Navy MWR Entertainment hosted the band which played a handful of their most well-known songs before using the aircraft carrier as the backdrop to film a music video for their new song “Coming Home”.

For more than 50 years — and with three generations of ownership — Orapax has provided delicious Greek food in an intimate environment.

Orapax, in Norfolk’s Chelsea district, offers traditional dishes such as spanakopita, chicken souvlaki, gyros and moussaka. The menu has wing, pasta, pizza and sandwich sections and plant-based alternatives for most of the regular options.

The rustic dining room is dimly lit while oversized windows let heaps of natural light in. The dark ceiling beams and tile floors give a slightly upscale look, but the wait staff in its “Everything’s betta with fetta” and “There’s Greece on my shirt” T-shirts provide a casual dining experience.  Black and white photos of the building and its patrons highlight the restaurant’s deep family roots.

I started with the lavender lemonade cocktail and saganaki appetizer — both presented exquisitely. My drink, topped with lemon, blackberry and a sprig of rosemary, was light and refreshing without being too sweet; but the appetizer was the star.

The saganaki — kevalotyri (or kefalotyri) cheese battered and fried — was brought out in a mini black cast iron serving bowl, lit on fire, then put out by a squeeze of lemon.

The cheese reminded me of mozzarella with a stronger taste and it paired nicely with the tangy lemon juice. It was warm and gooey, still bubbling in the bowl.

I opted for the gyro pita and a Greek side salad for my main course — how could I not at a Greek place?  I’ve eaten gyros from street stands in Athens and Orapax’s did not disappoint. The tzatziki to meat ratio was perfect and the grilled lamb and beef were flavorful. The vegetables were crisp and fresh. The pita was my favorite part. It was covered in creamy tzatziki sauce, crisp and a perfect golden brown on the outside, and soft on the inside. I was pleasantly surprised with the sizable portion of meat in my gyro, especially because it seemed to be almost all lamb.

The Greek salad was piled high with a mountain of shredded feta cheese — just the way I like it. (Though it could be overkill for those who aren’t feta fanatics.)  It came with a large pepperoncini, cucumbers, red onions, tomatoes and bell peppers. The Greek dressing tasted house-made with its oil, vinegar and mix of spices. It was a bit more sour than other Greek dressings I’ve had but it paired excellently with the veggies and saltiness of the feta. I was surprised by the generous size of the salad, considering it was only a side salad.

I can’t wait to try Orapax’s other signature dishes and be transported to the ancient city of Athens.

Reach Avery Goodstine at averygoodstine@gmail.com

IF YOU GO

Where: 1300 Redgate Ave., Norfolk

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Friday; noon to 10 p.m. Saturday; 2 to 9 p.m. Sunday

Details: 757-627-8041; orapaxrestaurant.com

Now, the remains of a humongous ice age animal have been found near a spot that thousands of motorists drive past every day. Workers recently unearthed around a dozen pieces of a mastodon skeleton while digging at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion project.

“This is the stuff they don’t teach in engineering school,” said Ryan Banas, project director.

Soon, residents and travelers will be able to view the bones and other artifacts at a new project visitor’s center in Norfolk.

Workers at the project got very lucky discovering the bones in the fall of 2023, Banas said. A worker noticed something odd while looking at a conveyor belt at the slurry treatment plant, which is located on the project’s South Island.

Banas said the plant moves fast, processing 16,000 gallons of slurry a minute.

“So, the fact that we had one of our staff members that was able to catch a glimpse is pretty, pretty darn impressive,” Banas said.

The bones, which are anywhere from 12,000 to 50,000 years old, include ribs, vertebrae, a tooth the size of a small hand and part of a limb, Banas said.

Back then, lower sea levels meant the land near the HRBT would have likely been a forest, said Zaborniak, making it a perfect foraging ground for the mastodons.

Very similar in appearance to wooly mammoths or modern-day elephants, the creatures spent much of their day looking for food, he said. They were anywhere from 7 to 10 feet tall with large tusks and weighed around 6 tons.

Elephants and mammoths had flat teeth built for chomping down on grass, Zaborniak said.

“Mastodons, on the other hand, have very large ridges on their teeth, which are great for browsing,” he said. “So these animals are going to be eating plants such as leaves, pine needles and fruits.”

