Welcome to North Carolina

We made it through the locks.  It was not a big deal.  This is going into the Deep Creek Lock.

We tied up, then they let the water in that raised us up about 8 feet.

Then we were off, down the Dismal Swamp Canal.  It was, at times, dismal.  The yellow flies were out and biting with a vengeance.  The kids and I spent most of the time below, but towards the end Zachary and I could sit on deck without being munched.

Our brave captain had to remain up top all day.  The green stuff (pollen, I guess) got very thick.

Then we made it to the South Mills Lock.  We made it to both locks right on schedule, despite missing the first bridge opening.  At this lock, they lowered us down about 8 feet back to sea level.

Along the way, we were greeted by this sign, welcoming us to North Carolina!  We've made it to another state!

After the canal, we went through Turner's cut to Elizabeth City.  That part of the ICW (actually it is Intracoastal waterway, not Inter, as I said before) was actually pretty.  The flies left us and I found a new spot on deck to do a little yoga.  Evan likes to help me.

Today we are in Elizabeth City.  Our immediate plans are unclear.  If we can get everything done this morning (haircuts, provisions, etc.) then we'll leave after lunch and get further down the river.  We'll spend a couple of nights at anchor and then make our way to Oriental, NC.  But all that depends on today!

Heading South

This morning we are leaving Virginia.  Tonight we should be in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.  I'm a little nervous about it because we have to go through locks to get into and out of the Dismal Canal.  The canal is actually above sea level so we have to go through one contraption that will raise us up to the canal and then through another lock that will lower us back to sea level.  From there we continue down the ICW (Inter Coastal Waterway) to Elizabeth City.  There is a lot of history surrounding the canal, and the ICW is supposed to be absolutely beautiful for the next few days.  George Washington and his slaves helped dig the canal, so I've heard, and it was the first major construction of the United States.  It was built to transport goods south.  I've never been through a lock like this.  Another, larger one, is the Panama Canal.  I've heard horror stories about sailboats having issues there (then again, those could be like childbirth horror stories - meant to ignite fear and make the teller feel superior) so I'm trying to keep it in perspective.  Lew says the dockhands there are extremely helpful and it's not a big deal at all.  One thing's for sure, it'll be a new experience so I'm excited for that.

The kids are ok, but not bouncing back like I thought they would.  If there are not better today I'm taking them to a pediatrician in Elizabeth City.  All three guys on this boat need haircuts desperately, particularly Ryan and Zachary, so I'll take care of that there too.  I'll also re-provision, since we are running out of produce.  We still have plenty of fish and shrimp in the freezer, but my salad greens, fruit, and veggies will be fully depleted by tomorrow.

We had a delightful dinner last night with Lew and Teresa.  It's been such fun seeing them these last few weeks, and it was sad to said goodbye.  We were trying to talk them into jumping on with us for a few days, but they couldn't.  We'll see them again in October in Annapolis and they promise to visit after that in the fall.

But now I must go get the boat ship shape.  It should be an interesting day!

We're All Alright

Yesterday our medical drama was solved around noon.  A very special thanks to Karen G (one of many special Karens in my life) and Nina for getting us meds for the kids.  We pushed immediately to head to Tangier Island.  Our plan was to get there and have dinner somewhere.  This place has a reputation for outstanding family style restaurants.  But once again, it wasn't meant to be.

We arrived around 6:15, the kids were doing ok and we thought a dinner out would work.  When Ryan called the marina to see if we could dock for the night the dock master's reply was "yep, come on."  The place is very isolated and was a bit deserted.  The dock master couldn't have been a nicer man, he helped us tie up and insisted on personally showing us where the bathrooms and showers were (even though they were in a building 10 yards from us and pretty self explanatory).  We mentioned we were headed to dinner, so he made a quick phone call and determined that all the restaurants were closed for church services.  Sigh.  So I threw together some dinner while Ryan and the kids went for a walk to explore the town.  After dinner Ryan put the kids to bed and I went for a walk to explore the town.  Don't get me wrong, it's a neat place, but it reminded me of the town in "Footloose".  Church services were still going while I walked (I could see all the golf carts in the parking lot) so all the people I encountered on my walk were not church goers.  Hmm.  I kept looking for Kevin Bacon and some elusive dance party, but didn't find one.

