5/29 to 6/3 Oh Captain, My Captain

After leaving St. Mary's, we headed to Annapolis and then on to Baltimore.  It has been lots of fun and so interesting but the best part has been visiting my daughter Alicia in Baltimore.  She is a Captain with the Water Taxi and Harbor Connector in Baltimore.  Last night, John and I took one of her boats to Fells Point for dinner and back to our marina.  Here is a great picture of Captain Alicia and a Water Taxi boat.

We had decided to come back to the Chesapeake because the weather last year was so rainy and foggy. Finally, on our way to Annapolis and Baltimore, we have seen the iconic lighthouses, 

Smith Point Lighthouse

Point No Point Lighthouse

Screwpile Lighthouse

Thomas Point Lighthouse

At Annapolis, we took a mooring ball in the harbor.  The US Naval Academy was along the harbor on the right.  While we were there, sometimes we took the dinghy to shore, but they also have small water taxis that will come to the mooring ball and shuttle you ashore.  So we did both.  Annapolis is the state capital of Maryland.  It is a huge boating community with lots to see and do.  There is a small canal where people cruise their boats to see and be seen.  It is called Ego Alley.  There is lots of activity.  To be safe, we took the dinghy down Ego Alley.  The Maryland State House is in the background of this picture of our dinghy captain.

We live near a Mission Barbeque in Wilmington.  They all have smoker trucks to take to events.  I loved it that the Mission BBQ in Annapolis has a boat instead.  The boat name is Sea Brisket.

The State Building was fun to tour.  It served as the US Capital and George Washington resigned his commission there. 

Maryland State House

Maryland Senate Chambers

The next day, I toured the US Naval Academy.  The tour was fascinating.  It outlined the requirements for admission and the requirements to graduate.  You do not have to swim to get in but you have to swim and be able to jump off a 33 foot diving board to graduate.  More astronauts have graduated from the Naval Academy, then any other university.  There are about 200 slots each year for naval enlisted men and women.  The buildings are very ornate.  These pictures are from the building where all the midshipmen eat their meals.

Everyone told me to make sure that I saw the chapel.  Most of the glass windows are Tiffany stained glass.

John Paul Jones in buried in a crypt on the lower level.

Next, we headed to Baltimore.  Last year, when we went under the Francis Scott Key Bridge, we were using our radar.  This year, we had a really nice day.  Here is the bridge not in fog.

We arrived in Baltimore earlier than expected.  To our surprise, Alicia was on the dock to catch our lines.  She had been exercising in her gym and saw us enter the harbor and ran all the way to the docks.  It is so good to have good dock help.  It was a beautiful day, so I took a chance and walked up to Camden Yards.  I was able to get tickets to that night's Red Sox game.  The seats were pretty good.

Unfortunately, the Sox lost.
The next morning, Alicia took us on a provisioning run in her car.  We bought heavy stuff.  She had lunch with us before she left to go to work.  We are a short walk from the National Visionary Arts Museum.  The art there is very unusual.  Even the outside of the three reclaimed factory buildings are decorated.

One of the art pieces, Miss Divine, had been moved to a venue for the Baltimore Historical Society event.  Alicia volunteered at the event and took a really nice picture with Miss Divine.  I was not dressed as snazzy as she was but did have my picture taken with Miss Divine.

This morning is Saturday and Alicia asked me to join her at one of the free exercise sessions that Baltimore does on the waterfront.  It was a strong workout and we were proud of ourselves when we finished.  We came back to the boat for coffee and breakfast. 

Tomorrow, Alicia and Catherine and her gang are joining us for the Red Sox game.  The family that roots together stays together.  Go Sox.

5/23-5/28 Colonial Beach, St. Mary's City and on to Solomons

5/23 The weather was dreary and less than perfect in Colonial Beach.  We rented a golf cart for 4 hours and toured the area.  It is a quiet beach town.  They had a big storm roll through back in April.  Although the winds had only been classified as straight line winds, there was lots of damage.  The marinas all had dock damage.  At our marina, the roofs were twisted off the covered slips and a 60 foot boat docked near us showed us where the cleat had been pulled right of the dock!!!.  The cleat took two sets of boards with it.  The restaurant on site had $2 hamburgers although John added a tomato and bacon so it was about $3.25.  I had a fried oyster basket for $14.99.  The meals were fantastic and you couldn't beat the prices.  Of course, the town of Colonial Beach has its own oyster packing plant.

I also enjoyed the Duck Crossing Signs.  In the background, you can see the ducks. 

There were at least two family of swans in the marina.  It was cool and rainy and some were snuggled in for a nap.