There is some evidence of social behavior, he said, but it’s likely male mastodons were solitary creatures. The animals had a wide range across North America, he added. Early humans also would have potentially crossed paths with them, he said, but it would have taken several people to hunt one.

Other mastodon bones have been found in Hampton Roads: the Virginia Living Museum possesses much of a skeleton that was discovered in Yorktown over a period of several years, according to a previous report by The Virginian-Pilot.

The $3.9 billion HRBT expansion project will double the road’s capacity, from two to four lanes in each direction, and add two two-lane tunnels. It is scheduled for completion in 2027.

Similar construction work elsewhere in the region has also turned up interesting historical finds. In 2023, workers on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel expansion project dug up an old ship anchor buried beneath the shipping channel. Work was delayed for several months, and resumed in April, so the 10-foot anchor could be excavated.

HRBT project spokesperson Paula Miller said the mastodon discovery was not expected to delay that project’s construction timeline.

Other artifacts unearthed by the HRBT project and now housed at the visitor’s center include two Civil War-era cannonballs, a World War II-era helmet liner and pieces of an old shipwreck, Banas said. Project leaders hope to open the visitor’s center, located at 9401 4th St. in Norfolk, in September.

“These are all things that are super, super interesting, that help you appreciate what came before us,” Banas said.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com

Nichelle Stone, who was appointed last year to fill a vacated seat until the special election, had originally filed to complete the term. She was the only candidate. But Stone has vacated her seat and withdrawn from the race, leaving it open.

“I was very honored to be appointed,” Stone said in an interview on Monday. But she said she had to leave the position and withdraw from the race to spend more time with her family because of unexpected personal matters.

The special election will be held with the general election Nov. 5. Individuals interested in running must live and be registered to vote in the Ward 5 District. If no candidate files by the deadline, the seat will be listed on the ballot with a write-in option.

The winning candidate will serve the remainder of the unexpired termthrough the end of 2026.

Stone was appointed in November after Lauren Campsen resigned because of health reasons.

Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com

In a post on X, Norfolk police said the call for the crash came in just after 5 a.m. at the 7200 block of Granby Street, near the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Emergency services pronounced a man, who has not been identified, dead at the scene.

Police said the motorcyclist’s identity will be released once next of kin has been notified.

The motorcycle was traveling south on Granby when it struck a sedan that was making a turn, according to police. The driver of the sedan was not injured and remained at the scene.

No further information — such as whether alcohol or speed were factors in the crash — has been made available as of Monday evening. The authorities haven’t said if any charges will be filed, but did say the crash is still under investigation.

Reporter Gavin Stone contributed to this report.

Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com

A man carrying luggage jogged up and started asking questions.

“Oh, you need to go downstairs to check your bag,” Bradway said with a smile. “Yes, downstairs. Down that way.”

The man looked relieved and hustled away toward the escalators.

Norfolk International has 28 airport ambassadors, mostly retirees, who volunteer to soothe the nerves of frazzled travelers. Ambassadors wear mint green, hard-to-miss shirts while they stand throughout the terminal. They keep travelers moving and, in turn, help the efficiency needed in an airport. Their work has become more crucial. The airport expects to exceed 5 million travelers by the end of 2024, a record.

“They’re the airport’s face to the community,” said airport CEO Mark Perryman, “our face to our passengers.”

The program started in 2000 and has grown with the number of people flying in and out. Since 2022, the airport has hit a record each year. More than 4 million people traveled through in 2022; the following year, about 4.5 million.

Bradway, a retired business executive who lives in Virginia Beach, started as an ambassador in 2017 and enjoys bumping into former colleagues who still go on business trips.

“I’ll end up having a conversation with somebody I’ve known for 20 or 30 years,” he said.

He’s also happy to answer what he called the four most common questions for ambassadors: Where are rental cars? Are there places to eat beyond security? Where are the bathrooms? Which gate do I go to?

“Sometimes, you get, ‘Is there somewhere I can take my dog out?'” He’ll show them to an outside area.

Then again, not all travelers have needs that are so simple.

Vera Cornish, a 78-year-old retired educator from Virginia Beach, remembers a woman who declared to her: I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. The woman and her children had missed their flight and didn’t have much money, Cornish recalled.  She led them to the airport’s “family room,” which has a bathroom, changing table and comfy chair. She told the woman to lock the door and take a nap. By the time the woman woke up, Cornish had called a friend who allowed the woman and her kids to stay the night until they could board a flight the next morning.

