We woke up to a fairly grey day today! Perfect day to stay inside and relax! However we had one errand to accomplish and that was to get to the Renaissance Portsmouth Waterfront where a parcel had been delivered for me. The company had gotten mixed up with the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside where we are staying and the one across the Elizabeth River. As to drive would be about 24 miles return by avoiding tolls, considering we could see the hotel from our hotel room at the Sheraton and there was a regular ferry within walking distance, it was the ferry we opted for! Now, to wait out the sleeting rain and we were off on our parcel quest!
However, I also wanted to mention that we are VERY SAFE in this hotel. There is a Navy “JAG” conference going on for the week and the place is FULL of ladies and gentlemen in uniform (some with LOTS of stripes)! If I hear another “ma’am” I am going to scream! They are just SO POLITE – more polite than Canadians which is scary! Such as if one takes the ramp that is not an issue for me, however they make it seem like they have done something extremely wrong and apologize to me! I am going to have to deal with this – just like in Dubai… Okay, now back to regularly scheduled programming…off we go to the ferry!
It was a quick and fun ride over to Portsmouth (took 10 minutes) and we docked at the Southern terminus and then walked to the hotel along the boardwalk. Along the way we ran into a bulbus looking ship that actually was a lighthouse ship that the American navy would use to point out areas of danger before a ship entered a harbour/river etc. This was prior to the permanent buoys that were used that had lights on them to guide ships into where they were going. This ship is now in a cement grave and unfortunately, despite the side door being open, it was closed to visitors.
We then went to the Renaissance Hotel to pick up my package. Now I know why we did not stay here! It is under heavy renovation! It looks very beautiful what they have done however there are definitely shrouds everywhere and noise can be heard. The desk clerk said that the two hotels get confused all the time when it comes to parcels so it was not a problem at all to receive my package! That was very nice! Now we walked to the Northern terminus of the ferry (the two docks are about a 10 minute walk apart which was strange) and took the ferry back to the dock in Norfolk. Along the way we had great views of the Navy shipyard and what was going on there – from a aircraft landing ship to supply ships – both in dry dock and in the water being repaired. Some were under shrouds which makes sense if they are painting or protecting expensive equipment. Such a fun journey for $4 each round trip!
Once we got back to the hotel, the Executive Chef phoned me as I asked about GF options for the buffet in the lounge for both breakfast and in the evening. Darrius, the Executive Chef was a bundle of energy who takes “care of his Celiac friends” and was extremely apologetic as to what happened in the morning (where the GF toast was put in a regular toaster). We had a great chat and he then told me that my food was “his responsibility” for the rest of my stay. Wow what service compared to previous stays on this trip! I think this also has to do with being higher in the Marriott program which allows lounge access and thus access to these small buffets of food. So as Darrius brought the first set of appies to our room, Andrew and I had dinner pretty well arranged for us – snacks and some things from our bag of goodies that we have brought with us from previous hotels on our journey. Tomorrow – Virginia Beach!