The Coast Guard was coming in to dock so I offered to catch their line.  It was fun to hear that some had served in Alaska, on Lake Michigan, and taken a big Coast Guard Cutter through the Okeechobee Waterway.

We headed back down the Potomac to the Maryland side and took the St. Mary's River to St. Mary's City.  This is an historical city rather than a modern city.  St. Mary's College is located here.  We dropped anchor in an area called Horseshoe Cove, where the college's sailing center is located and we used their dinghy dock.  Not to say that this area is small but the student dock masters and the lady at the Historic St. Mary's Visitors Center all told us that if we wanted to eat out, we were welcome to eat in the college cafeteria, open 8-1 and 5-6 each day. 

Historic St. Mary's was settled by the Calverts in 1634.  It served as the capital of British Maryland with its State House until the capital was moved to Annapolis.  It was unusual in that they believed in religious freedoms and allowed Catholics to practice their religion as well as the predominant Church of England.  Many sites there have been excavated.  The church was excavated and repaired.

Three coffins were found in the church.  They were examined and re-interred  in the same part of the church and given a glass seal for viewing.

Rather than rebuild many of the buildings, they built ghost frames to show where buildings had stood. 

There were two vessels that brought these colonists to the Maryland shores, the Dove and the Arc.  A replica of the Dove is available to tour.  It runs on twin diesels now.

The Episcopal Church of St. Mary's has a large cemetery on the grounds visible from our boat. 

We were experiencing more weather days at anchor.  It was a good thing we decided to stay put and err to the side of caution.  On the afternoon of our second day, the sky darkened considerably.  The winds picked up and the lightening was visible as the clouds rolled in.  A boat of Gold Loopers  approached the anchorage just before the rain came.  Well, the skies opened up.  Even though it was well before sunset, it was dark.  The lightning lit up the sky.  We put our trust in our Rocna anchor.  The winds were putting it to the test.  Finally, the worst of the storm passed.  The winds were not forecast to die down for another day.  We spent a quiet day on board.  I did inside cleaning, washing the floors, vacuuming the rugs, dusting, etc.  In the afternoon, we dinghied over to the Grand Baron and joined her crew for docktails.  They finished their loop in February of 2016.  Their plan is tour Montreal this year. 

Back on our boat as darkness fell, we heard loud splashing near the boat.  John and I stepped out on the back deck.  We scared the heck out of a co-ed who had on a dare swam out to touch our boat.  She did not know that there was anybody aboard.  She was obviously embarrassed and apologized for bothering us.  We could hear her compadres on shore laughing loudly.  Well, she has a funny story to tell about her college experience now.

5/27 The winds and waves had died down.  We awoke early to take a completely delightful cruise to Solomons, Maryland.  This time when we passed the Point No Point Lighthouse (yes that is the name) there was no fog.  I got a nice clear picture. 

We passed the Patuxent Naval Air Station, which is quite large.  Solomons has more boats than people, for sure.  We pulled in to Calverts Marina where we had stayed last year.  After filling up with 166 gallons of fuel, we headed to our spot on one of their two long face docks.  We rested for a bit and then took their well known courtesy car.  Their courtesy car is well known because it is very old.  It is a Mercedes diesel.  Before you turn it over, you turn the key to the glow plug setting to warm up the diesel.  This vehicle has 222,088 miles on it.  The front window on the drivers side does not go down and the pick up is pretty slow, but it is perfect for going around this small community.  We went to the 4PM Mass, West Marine, the Island Hideaway restaurant and to the grocery store.  The Island Hideaway had been recommended by the owner of Calverts.  He was spot on.  We both had the Mahi and the special Memorial Day cocktail, and shared the best mocha crème brulee. 

5/28  We scrubbed the outside of the boat today.  It really needed it.  After our cleaning was done, we hopped in the dinghy and toured the Solomons waterfront by water.  The number of slips here is amazing.  There are some current loopers that we met this morning.  We gave them touring advice.  I hope they have a great day.  While it is raining this afternoon, tomorrow promises to be a nice travel day to Annapolis.

5/19 - 5/22 Visiting DC with family

We docked at National Harbor for our DC visit.  National Harbor has grown.  It has all sorts of reasons to enjoy yourself there.  In addition to a ferris wheel and permanent art installations, they show family movies and ball games on a huge screen.  They also have scheduled bands and exercise sessions.  It is a fun place.

The laundry is free and it was good to get the sheets done on Friday.  We shopped and had the boat ready for our family visitors.  Friday night, Stephen and Catherine brought the kids over for dinner.  A visit to the Peep store was necessary after supper.