This morning we left Tangier at 6:30 a.m. for the very long motor sail back to Portsmouth.  The kids are feeling better, although we've had a couple of nights without much sleep.  Tonight they went to bed a little early and hopefully tomorrow they'll be back to normal.  Poor Zachary had such huge bags under his eyes today, he looked like a zombie.  But he was feeling perky by the time we got here, so we took both kids for a quick swim before dinner.  After 10 hours on the boat today they needed to burn off some energy.

Tomorrow Ryan has boat duties (oil change, filter change, and something to do with the sump pump float switch).  I'm taking the kids back to the Portsmouth Children's Museum.  It's been high on their list of favorite places we've been so far, and they are thrilled to be going back there.  Tomorrow evening we'll have dinner with Lew and Teresa, then Wednesday morning we head down the Dismal Canal.  Although it sounds foreboding, I'm told it's actually quite beautiful.  We'll have to go through locks and under draw bridges, so we have to time everything right.  We'll stop in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

So we've officially left the Chesapeake for this trip.  It was a wonderful, wonderful time.  I'm so pleased with how the kids have adapted to boating life.  Not once have they asked to go home, even though they haven't felt well the last couple of days.  As the end of June approaches, I'm wistful about the time we have left.  However, we are savoring almost every moment, so I really cannot complain.  There are still more adventures to come.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Oxford

Pondering our time running out, about halfway to Oxford we decided to go a little further and head back to Solomon's Island.

So we stopped at the first fuel dock in Solomon's and tied up for the night.  Our plan was to leave early this morning for Tangier Island.  Ah, plans.

Last night we arrived just in time to clean up and go out for dinner.  Back in St. Michaels, I got the kids some badly needed new crocs.  Ryan loves foot pictures, it's his trademark.  In fact, if he were in charge of this blog, you'd see a lot more foot pictures.

Another Family portrait, can you tell things are going a little sour?

We found a swan on the way back to the boat, we fed her some bread.  She gobbled it up.  The kids loved it.  Almost everywhere we've been we've seen ducks, but this is the first swan.  Can anyone else hear the Tchaikovsy score?

After feeding ourselves, then the swan, we went back to the boat to get ready for bed.  Today was to begin early.  Alas, it was not meant to be.  By 9:00 p.m. both kids were sick.  I called the P.A. at my pediatrician's.  She's probably regretting giving me her cell phone number about now.  Anyway, they need prescription meds, so we'll wait for her to call those in and hoof it the 2 miles to the nearest CVS.  We are going to stay here another day and let everyone recover (I got precious little sleep myself so I plan to recover today as well).   I expect we'll all be fine tomorrow and we'll just head to Tangier Island then.

On a really funny note, the rejects from Jersey Shore are docked next to us and blasted loud music most of the night.  We are on the fuel dock, yet most of them sat around the fuel pump smoking.  I really wanted to wake up early this morning and blast loud music myself, but I was simply too tired.  I guess I'll look at the positive side - at least they didn't blow us all to kingdom come.

Take the cake

Thanks to everyone for all the phone calls, e-mails, videos, and puzzles for Zachary.  He loved them all.  He had a wonderful birthday, and we had a wonderful family day.

As you can see, the cake turned out rather interesting.  I tried to draw light sabers, but had to change them to a sailboat and a unicorn sea creature.  Then I covered it with sprinkles.  That always makes things better!

It tastes great (unfortunately for me, since I'm a cake junkie).  The kids will eat a piece here and there, and I'll be on the phone with my sponsor all day (Suann, are you busy today?).  I could really sit there and eat the whole thing with a fork, then turn around and have breakfast.  But I won't.  I only brought small clothes, and I've bought all these skinny shorts so if I get all fat again I'll have nothing to wear.

