Yorktown, VA

Howdy! Greetings from Yorktown!

I'm having a hard time remembering where we've been. I left you in St Michaels. From there, we went to.... Oxford! It was a rainy day, uneventful ride over, but we did get to see a very cool sailboat race! After we got in, Barry and Alice's friends Jeff and Darlene invited us to their house for lunch. We took a ferry (the longest continuously running ferry in the country, apparently. Since the early 1600's!!) out of Oxford and he drove us to his house...  estate, really. They live on a very cool farm. I, of course, forgot the camera, but just know the house is beautiful. and Jeff tells the BEST stories! We had a VERY nice Sunday.

From Oxford, we went to Crisfield. There was some serious wind that made for a frustrating docking experience. Nothing serious.
Crisfield had a POOL! I got some chores done and had a wonderful afternoon sunning it up!
That was Monday.
Tuesday, Brie came to see me! it's a 2-ish hour ride from here house, and she picked me up, and we went to Ocean City! (we look a little rained-on and wind-blown... oh well!)
It was really great to see her again. We thought we had caught up in Baltimore, but we were so wrong! a year is a long time!

We left Crisfield yesterday, and made a slight detour through Tangier Island. Yes, through. There's a waterway that lets you get a little tour of the island. It's an interesting place- a fishing community, and not much else. They live right on the water, and have shacks built out in the water where they bring in their catch. The only way to get anywhere is by boat. We were there around 8 yesterday morning and it was like a ghost town. Too late to catch the watermen and too early to see any tourists.


Also, we got to see Wolf Trap Light again! Love this one!
Then we got into Yorktown around 1. We had to wait on a storm to pass before we came into the marina. Then before another storm came in, we washed down the boat.

Today, we're gonna take a car into Williamsburg! I'm excited! I've never been. I'll take lots of pictures. There's a great wi-fi signal here... glad I could catch you up! Thanks for reading!

Adventures in Baltimore...

Good morning! We're in Baltimore! I'm at Starbucks, which is, conveniently, just a block away from the marina!
weeeee!

We left Annapolis yesterday morning and had a pleasant 4ish hour ride.

We saw Sandy Point Light...




Also, we saw the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bouy!
...yeah... apparently this is how we honor the person responsible for writing The Star Spangled Banner!? (...tune in next week to see the Rosa Parks Memorial Stop Sign!)

We got into Baltimore around lunch time... and you'll NEVER GUESS who came to see me!!! The one, the only, Brielle Smoot! Aaaaaaagh!

You missed her as much as I did! We had a blast... had about a year of life to catch up on. She and Mike (you remember Mike! Biggest sweetheart! You missed him TOO!) took me to a hamburger place called B.W. Wreck's... or W.E. Mike's... or something... anyway- great burgers! awesome beer! had fun! :)

Then we found a RITA'S!!!!!



You should know- I did take another picture after this one... and made Brie move the straw from in front of her face, but this one was just so good- with both of them laughing at some hilarious thing I said, that I just had to post it. It's my blog, I can do what I want.

Today, the weather is very nice... not quite as hot as yesterday. Gonna go take a walk around the city, see what I can find...

Hope you're all doing well! Thanks for reading! :)

Naptown

Howdy howdy! and greetings from Annapolis! I like it here. It's fun to go to places I've never been before, but it's also really cool to know that I can get off the boat and walk a quarter mile to a really neat bookstore... so that's what I did yesterday after we got docked and settled. Then I found ice cream. It was a good day!

On the way from Solomon's Island we saw Thomas Point- one of my Top 5 Favorite Lights:

Then Alice got some cool pictures as we were coming into the marina:
No worries, it waited til we were just about ready to dock to start raining on us. Isn't that nice? :)

I'm writing this from a coffee shop in downtown Annapolis... later today we're gonna go visit the Pennsylvania Dutch Market and see what kind of trouble we can find :)

I think you're just about up-to-date now. Thanks for reading!

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!

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!