads, prisoners were confined in the fort. After the Civil War it was named Fort Wool for the Union Major General John Ellis Wool, who captured Norfolk in the early part of the war.

In the 1950s, the southern man-made island of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel was constructed next to Fort Wool, and used as the southernmost anchor for the tunnels. A small earthen causeway connected the man-made island with that of Fort Wool. The bridge-tunnel opened to traffic in 1957.
The Fort Wool passenger ferry, Miss Hampton II, allows tourists boarding in Hampton to visit the island during most of the year, but it can also be briefly glimpsed by passengers in westbound vehicles prior to entering the southern end of the tunnel portion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, which carries Interstate 64 across the mouth of the harbor. During the summer months, it is served by various harbor tour boats.

The other ship is probably an LHA or LHA/LHD , essentially a helicopter carrier on steroids.

It's not a helicopter carrier. It has a helicopter landing pad on the back, but it carries oil to refuel ships and planes at sea.

The first ship is a USNS ship - owned by the Navy, a part of the MSC (Military Sealift Command) and generally crewed by civilains. Here is an aerial image of one .

The second image IS most likely an LHA/LHD.

I've never been able to visit the light ship, but we saw it from our boat



I've also not been able to get a good picture of Thimble Shoals - this was the best I could do at dusk from a cruise ship

He said it was the same ship - one view is from the side and the other view is kind of 3/4ths from the stern so it shortens things up. Although it does look a bit like the bow is different.

Rosalie,

Thanks for all the background info on Fort Monroe. It seems like just about anyplace somebody puts up photos of you were there before them- in some cases long before them. (Must be because you're grandma rosalie )


You are correct and not correct at the same time. I did say it was the same ship in two photos at Fort Monroe but I also posted a photo of another ship berthed near the Lightship Portsmouth.


That is the second ship Dave has identified for me.

Dave- thanks for the info on both ships. I thought the second one looked a bit like a carrier- I was thinking it might be what they sometimes call a pocket carrier but your id makes sense as well.

Dennis

Dave,

Thanks for the info. I did a search and found some sites with extensive info, specs and photos of LHA/LHD's and I believe you are right.

They look even more like a miniature carrier on that site.

Dennis

Oh - I didn't even SEE that one. I couldn't understand how either of those pictures could be of an AC carrier.

I didn't mean to hi-jack your thread - but there are LOTS of places I have not been - I've not seen any of the Great Lakes lighthouses or those in NJ, nor any Canadian ones, and very few in New England. Mostly we are in the Chesapeake in the summer and go south in the winter, and then I go on some kind of grandchild trip in the spring.

Dennis [/qb][/QUOTE]Oh - I didn't even SEE that one. I couldn't understand how either of those pictures could be of an AC carrier.

I didn't mean to hi-jack your thread - but there are LOTS of places I have not been - I've not seen any of the Great Lakes lighthouses or those in NJ, nor any Canadian ones, and very few in New England. Mostly we are in the Chesapeake in the summer and go south in the winter, and then I go on some kind of grandchild trip in the spring. [/QB][/QUOTE]

Rosalie,

You didn't hijack anything- you provided interesting information.

I was just joking with you hence the

I asked questions and people answered them and I'm appreciative of that.

Dennis

Thanks Dennis for sharing.. Sue and I have been getting to the Chesapeake it seems every 2 or 3 years and your thread brings back some very fond memories..

Thank you Dennis for sharing these. I am planning a trip to Maryland, Virginia, with Chesapeake Bay next May. I'm just starting my research on my trip and where the LHs are. Your photos and Grandma Rosalie's in another thread are very helpful.

Of course that trip is 9 months away. My daughters always tell me I just go overboard (no pun intended) on planning... But I say I don't want to miss a single opportunity to see a lighthouse that I might overlook if I didn't plan.

Anyway, any suggestions as I start to think about this trip? I'll be coming from my daughter's house in Columbus, OH and have about 10 days to spend in Maryland and Virginia sometime after Mother's Day 2011.

The best place to start in your planning is the Chesapeake Chapter of the USLHS Official Website Grandma Lighthouse (docsweetie)! You might even want to join their Chapter as they may have some tours going on at the same time that you will be there.

Paul has a good place to start.

Here's another very helpful site for directions and information-

Lighthouse Friends

http://www.lighthousefriends.com/

Dennis

Thanks, Dennis and Paul. I will use both of these sites in my planning. Good ideas!

Carol

Carol, they have boats out to Thomas Point several times a summer maybe you can make one of the trips!

Is there a website or info on these lighthouse cruises? Where is the port/dock? I'd love to take a cruise or two to lighthouses.

Carol

Here is the site.
Thomas Point tours
They don't have dates for next year yet. Might not be at the time you are going to be there, but you can check with them. I had hoped to go on one tomorrow, but it didn't work out.

Thanks, Laura. I've got this website marked so I can come back to it and check on dates to see if they will work out with my trip next year once the dates are posted for 2011.

Do you know if there are other lighthouse cruise companies that offer tours to see more of the lighthouses of Chesapeake Bay?