Today we are headed to Oxford to anchor out.  We are ready for a night without other people.  St. Michaels was a delightful little village but most of the restaurants are upscale white tablecloth and the shops are antique and clothing stores, so it's not the place for young kids.  We also realized in a slight panic last night that it's almost 3 weeks into our trip and we need to head South.  We've gotten a good taste of the Chesapeake, and seen a part of the world we haven't seen before, but we need to move on.  We are formulating the plan, but from Oxford we'll have a long day to Tangier Island, then back to Hampton or Norfolk.  From there the ICW starts and we start moving along.

Zachary's Birthday!

Today is Zachary's 7th birthday.

We got to St. Michaels yesterday afternoon.  It was a nice sail.  This is a nice change from Baltimore.  It's a small, quaint village.  There's not much for the kids to do, but there is a pool.  After dinner last night, they swam and swam and swam.  They needed to get some energy out.

This morning started early.  Zachary was born at 4:17 a.m.   I cannot believe he's seven years old today.  He opened a few of his presents this morning.

Evan got a couple of his own presents, although he really wanted more.  I've never heard such whining.

Today we'll walk into town and go to the toy store.  Zachary got a card and some money from Grandpa Alan and Nana Karen.  I'm letting him spend some of it at the toy store.  There's a pizza place in town where we'll lunch.

Now I must get to baking a cake.  Zachary wants a Star Wars cake.  I'm not the baking type of mother, usually I happily order whatever cake he wants.  This time will be more complicated.  I have some blue icing, so I'm going to try and get creative.  I'm thinking maybe blue starts fighting - Star Wars right?

All Aboard!

Yesterday was another full day.  This schedule of going and going all day is killing me.  Everywhere I go I hear some bar or restaurant or store playing that old song "and I would walk 500 miles and then I would walk 500 more" and I feel like "yeah, I'm doing that!"  La da dah ta.

So, yesterday's adventure was to the B&O Railroad Museum.  It was very, very cool I must say.  I really liked it.  My parents were train buffs when I was a kid and they took me on Amtrack and old steam trains frequently.  They would have loved this.

We even saw a real caboose, Evan's favorite!

They even got to climb on an old engine.  This is the engineer's seat.

Then we got to ride on a real train.

It was ao fun.  After a much needed nap by Evan and some much needed restorative yoga by me, we went out again.  U2 is in town so the Inner Harbor area was buzzing with people.  Bono begged me to come to his concert, but I told him I had family obligations.  So I had a couple of drinks with him and sent him on his way.

We wanted to eat at Hard Rock Cafe again, so I could at least get a decent salad.  I'm so ready to eat dinner on the boat again so I can control the amount of gluten I'm getting.  Hard Rock was closed for a private function (I guess Bono was going there after I sent him away) so we settled on an interesting place next door.  It's called Dick's Last Resort - the shame of Baltimore.  That's really is the tagline.  They pride themselves on sarcasm and rudeness.  It was funny for the kids (especially Zachary) when they placed this hat on him.

It says "I fart in the tub".  The only salad they had was smothered in beef and cheese, so I opted for the crab balls.  They were basically hush puppies, extra greasy, with french fries.  Mmmmm.  No wonder my body is so achy today.  It wasn't the best culinary experience, but the kids laughed a lot.  So I relaxed and went along with it.

Today we are blowing this popsicle stand for the quieter scene of St. Michaels.  I'm ready to sleep in and go back to the spa.  We're staying in a marina there with a resort and spa, so I'm sure it will be wonderful.  They have a pool so we'll be back to swimming daily.  We have stocked up on presents for Zachary so his birthday celebration tomorrow should be lots of fun.

Pictures from Yesterday

Here are the pictures from yesterday. 

 This is the view in front of the Maryland Science Museum.

When we walked in this guy showed the kids how a hot air balloon works.  First you fill it with hot air.

Then you let it go.

Then you get to run around squealing with your arms in the air and catch it when it comes down.

Then Evan learned about Newton's Cradle.  I loved these things as a kid.

Then Ryan lied on a bed of nails.

