Chesapeake Bay - Jun 2008
Our first stop in the Chesapeake Bay was at our friends Mark and Beverly's house in Salt Pond in Hampton, just south of Norfolk. They have a beautiful house in Salt Pond complete with deep water dockage behind their house. They also have an American Tug 34, 'Calypso' - which is how we've gotten to know them. While we were visiting, Joe and Sigi (on 'Sigi VII'), another AT34 showed up - so we had quite the little mini-rendezvous on Salt Pond in early June.
That's Mark and Beverly on 'Calypso' to the right and Sigi and Joe on 'Sigi VII' on the left.
Tardis and Calypso docked behind Mark and Beverly's house. We're actually tied to a neighbor's dock - Mark and Beverly's house is the pretty grey one to the right in the photo below.
We stopped of into Mobjack Bay on the way north this time - a beautiful and very protected bay just north of Norfolk. We've never been in here, although it's a popular destination with lots of great anchorages. We took our dink out for a ride around and found several beautiful egrets in the area. The first one below is a bit blurry, but I love the way it shows this graceful bird in flight.
Our next stop north was at the home of another American Tug owner, Bill and Debbie Pyszka. They have a red tug, named 'Muddy Paws,' in honor of the real head of the family, Woody. That's Bill, Deb and Woody below.
Bill and Deb have a home in Smith Point, just south of the Potomac river. We spent several days with Bill and Deb. She has a business doing home decoration and boat canvas sewing and Bill is a realtor in the area.
I dug out my sewing machine and spent many happy hours sewing with Deb in her workshop! This is my current project. It's still a work in progress. I need to finish the rest of the wedges and then sew them all together. It will contain 14 'wedges' when it's finished. I plan on piecing it into a black background - to make it square - and then adding a border of Jinny Beyer's wonderful border print around the outside.
Bill wanted to take Muddy Paws out one day, so we took a trip over to Tangier Island to check it out. That's Deb and Woody in the front of their boat on the way.
We helped Bill and Deb set up for an upcoming bluefish tournament one day. We helped to put up 'the big tent.' I felt like I had joined the circus! I got to 'stitch' the tent top together and Jeremy helped to 'raise' the big top.
Bill is a member of Smith Point Sea Rescue - and wouldn't you know that he got a call to tow in a boat in distress while we were there?? He and Jeremy took off to save the day! Bill snapped this picture of Jeremy looking very official in his life jacket and yellow SPSR hat.
Bill and Deb have some artist friends who have done some beautiful paintings of Muddy Paws. I especially love the one on the left below. It's in a mural in the kitchen. The 'wall' in the mural is actually the edge of the granite backsplash in the kitchen.
Leaving Bill and Deb, we headed up the Potomac towards Alexandria and Washington DC.
We
saw the presidential yacht Sequoia just outside of Alexandria.
Built in 1926 as a private yacht, Sequoia was purchased by the Commerce Department for Prohibition patrol duties in 1931. In 1933 she was acquired by the Navy as the presidential yacht. She served in this capacity until replaced by Potomac in 1936. (The Potomac is located out in Oakland, California near to where we used to live.)
Sequoia then served as the Secretary of the Navy's yacht until 1969, when she became a dual-use yacht for the President and other high-ranking government officials, replacing Williamsburg.
In 1977 she was sold at President Carter's orders. A private foundation acquired the yacht in 1985 with the intent of returning her to government service. Unfortunately this foundation went bankrupt in 1988 and the yacht lay derelict for nearly a decade.
Eventually coming under the ownership of Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Sequoia has been fully restored and once again operates along the Potomac.
We opted to stay in Alexandria rather than in Washington DC this time. Alexandria is a beautiful town with lots to do and see - and it's a short Metro ride into DC when we wanted to head in an visit the museums there.
But first, I wanted to hook up with my friend Carole Nicholas, and amazing quilter who lives in Vienna Virginia, which is not too far from Alexandria. As luck would have it, a quilting group to which Carole is a member was having a show the weekend I was visiting. What a treat!! I met Carole when I started going to Jinny Beyer's seminars in Hilton Head a few years ago. Carole is on Jinny's staff and does a fabulous job of organizing and coordinating the seminar each year.
Carole's quilt group includes several of the amazing women on Jinny's seminar staff - including the four shown in the picture to the left below. That's Barb Hollinger, Carole Nicholas, Bunnie Jordan and Paula Golden (left to right).
They are all members of Fiber Artists @ Loose Ends. The second picture shows all of the members this amazing quilt group - Barb Hollinger, Sandi Goldman (also on Jinny's staff), Bunnie Jordan, Paula Golden, Judy Busby, Cyndi Souter, Carole Nicholas, Lisa Ellis, Donna DeSoto, and Annabel Ebersole (left to right).
