
DATE: Tuesday, September 9, 1997            TAG: 9709100800

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: THINGS TO DO

SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

TAKING THE HANDS-ON NAUTICUS TOUR

IT WAS A TOUGH question: Should we eat lunch or should we first pet the sharks?

I voted for lunch. That way I'd still have 10 piggies to hold my sandwich.

The nice thing about Nauticus is that you can tell what's ahead. Television monitors mounted all over the place reveal the day's schedule - movies, performances, special events.

So while we ate pizza and barbequed pork inside The National Maritime Center in Norfolk, I watched the clock ticking on the shark petting session currently under way. Lunch was tasty - diners can order hot meals, sandwiches, fruit and vegetable salads at The Galley Restaurant. As I licked them clean, I debated which of my fingers I could do without.

We made it to the tank in time.

``Careful,'' said the nice young lady on duty, ``pet them well behind their heads because they haven't been fed and they do bite.''

Well, they didn't. The nurse sharks held politely still while we slid our hands into the warm water and stroked their wet, sandpapery backs.

Sharks - 0, Mom - 1. Nauticus was shaping up in a big way.

Exhibits let visitors use all their senses. Most are hands-on whether it be pushing a button or getting eye-to-eye with live animals. At a tide pool exhibit we touched hermit crabs, starfish, sea urchins and horseshoe crabs. Another stop offered us the amplified sounds that various sea creatures make - the wail of a whale, the chatter of bottle-nosed dolphins.

Around the corner was a tank full of moray eels.

``Whoa!'' hollered Emma. ``Look how big he is!''

He was. Toothy, green and mean-looking, too.

We found something for all ages, from simple thrills like a barrel-shaped fish puzzle that even a toddler can operate to the AEGIS Theater. That's where you can go to watch actors pretend to blow up, fire on or explode stuff in a simulated battle at sea. Big fun for our dad.

A big hit with all three of us was Virtual Adventures. We put on 3-D glasses, dove in a submersible and fought sea monsters to rescue the Loch Ness Monster's eggs.

Right after that we ducked into the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. It has a lot of exhibits and artifacts interesting for older kids and grown-ups. Emma was still on an imaginary egg hunt and got through here by ad-libbing.

One must-see is ``The Living Sea,'' a documentary film nominated for an Academy Award in 1996. The music is by Sting and the aerial and underwater shots are spectacular. At the film's end, the screen rolls aside and viewers see that the image on screen is the view outside - a stunning panorama of the Norfolk waterfront in front of Nauticus.

Our visit lasted four hours and we still hadn't seen everything. Emma made good use, though, of the LEGO play area some wise person installed for little folks. ILLUSTRATION: JIM WALKER PHOTOS

Brittany Pass, 7, looks through a telescope at Nauticus in Norfolk.

She and her family live in Charlotte, N.C.

George Pass and his 4-year-old daughter, Ria, check out river

projects on a computer at Nauticus. Most exhibits, which let

visitors use all their senses, are hands-on - whether it be pushing

a button or getting eye-to-eye with live animals.

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IF YOU GO

What: The National Maritime Center, Nauticus

Where: One Waterside Drive, Norfolk

Hours: Now until Memorial Day - Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m.