Our daughter, Alicia, came down from Baltimore and arrived first on Saturday morning.  She is a 100 ton captain.  John took full advantage of that and had her down in the engine room to check things out.  Catherine arrived with Madeline, Sarah, and John shortly after noon.  Sarah's team won the soccer game before they came.  Alicia and I packed the sandwiches so after boarding, it wasn't long until we cut the lines to tour up the Potomac.  It was a relaxing no wake trip.  We passed Alexandria and the Chart House where Catherine and Stephen had their first date.  The kids loved taking turns with Grandpa at the helm, sitting out on the bow, and checking out ospreys and the planes landing at Reagan Airport with the binoculars.

It was neat that we could get so close to the Washington Monument.

After the ride on the Hydrophilic, the kids played on the art piece, "The Awakening".  It was not designed as a playground but kids seem to love climbing all over it.  Our grandson, John, was like a ninja warrior and climbed to the top of the knee in no time.  They all had a grand time.

John had lowered the dinghy.  He took off with the three kids and chased the Pirate boat.  Each of them took a turn at driving the dinghy.  There were smiles everywhere.

After dinner, the grandkids were left with us to spend the night on board.  They swept the flybridge and did a few other chores.  With everyone in their pajamas, we told stories of their mom's and their aunts' childhood.  After many good laughs, John got out the whipped cream.  It is a tradition that they get a squirt in their mouth if they promise to go right to sleep.  All three of them looked beat.  They were asleep in no time.

Sunday morning came early.  Pancakes were made.  It was not so long before their cousins called from Houston for a Skype session.  It was fun to have all 5 grandkids on the line.   Catherine picked us up and we went to a church near the marina with the family.  It was a fun visit.  John and I had a quiet Sunday night.

The rain started overnight.  We headed to Colonial Beach in the morning.  We just get the worst weather on the Chesapeake.  Remember that nice picture of Mt. Vernon, the other day?  This is what it looked like in the rain today. 

As we passed the Dalhgren Surface Weapon Area, we were contacted by the Range Boat.  The Range Boat let us know there was live firing going on.  He told us to stay toward the Maryland side and which markers to aim for.  John told the Range Boat that he was happy to stay away from the firing and to let us know if for some reason we got too close.  Whew, we made it.

I had great fried oysters for dinner here at Colonial Beach tonight.  There was this family of swans floating in the marina. 

We plan to stay here another day.

5/17-5/18 Hello George and on to National Harbor

Wednesday 5/17,  we continued up the Potomac to Mt. Vernon.  We passed the Dahlgren Navy Proving Ground.  We heard booms,  There were Navy boats out in the Potomac making sure we were not in harms way.  We passed a staging area for buoys, it looked like Christmas.

We made our way to Mt. Vernon.  We anchored in front of George and Martha's home.

It is all very pretty and looks like it would have back in George's time.  We dinghied in to check out our plan for Thurday.  The temperatures had gotten up into the 90's for the first time this season.  But as night fell a nice breeze came up and it was good for sleeping.

Thursday 5/18,  we headed into the dock with the dinghy.  We were touring Mt. Vernon with all sorts of 8th graders from around the country.  They were very entertained by this gentlemen who was playing both the fife and drum. 

The grounds were huge.  It was clear that Washington was wealthy but that slavery built that wealth.  As a gentleman farmer, Washington had 7 year plans for rotating the crops in each field.  He owned oxen for plowing, and sheep, chickens, horses, etc.  The menus included fish, crabs and oysters from the Potomac.   The kitchen was very large and had root cellars in the same building. 

The estate was self sufficient.

The mansion was very ornate.  The rooms were painted colonial blue and green.

The attention to detail was evident.  Washington wrote plans for all the work.  One writing included the design of this ceiling. 

This fireplace mantel was so ornate, the inset looked like everything you find on the estate.

The original furniture has been kept in the mansion.  I particularly liked Washington's desk. 

In his will, Washington outlined a plan for the tomb on the estate that became the final resting place of George and Martha.

The back of the house overlooked the Potomac and the Hydrophilic. 

We walked back down the hill to the dock, raised the anchor and headed for National Harbor.  We settled in and while John rested, I went for a mani/pedi. 

After a nice dinner of a shared Caesar salad and a shared pizza, we walked back to the boat.  John commented that he had seen a wifi for a boat call Terraphobic.  I remembered that when we were in Pensacola, FL, there was a boat by that same name.  The dockmaster in Pensacola told me that the liveaboard was a Blue Angel.  I walked over to the next dock and sure enough, the boat name included a Blue Angel plane.

I knocked on the boat and Ryan, the owner came out.  He has completed his tour as a Blue Angel pilot and has been assigned to job on Capitol Hill.  He brought his boat up here.  I thanked him for his service.  Here is Ryan on his boat, the Terraphobic.

Tomorrow is a down day as we prepare for the family joining us on Saturday.