The pictures below are of Carole and her quilt 3D Seminar (left) and Sandi Goldman and her quilt Visiting the Gates (right). Carole made her quilt using many of the designs from Jinny Beyer's 2003 Hilton Head seminar on three-dimensional patterns.
Sandi created her quilt based on the Christo's art project entitled "The Gates" in which he hung several in saffron colored drapes in Central Park in New York City in February 2005. There is even a tiny piece of the original fabric from "The Gates" included in the quilt.
Lisa Ellis with two of her quilts 'Miriam's Dance' (shown in the picture to the right) and 'Asian Morning' (shown behind Lisa). I think 'Miriam's Dance' is one of the most joyful quilts I have ever seen.
Judy Busby is shown below with a few of her quilts. The one pictured to the right is called 'Flower of Wishes.' The original flowers are hand sewn on a hand quilted background. Beading and folded fabric depicts wishes that can be blown into the air. Judy said that as a child, she made wishes with her mother as she blew dandelion seeds into the air.
The quilt behind Judy is called 'Life's Moments.' The quilt is hand sewn and hand quilted. Each moment of life has a different essence. The embellishments reflect the varying times. Each day and quilt piece is unique.
The exhibit included two sets of 'group project' quilts. Each of the quilts in the group were designed and completed by the individual artists, but they were working on a common theme with common size parameters.
The quits shown in the picture below were created for a group project called 'Identity Crisis.'
The quilts below were created as part of a group of quilts that will be on permanent display at the University of Michigan Cancer Center. The quilts are based on the plants and animals that are the foundation for chemotherapy treatments for a variety of cancers.
Many members of this group have also participated in creating quilts that are on permanent display at Walter Reed Army Medical Center Oncology department. Click on this link to view the quilts and more information about that project.
I saw this plaque outside of the museum and it reminded me of my niece and nephew Bryan and Baylee Poole in California playing the sax and clarinet together.
Returning to the boat in Alexandria, Jeremy and I took the Metro into Washington DC for the day. We spent most of the day wandering around in many of the amazing Smithsonian museums. You could easily spend a week or more exploring all of what these museums have to offer. One building that we hadn't been into before, was the original Smithsonian building which houses an eclectic collection of exhibits from all of the museums.
In
1826, James Smithson, a British scientist, drew up his last will and testament,
naming his nephew as beneficiary. Smithson stipulated that, should the nephew
die without heirs (as he would in 1835), the estate should go “to the United
States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian
Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among
men.”
The motives behind Smithson’s bequest remain mysterious. He never traveled to the United States and seems to have had no correspondence with anyone here. Some have suggested that his bequest was motivated in part by revenge against the rigidities of British society, which had denied Smithson, who was illegitimate, the right to use his father’s name. Others have suggested it reflected his interest in the Enlightenment ideals of democracy and universal education.
Smithson died in 1829, and six years later, President Andrew Jackson announced the bequest to Congress. On July 1, 1836, Congress accepted the legacy bequeathed to the nation and pledged the faith of the United States to the charitable trust. In September 1838, Smithson’s legacy, which amounted to more than 100,000 gold sovereigns, was delivered to the mint at Philadelphia. Recoined in U.S. currency, the gift amounted to more than $500,000.
After eight years of sometimes heated debate, an Act of Congress signed by President James K. Polk on Aug. 10, 1846, established the Smithsonian Institution as a trust to be administered by a Board of Regents and a Secretary of the Smithsonian.
There are 19 Smithsonian museums, housing over 136 million objects - from very tiny objects to very large objects like the Space Shuttle. All of the museums are open 7 days a week with free admission (the only day they are closed is Christmas Day) - making this a family vacation mecca.
In 2007, over 24 million people visited the museums. So, while we may never had any idea why James Smithson made his bequest to the United States, most of us are very glad that he did.
I spotted these beautiful yellow roses out in one of the Smithsonian rose gardens. Yellow roses are my Mom's favorite flowers - so these are for you, Mom!
We spent some time this year wandering around the sculpture gardens. I took this picture of two backpackers and Jeremy snapped the one below with me and my new giant eraser. We've been doing a lot of writing lately - so the giant eraser can come in handy! Jeremy and I put a book together on all of the systems on our American Tug. We've called it Owner's Experiences, since it has our experiences plus those of many other AT owners we've met and talked to over the years.
We also took the Metro out to visit the Smithsonian Zoo, which we'd never done before. If you've never gone, this is a wonderful zoo. Most of the animals are in enclosures situated so that you can see them without tall fences coming between you and the view. I snapped this one of a guy walking a cheetah. There were two zoo-keepers in with the cheetahs - and believe me, they never took their eyes off the animals when they were in there with them.