Another time, Cornish enlisted her husband to help a traveler find her car after she forgot where it was in the parking deck.

“We searched for two hours,” Cornish said. “But I’m glad we found the car.”

After retiring from a 48-year career at Newport News Shipbuilding in 2018, Bill Morehead needed something to get him out of the house.

“My wife was telling me I was getting to be too much underneath her feet.”

Now 67, Morehead said the people-watching opportunities are too good to give up. He’s seen a man get on one knee and propose. He’s worked on Halloweens when people dressed as Godzilla and Barney cheered up children nervous about flying. He once saw hundreds of strangers begin to cry when a serviceman sneaked up on his relative after months away on duty.

“We see everything here.”

Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8138, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com

Heinicke, a former Old Dominion University record-setter, is backing up Kirk Cousins, who was acquired in free agency, and Michael Penix Jr., the eighth overall pick in the draft. Cousins was medically cleared from his Achilles surgery, and Penix has flashed his big arm and accuracy early in training camp.

“Yeah, I kind of see the writing on the wall,” Heinicke said when asked about his role on the team after open practice Saturday night in Buford, Georgia, at Seckinger High, about 10 miles away from where he attended high school at Collins Hill. “It’s nothing that I haven’t been through before, so I accept my role in any case. My role, for me, and what I think is to help Kirk any way that I can. If he has any questions. Same thing with Mike. Sometimes the game is fast. Sometimes everything is fast for rookies.”

The Falcons also have rookie John Paddock on the roster. They don’t plan to play Cousins in the exhibition season, so Penix, Heinicke and Paddock have availability for the three games.

“I’m going to make sure that I’m on top of my stuff so that when (Cousins) does have that question, I can give him the right answer to kind of help him through it,” Heinicke said.

Heinicke, who was lightly recruited out of high school, went on to break most of ODU’s passing records. He came up the hard side of the NFL mountain as an undrafted free agent but has carved out a nice career with Minnesota, New England, Houston, Carolina and Washington.

He’s played in 38 games and made 29 starts in the regular season. He also started a playoff game for Washington after the 2020 season.

Heinicke signed with the Falcons on March 14, 2023. He served as Desmond Ridder’s backup and was eventually installed as a starter. Heinicke played in five games and went 1-3 as a starter.

“I went through this in Minnesota,” said Heinicke, who has 45 transactions listed on his profootballreference.com profile. “I went through this in Carolina. It’s one of the things where I can’t control it. Only thing I can control is how I am as a teammate and as person.”

The Falcons are likely to keep two quarterbacks and have another on the practice squad. Heinicke can count to three and is being realistic about his plight.

“So when I come in the building, I’m going to be a great teammate,” Heinicke said. “I’m going to do everything I can to be on this team and help them in every way that I can. That’s my role. I gladly accept that. I’m trying to be the best at that.”

Heinicke enjoys working with Cousins.

“I’ve learned so much from Kirk, from offseason until now,” Heinicke said. “Just the way he goes about his business, the way he approaches every meeting, every practice, it’s really cool to see.

“I wish I’d met him earlier in my career. That’s not a knock on anyone else that I’ve worked with, it’s just that I correlate with him and how he approaches things. Again, it’s a new offense for him a little bit. There are couple of nuances from last year. Motions, shifts and things like that.”

The offense is looking drastically different from how the Falcons attacked teams with a powerful running game under former coach Arthur Smith.

“You’ll see it on Sundays, it’s a totally different offense,” Heinicke said. “I think last year, we had a great offensive line and we liked to pound the rock. We had (running backs) Cordarrelle (Patterson), Tyler (Allgeier) and Bijan (Robinson). This year, a little bit more spread out. Lots of motions. You’ll see a lot of people get the ball. So it’s a really fun offense to be a part of. I think we’re all excited to see what happens on Sundays.”

As his parents and other members of his extended baseball family worked the ballpark’s concession stands years ago to raise money for a team trip to Cooperstown, New York, the younger Selby marveled at the size of the venue.

Now that it’s essentially his office, Selby is over it.