Carol

I think there are, I just don't know the details. didn't Greg go on one recently? The Chesapeake Bay organization that Dennis gave the link for would be the place to start. Keep checking the Lighthouse Friends events also. Since you have 10 days you might want to take the Lewes ferry to Cape May. You would see Harbor of Refuge, Delaware Breakwater and Cape May. Its not far from the eastern shore of Maryland. Sometimes there are trips inside those lights also.

Dennis:

Was it very hot when you climbed Old Cape Henry?
We got into lighthousing when they were moving Cape Hatteras. Glen would check the website every day to see how far she had been moved. Somewhere around mid-June, 1999, we drove down to Va. Bch. and on the way down (from Bernville, PA), we stopped to see Jones Point and then headed for Fort Monroe. We parked across the street from the light, but couldn't see it. From my memory to your picture, they did a lot of tree trimming. A lady was coming out of the house to the left of the light and we asked her where the light was. She said it was right there, pointing toward the light. Then wse finally saw it.

From there we went to my friend's house in Virginia Beach. Her sister (Shirley)was visiting, so we left for the Outer Banks the next day and took Shirley with us. We saw Currituck, Bodie, Cape Hatterus being moved, and took the ferry over to Ocracoke. Back at Donna's, we stayed overnight and went out to Fort Story and that's when we climbed Old Cape Henry. It was terribly hot. At that time, I had a film camera and thought I had it loaded properly, but NOT!! Missed all those good shots from the top of the light.

Later in the day, we drove over to Newport News, seeing Middle Ground on the way and went to the Maritime Museum. Very good museum.

The next day we went back home as I was back at work in '99 to "encourage" people to update their program to compensate for four-digit years. Good old Y2K.

If you don't belong to the Chesapeake Chapter, USLHS, check their website www.cheslights.org for a listing of proposed and scheduled trips.

Ellie

Carol, this is the facebook page for Chesapeake tours
FB Chesapeake tours

I found a website called Chesapeake Lights out of Tilghman Island, MD. It seems to have several lighthouse cruises. One to the lights of the Northern Chesapeake Bay and a two day of the southern lights. Anyone know about this company?

Thanks for the facebook page, Laura.

Carol

Yes, wonderful father and daughter, Captain Mike and Kat. I have done both all day and two day trips. Had a blast would thoroughly reccomend them!

Thanks for the VA pictures Dennis. Made me home-sick even though I was just home (Hampton) in June. I did not realize that Thimble Shoals could be seen from the HRBT.

My husband was stationed at Ft Monroe 1972-73, and it is only 5-10 miles from my parent's home. The security to Ft Monroe has always been less stringent that other posts even post 9/11, not just because the post is closing. When my husband was stationed there and we still just dating I could just drive right onto post with barely a stop at all, just asked where I was going. And if you took the road to the right along the water, you did not have to stop at all.

With regard to the Portsmouth Lightship, there is also a very nice maritime museum there. So you need to go back to tour the ship and the museum. You used to be able to also reach the lightship by parking in downtown Norfolk and taking a ferry across to Portsmouth, about a 15 minute ride. Also if you go over to Newport News there is the Mariners Museum, http://www.marinersmuseum.org/ which is the home of the lens from Cape Charles (I think that is the lighthouse it came from). Also a fairly new display of the USS Monitor the old "iron clad" from the WoNA. There also used to be a display of artifacts from the Titanic.

Rosalie, you are correct the Chamberlain Hotel was converted to a Senior living facility assisted and non-assisted living, quite pricy so I understand. If you are a history buff, the Casemate Museum (where they kept CSA President Jefferson Davis inprisoned after the end of the War of Northern Aggression ) is quite interesting.

The City of Hampton is tenatively scheduled to take over ownership of Ft Monroe after it is vacated by the Army. I believe sometime next year. So sad, to see the First Army Command being shut down after all these years. Excellent hosts on July 4th was a concert by the Continental Army Band and then fireworks shot out over the bay. The band stand is just down from the Chamberlain right on the water.

Knowing the way the Hampton government does things, they will end up allowing high priced homes and condos to be build on the water and it will become next to impossible to get to Old Point Comfort because they will limit parking, or put the area inside a gated community, etc. No telling what will happen to the buildings inside the moat. The casemate will be safe due to its historical signficance, but other buildings will probably be bulldozed. Hopefully they will not destroy the moat, which is historical as well. Well off my soapbox...Thanks again for the pictures Dennis!

Melody,

Glad to be of some small service. I didn't leave on my little tour of Hampton roads until afternoon so I did not have time to do everything. I'll get back to the area at some point and I'll get to those museums.

Dennis

Dennis, Looks like you had a great trip. Thanks for sharing !!!

Dennis,As Dave pointed out, the second ship is a Amphebious Assault Ship. I think it is LHD 5 the U.S.S. BATAAN
Rip

Rip,

Thanks for the info. It is appreciated.

Dennis

I was in that Holiday Inn when it first opened 7+ years ago. That new boardwalk was awesome then? What a Change from the place I surfed next to the pier 40+ years ago.

This whole thread has been a delight to read. Thanks to everyone who posted--passionate and educational!

Sandy

DITTO!!

Makes this land-locked lighthouse lover want to hit the shorelines again!

Thanks Dennis and all for posting the pictures.