There are only 4 zoos in the United States with Giant Pandas. The others are in San Diego, Atlanta, and Memphis. The national zoo has three pandas - a male and female breeding pair - as well as a 3-year old cub that was born at the zoo on July 9, 2005. The picture below is of one of the adults.
For some reason, I always love to see the prairie dogs. They look like little people standing up and looking around.
The zoo also has a beautiful pair of tigers. One was playing with a ball in the moat that surrounds their area when we got there.
Then he saw something in the water - let out this weird low growl - and POUNCED!! At first we couldn't figure out what it was he saw - I had this awful thought that maybe someone had fallen in. Turned out to be a water bottle that someone had dropped. He swam out and grabbed it and the proceeded to flop down in the grass and chew on it. I heard someone say, "That can't be good for him, but I'm not going to be the one to go in there and tell him!"
There is an aquarium at the zoo as well. I particularly liked this 'brainiac' fish and the big ugly eel-like fish. I'm sure they have real names, but I confess I wasn't paying attention.
And of coarse, the otters were out having a good time playing in the water.
But wait! What's that creature in the picture to the right. He's very shy and not seen very often. He has that sort of 'deer in the headlights' look. Careful not to scare him!
Skyrocketing fuel prices have, of course, had a bit of an impact on us, as well as everyone else in the country. We're traveling much slower this year than last year and spending a lot more time in anchorages or tied to free town docks (or, even better - to docks behind friend's houses!) - none of which is necessarily a bad thing. We've discovered that slowing from an average of 1600 RPM to 1200 has reduced our fuel consumption by about a third. I'm really glad that we have our Great Loop trip behind us, where sometimes we had to make some pretty long days - and therefore had to run at a faster speed.
We saw these old gas pumps at a museum in Pokomock - a small town on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay - 24 cents a gallon!! Remember those days??? It wasn't THAT long ago!!
Heading north along the eastern shore, we stopped off in Cambridge and St. Michaels before making our way to Oxford. The statue with the Canadian Geese is located at the waterfront park in Cambridge. This town has been in a bit of a downturn over the last decade or so, but they are working hard at bringing more businesses into the downtown area. There were definitely more shops and restaurants open this year than two years ago when we last stopped here. There is now a wonderful wine and cheese shop as well as an art gallery and store filled with art from local artists.
The picture on the right below was taken in St. Michaels. We always anchor on Broad Creek and come into the town of St. Michaels 'through the back door' - as it's known to cruisers. The anchorage has a lot more room than the crowded on located off the maritime museum in the center of town. There is this neat little house with a very interesting garden that you walk past when you come in the way we do. Some people put gnomes in their gardens - he has a giant green thumb and a vulture in his!
We headed out towards Oxford and anchored off the town for the night. We had planning on coming in to a marina the next day to hook up with our friend Mary Kay who was driving down from Philadelphia to visit. The afternoon we got there, we took the dink out for a spin and spotted this pair of white swans swimming in the river near the town.
We didn't realize it, but the day Mary Kay came to visit was the day of the annual Oxford Cardboard boat races. There were cardboard boats of all shapes and designs. From what I could gather, there was a limit to the amount of wood that you could use, and the rest was cardboard, tape and paint. Oh yeah, and a hope and a prayer as well!
El Diablo was the entry from the Coast Guard. I especially liked the 'go faster' engine on the back. Ruffled revenge had a huge duck head on the bow - decked out like a pirate, as were her crew. It was sponsored by a local Bed and Breakfast called the Ruffled Duck Inn.
There was even a very long cardboard canoe. I have to think that they must have used more wood than the others to built this!
The boat in the photo to the right is the U.S.S. Toadfish. This is a cardboard boat with a history. It was first launched in June 2002. Presumably it's the 'super-structure' of the wood that has remained - since the rest is made of cardboard.
And they're off! Ruffled Revenge takes an early lead by a nose!
Paddles and oars going in many different directions. I think the parrot on Margaritaville was having a nervous breakdown!!
TIP: It's not a good idea to enter a cardboard boat into more than one race. The Coast Guard boat won the first race they were in - but, unfortunately the bottom fell out of their boat and they sank during this race. No problem, the Navy, in the form of the USS Toadfish came to the rescue.
r
Time to dump the excess water (and maybe an excess crew member) from the boat.
Ruffled Revenge may not have won any races, but she was still floating at the end of the day - if maybe a little lopsided.
What happens to cardboard boats that don't do too well?? Off to the dumpster with you!!
We all got a chuckle out of this sign in the marina parking lot.
Leaving Oxford and heading north up the Chesapeake Bay we happened upon a Skipjack out for a sail. The sails on these boats are enormous. We also saw this guy out sailing with his trusty doggy crew one afternoon.
Updated July 22, 2008