"where the Ashley River and the Cooper River meet to form the Atlantic..."

Howdy, friends! I named this post while we were in Charleston... so, yeah, it made sense then.
anywho, first order of business...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ASHLEY CHESTER!! WOOO-HOOOO!!
and
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BECKY HOLT!! WOOO-HOOOO TO YOU TOO!!
and
HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY TO PATRICK LANDERS!!!

I think that covers them all, but yell at me if I forgot you.


The last time I posted, we were in Oriental. We left there around 10ish on Thursday morning for Beaufort, NC.
From Beaufort, we went to Santee Bay, just south of Georgetown, and anchored out.
oh, by the way, I have some really great pictures, but I'm not on my computer, so you'll have to wait to see them. Apologies.
Saturday, we made it to Charleston around lunchtime. After lunch, the boat got a bath- now she sparkles!! and last night we watched a movie called "An Unfinished Life"- starring Robert Redford (he's SO dreamy!), J-Lo, and Morgan Freeman... AND that really cute guy from "Sweet Home Alabama..."- Josh Lucas? idk, correct me if I'm wrong.
Sunday I slept in a little and then took the marina's shuttle into town with a new sailor friend! we got breakfast, then walked around town. the weather was just beautiful- perfect for walking around in the sunshine!
From Charleston, we went to Beaufort, SC. (BYOO-FORT)
I did a little window shopping, had some really good ice cream, then sat in the park overlooking the water and read some of my book (The Sun Also Rises, in case you were wondering...)
We left Beaufort this morning and now we're in Savannah. The sunrise this morning was FANTASTIC and some dolphins visited us on our trip. good day.
We'll be here til Thursday morning, then we're headed to Jekyll Island. :)

Thanks for reading, sorry there are no visual aids.
Hugs all around!

p.s. we'll be home in 4 days. eeek!

Rabid Grasshoppers

Good morning!

...and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Todd Lampke!!! The big 2-0! Yikes!

We're in Oriental, NC. The sailing capital of NC, apparently.

It's been too long since I posted last. I left you in Williamsburg. I spent the day browsing the bookstore, eating lunch at The Cheese Shop, window shopping, and even chatted with some strangers- it was a good day!

That night we had supper at the marina's restaurant. I had trout. just fabulous. We left Saturday mornin for Coinjock, NC and saw THIS: b-e-a-YOU-tiful!

The trip to Coinjock was an eventful one.
We stopped in Portsmouth for fuel, which took about an hour.
Then we had to wait TWO HOURS for the Gilmerton Bridge. It was the weekend, they were doing construction, blah blah blah.
Then we went through the Great Bridge locks and bridge.
THEN, about 30 miles north of Coinjock, we lost engine controls.
Like... the boat wouldn't GO.

Barry asked me to drop the anchor. If there's a question that will get me out of my seat and on my feet faster, I don't know what it is.

I dropped the anchor, Barry notified the barge coming down the waterway that yes, we were anchored, and sorry but no, we can't move.
Then he fixed the engine controls, I pulled in the anchor, and we went on our merry way!

I think this is a good time to thank God for a Captain that knows what he's doing. :)

We left Coinjock Sunday morning and headed for Pungo Creek- the same place we anchored on the way up. We found our spot and camped out for the night. During supper, we watched a storm approaching on the radar. It broke up and almost completely missed us- we got just a light rain, very little wind :)

Yesterday morning, we pulled up the anchor- and a TON of mud! Gross! I took a picture... ...this time wasn't quite as bad as the 1st time we anchored there (I've become fairly handy with a water hose!) but you get the gist...

We got into Oriental Marina yesterday around noon. Had lunch, I finished up some chores, and then went to the pool. We had supper at the restaurant approximatley 20 feet off our bow. There was no need to get moving this morning- we're headed to Beaufort (that's BOW- like you wear in your hair) today and it should only take about 3 hours to get there. We're planning on leaving around 10:30ish.

I'm excited about Beaufort- it's a neat little town. The schedule says we're laying over there- which we may, unless the weather is ideal for traveling outside tomorrow- Barry would like to get in some ocean time...

Thanks for following us! Hugs all around! :)

p.s. we'll be home in 11 days. But don't tell Alice- she gets cranky.

No really, thank YOU!

Good afternoon, friends!

You may want to grab a snack. This is a long one.

First of all,


Happy Birthday SCOTT THOMAS!! woo-hooo! the big 2-3! :)

Secondly, Happy August! Can you believe it? Where did July go? I was rather enjoying that month... *sigh*

Alrighty, I left you in DC. I have to tell you about Friday. I explored the city and had a blast! I started the day at Starbucks, then went to the Farmers Market held every Friday near the Smithsonian (in between the Smithsonian and the Printing and Engraving building, if you're interested). From there, I went to the Smithsonian garden to swipe some free internet and people-watch a little before I caught the bus to the Capitol. Check it out!

After wandering around for a while, I caught a bus to Union Station to grab some lunch. Cool photo of Union Station:


On the way to the National Cathedral, the bus took me through Chinatown.

Even Starbucks has some Asian flair!


My favorite part of the day (maybe even the whole trip so far) was the Cathedral. Whoa, baby. It was so gorgeous. I took a ton of pictures, but here are the ones you just have to see.