A native of Chesapeake who won a state title with Western Branch High in 2014 before starring for Division III Randolph-Macon College, the 26-year-old Selby is now working out of the Norfolk Tides’ bullpen.

After stops with six minor league teams and two in the majors in three organizations, the workplaces blend together.

“I remember when I was younger, I thought this place was a lot bigger,” Selby said. “And you play in a couple different stadiums, and you come back and it’s the same size as all the other ones. But yeah, it’s been fun.”

Selby, a soft-spoken right-hander with a curly red beard that would make any pirate proud, joined the Baltimore Orioles’ organization when he was traded by the Kansas City Royals for cash on July 11.

He entered Saturday’s game against Jacksonville with a 0-0 record, a 3.00 ERA and a save through three relief outings with Norfolk.

For a parent club in search of bullpen help, Selby offers an intriguing level of experience.

Originally a 16th-round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2018, Selby pitched in 21 major league games with Pittsburgh last season and two more with the Royals this year.

He has an 8.67 ERA in the big leagues, but he’s walked 17 and struck out 30 in 27 innings.

Through 139 appearances in the minors, Selby has a 3.65 ERA with 126 walks and 309 strikeouts in 286 1/3 innings, a body of work that proves he’s a strike-thrower.

As much as he’s defied the odds by reaching the major leagues from a D-III program, Selby has done it in another way by landing with his hometown team.

Since 1969, according to the Tides’ archives, just 13 players from Hampton Roads high schools have played for the team.

On a roster frequently dotted with players from all over the world, it’s a rarity.

“I think it’s always one of those things that go in the back of your head,” said corner infielder Coby Mayo, Selby’s 22-year-old teammate. “It’d be cool to play where you grew up.”

For now, Selby is living in his childhood home in Chesapeake. His parents are looking to sell the house and move to Northern Virginia, so he has to find other accommodations by mid-August.

The setup, no matter how fleeting, is a far cry from those at his previous stops, like Greensboro, Altoona, Indianapolis and Omaha.

“You see your parents and your dogs every day, so I can’t complain about that,” Selby said. “It is weird going back home and being like, ‘All right, Mom, I’m going to work.’ ”

Should Selby pitch his way out of Norfolk, he’ll be thrust into an American League East race with the first-place Orioles.

It’s something that, as he takes in Harbor Park in a different way, he’s trying not to think about.

“I think that’s where a lot of guys get in trouble, is when they are kind of in awe when they get on the mound,” Selby said. “I mean, it’s the same game you’ve been playing since you were a little kid. There might be an extra deck in the stands, but at the end of the day, you’re playing the same game. Just go out there and compete.”

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com

From 757 to Tides

Players from Hampton Roads high schools who have played for the Tides since 1969:

Mike Ballard, Ocean Lakes

D.J. Dozier, Kempsville

Jason Dubois, Cox

David Duff, Menchville

Tim Lavigne, Cox

Trey McCoy, First Colonial

Clay Rapada, Deep Creek

Josh Rupe, Greenbrier Christian

Bill Scripture, Princess Anne

Colin Selby, Western Branch

Garrett Stallings, Grassfield

Matt Williams, Kellam

David Wright, Hickory

Nieces Nataleigh Goodwin, 6, and Emileigh Griffith, 2, loved him back, especially when he took them outside to draw with sidewalk chalk or to search for worms.

“That’s me and Emileigh and Aunt Ashleigh and Uncle Zack,” Nataleigh said, showing off a picture she drew while Ashleigh Blankenship spoke about the historic donation of her brother’s heart. “I miss him very much.”

Pate, who died July 9, made just the third HIV-positive-to-HIV-positive heart donation in the U.S. this month at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Sentara spokesperson Dale Gauding said.

Blankenship knew her 29-year-old brother, who lived with her in Portsmouth for most of the past two years, was an organ donor, but she and Pate’s two other sisters, Taylor Goodwin and Madison Tye, were stunned to learn the donation was possible a decade after he was diagnosed with HIV.

“I know my brother would have wanted that,” she said. “I feel like the HOPE Act needs more recognition.”

The HIV Organ Policy Equity Act, passed in 2013, established a research program that made liver and kidney transplants legal for people with HIV. In May 2020, the act was expanded to include all organs, and the first HIV-positive heart transplant took place in 2022.

This was the first HIV-positive organ donation for Sentara Health, Gauding confirmed, and for Virginia Beach-based LifeNet Health, the federally designated organ management organization for most of Virginia, said Douglas Wilson, its executive vice president. Pate’s organs were transported to recipients out of state.

As of Dec. 31, 2023, 377 HIV-positive kidney donations and 93 HIV-positive liver donations had taken place, according to UNOS, the United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the United States’ organ transplant system.

The HOPE Act allows for living organ donations, but so far, only three have taken place. The second was a kidney donation in 2019 by Karl Neumann, a transplant registered nurse at Sentara Norfolk.

“Working in the profession for 20-some years at that point, I always wanted to be a donor, but once I was HIV-positive it was illegal for me to do that until the HOPE Act passed,” Neumann said Friday.

There are a few reasons donations remain rare, Neumann said, including the limited number of centers that can transplant HIV-positive organs and the comparatively small group of eligible donors.

Recipients of HIV-positive organs can only get their transplants at the roughly 35 centers that participate in the HOPE Act research study, Neumann said, and other transplant centers may refuse to accommodate HIV-positive patients even if they are receiving HIV-negative organs. Generally, donations can happen from anywhere.

Neumann’s donation took place at Duke University Hospital in North Carolina because Norfolk General is not part of the study, but his team in Norfolk works with HIV-positive patients, including a few who have received HIV-negative kidney transplants.

More complicated infection protocols are part of why so few transplant centers work with HIV-positive patients, but Neumann said he feels the persistent stigma surrounding HIV also contributes to the limited numbers.

“People live very normal lives with HIV at this point, but there’s still a social stigma,” Neumann said. “My doctors hated it when I said that I would rather have HIV than diabetes — but I think it’s easier to manage.”

Improvements in medication have helped make living donation possible without risk to the donor, Neumann said. The health, future health and rights of the donor are the most important factors in the process.

In the past, HIV medication sometimes caused kidney or liver failure, he said, but now, organ damage in most patients is caused by other health problems.

“If HIV directly related to needing a kidney or liver or something in the future, they would never even have proposed living donation,” Neumann said. “I always tell potential living donors that you’re getting the best health screening that you’re ever going to get.”

One of the biggest reasons donations remain rare, though, is the lack of awareness that they’re possible.

“I give a lot of gratitude to any of these people who have donated their organs and signed up ahead and registered, but also to those donor families — his family who is sharing his story,” Neumann said, referring to Pate.

Blankenship said her brother, who died as the result of a suicide attempt after battling mental illness for most of his life, was obsessed with his health, following strict routines and rules for everything from his diet to skincare. Even through the tumultuous times since their mother’s death in 2021, he kept up with managing HIV.

“He always thought he was unhealthy,” she said. “And look what happened. He was able to save lives.”

Have a health care or science story, question or concern? Contact Katrina Dix, 757-222-5155, katrina.dix@virginiamedia.com

Old Point National Bank Chairman, President and CEO Robert Shuford Jr. said in a second-quarter report the bank would close its Crown Center branch at 580 E. Main St. on Sept. 27. The bank has a branch on Granby Street in Ghent.

“This is not a decision we made lightly and we remain dedicated to serving customers in the community by providing banking services through our other nearby branches, online and mobile banking, and customer support center,” Shuford said.

Old Point started efforts to reduce expenses in late 2023 amid inflationary pressures and economic conditions increasing the cost of doing business, Shuford previously reported. The bank had reported the decision to reduce its employee headcount by about 12% in the first half of the year.

Last year, Old Point’s net income was $7.7 million, down from $9.1 million in 2022, according to its annual report.

In January, the company announced the transition of mortgage loan processing to Chesapeake-based Tidewater Home Funding as part of a strategic alliance that would continue Old Point Mortgage branding. That decision was related to both rising interest rates and expense control.

Still, Shuford reported Thursday the company’s net income was the highest it has been in five quarters at $2.5 million. While loan growth slowed as expected, he said core deposit growth was stronger than anticipated. As of June 30, Old Point reported total assets of $1.4 billion and total deposits of $1.2 billion.

“We approach the second half of 2024 with continued optimism given the strength of our company, driven by an outstanding team of employees,” Shuford said. “I remain fully confident about the ability of our team to drive value for our customers, our communities, and our shareholders.”