When I left the Cathedral, I had to wait a little while for the bus. While I was waiting, the cutest little Mexican family (I'm not stereotyping- I witnessed them take about a dozen pictures of the Mexican embassy. Call it deductive reasoning.) sat down next to me and in very broken English, asked me which stop they had to take to get to the museum. What followed was a little episode involving entirely too much head nodding and hand-signaling, pointing and stumbling over words (me more than them).
Eventually I think I convinced them that they had to get off on "STOP TWENTY! VEINTE!!!"
Everyone knows they understand better when you talk louder.

Not 30 seconds went by, barely enough time for me to stick my headphones back in my ears, and continue to mind my own business, and this woman came out of the little building next to the bus stop and asked me if she could set her box down next to me while she went to get her car. What do you say to that?
"Sure?"
So she went, got her car, and I grabbed the box, and brought it to her passenger side door.
No big deal, I thought.
The woman went into hysterics. "You didn't have to do that! That was above and beyond!!!"
I told her I didn't mind, I had the time...
So then she proceeded to run after me with Sugar Babies. To thank me.
This is how everyone should say thank you.

The bus eventually came before I made too many more friends and took me to Georgetown. I wandered, shopped (found nothing), but mostly did a lot of people-watching.

From there, I went to the Lincoln Memorial.

The architecture was very cool, and it was neat to be able to see the reflecting pool from that angle.
I met a nice family there. They took my picture.

Saturday morning, we left our cozy little spot at the end of the Washington Channel. There was a beautiful sunrise:


We headed south on the Potomac and stayed overnight in Ragged Point, VA.

This morning, the weather was a tad chilly- I needed a sweatshirt! :)
We passed by Point No Point:

and made it to Solomons, MD before lunchtime. We washed the boat after lunch. Now we're clean.

Tomorrow is a layover day. There is a pool here, but the wind will have to quit for this wimp to get in.

Lastly, I found a great boat name:

Hope everyone is just ducky! Thanks for reading! Hugs!

The House that George Built.

Good morning, friends!

Happy birthday, Ryan Allred!!!

Thanks for all the comments yesterday- great to know you're enjoying keeping up with me!

Yesterday was a great day! First we went to the Arlington Cemetery:











We got to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in time to see them change posts- it was very cool. They are just so very precise. 21 steps each way, then they change their gun to the other shoulder. 21 steps, move the gun. There was a guy who came out, told us what was going to happen, told us to stay standing and quiet, then they went through all the steps to switch soldiers.









After that, the Boy Scouts got to take part in a ceremony to change the wreath in front of the tomb. That was cool too- they'll remember that forever!



Some of the graves were absolutely beautiful! This one in particular: such detail!

We saw Kennedy's grave:

This is a great view of the Washington Monument from in front of Kennedy's grave:

We left Arlington Cemetery and went to the Iwo Jima Memorial! This was probably my favorite part of yesterday- it's such a neat memorial.



Then we went for a VERY scenic drive and found Mount Vernon! The house that George built!







Also, I promised I would show you pictures of the dock we've been on for the last couple days... but the pictures are missing. Not sure what happened... those are the only ones I can't find. oh well.
Just know the dock is very small and the boat is very big.

The End.

New places, new weather!

We're in Alexandria, VA. It is beautiful here. When we left the marina this morning it was a good 15 degrees cooler than it was yesterday- Thank goodness!!

wait a second. priorites:

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOMMA AND DADDY!!!!! You two rock. Keep up the good work. Thanks for being the best parents anyone has ever had. ever.

and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY GRANT! Welcome to the world, little guy!

Alrighty, so the last time I was able to post was... Irvington! I was able to tell you about breakfast at that "gas" station... then I got some pool time... you remember all that.
That night (Saturday) we went to supper with Dick and Fran at this place called the Trick Dog Cafe.

We're in crab country. I had crab cakes. life is good.
oh! and I drew a picture! (that's a bird in the top right corner. see it?)



...and so did Fran. she's a natural, huh? she claimed it was a tree.
I told her I wouldn't post it. oh well :)

On the way to supper, I was able to take this really awesome picture... White Fences Winery... how can I not want to drink their wine when they have a gigantic corkscrew at the entrance to the winery? great marketing.

We left Irvington and got close enough to Smith Point light to take some pretty great pictures! (note the potty)

Also, we saw this light... not sure exactly what it was, but it's pretty!

Once we got into the marina, I took a walk to see what I could see... and found some pretty cool boat names!

This one is one of my favorites:

This one is just a really cool boat:

and look who we found again! we were so excited!

Last year while we were kayaking around Block Island, we saw this boat name... it's one of our favorites!

Last night, we got some serious wind... check out the radar!

but it chilled out after a while and we saw a BEAUTIFUL sunset!

This morning, we headed up the Potomac toward Alexandria- it was a great day on the water... like I said, about 10 to 15 degrees cooler, and sunny!

We passed by Mount Vernon:

and this fort-like structure: (feel free to tell me what it was if you know... it was up on the bank just as we approached DC, protecting the city, perhaps?)

We also got our 1st glimpse of the Washington Monument AND the Capitol building!!
so cool!!


When we got to the marina, we knew we were in for a challenge. There was very little dock to tie up to... but we're pros at this. (I say that all the time to Barry... sometimes sarcastically, like when I screw up. But this time I mean it- we made those lines look like ART! more pictures tomorrow... these are just some that Alice took to prove I actually do work on the boat... for those of you who doubt. You know who you are.)



After a rinse-down, I wandered around "Old Town" Alexandria and found a Starbucks (free wi-fi! what up!?)
This is a really neat little town- cobblestone sidewalks and such :)
Will update tomorrow- hope this post finds you well! Thanks for reading!

If you're happy and you know it, leave a comment!