Then Zachary tried it.

In the children's area Evan caught a fish.

Zachary caught a rock fish.  We'd like to have that for dinner.

Then we rented a dragon shaped paddle boat and paddled all over the harbor.  For the record, Ryan refused to be photographed in a dragon shaped paddle boat wearing a life jacket.  I have no such shame.

When the kids got crabby, we took them to dinner.

While we were enjoying dinner, the Baltimore Fire Department put on a show for us.  Notice the before mentioned dragon shaped paddle boats in the foreground.

It was a full, full day.  Today was another full day as well, but you have to wait and read about that in the morning.

What's Going On?

Yesterday we went to the Maryland Science Museum.  It's supposed to be one of the top rated ones in the country and I can see why.  It was very interesting.  I have some great pictures, but once again blogger will not let me upload them.  Sigh.

On the way to the museum yesterday there were lots of sirens, backed up traffic, and a police helicopter circling about 3 blocks north of us.  Something big was happening.  I tried to google "breaking news Baltimore" but I didn't find anything.  On the way to Washington, D.C. we heard on the radio that a suspicious package was found at the Pentagon.  It ended up being a bomb and a suspect was taken into custody, but all the roads around the Pentagon and around Arlington Cemetery were closed which caused a huge traffic nightmare.  Fortunately we were coming in from Annapolis so the traffic didn't affect us much.

I haven't read a newspaper since we left Portsmouth, so I have no idea what's going on in the world.  There simply isn't much time for things like that.  I get internet access in short spurts, just enough to blog and maybe return an e-mail.  Today I took too long trying to upload those pictures (they really are wonderful) and now the kids are up and it's time to get breakfast going, make the beds, take a shower, etc.  They crew doesn't wait for me.  If anything big happens in the world that I should know about,  someone please either comment here or e-mail me.

Today we are going to the B&O Railroad Museum.  The kids love trains so much we thought that might be fun.  We can actually ride a train and everything.  I'm quite excited about it.

Tomorrow we leave for St. Michaels, and Friday is Zachary's birthday.  We've been furtively purchasing him small gifts.  I'm going to make him a cake when we get there.  It's the first cake I've made since we've come aboard.  Usually I make one to celebrate a passage or some milestone (like making it to our furthest North point, Baltimore).  However, since I'm the main person who eats the cake, and I really don't need to eat more cake, I have resisted the urge quite well.  But Friday is a special day, and Zachary has requested a Star Wars cake.  I'm not sure how I'm going to pull that one off, but hope springs eternal.

Oh Say Can You See?

We arrived in the picturesque inner harbor of Baltimore yesterday afternoon.  We were going to arrive in the middle of Evan's nap, so I thought we might skip it and just let him go to bed early.  About an hour from arrival, however, Evan went to lay down in his bed on his own.  I checked on him and he said he wasn't ready to go "night night" but I turned on the fan for him anyway and in a few minutes he was out.  He actually slept through our docking and everything and ended up with a good nap for the day.

On the way there we sailed under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

The boys liked helping navigate under the bridge.

After passing under the bridge, we took a sharp turn to starboard to check out the buoy marking where Francis Scott Key wrote the "Star Spangled Banner".  He was captured on a British war ship and could see the flag at Fort McHenry.  We saw the actual flag that was his inspiration in D.C. at the American History Museum.

We are staying at Inner Harbor East Marina.  It's a peaceful place, especially compared to Annapolis.  We could use a little peace and quiet.  After Evan woke up we walked over to the National Aquarium of Baltimore.  We saw lots and lots of fish.

In the rainforest we saw an Ibis.  It was making a lot of noise!

Zachary and I enjoyed looking at the stingrays and sharks.

Evan just enjoyed looking cute.

The sea turtle was beautiful.

They started getting a little crabby, so we took them to the Hard Rock for dinner.

Today we are going to the Children's Museum and, time permitting, the Maryland Science Museum.  We'll be here until Thursday morning, then we are headed to St. Michaels.  Friday is Zachary's birthday so we are searching for something special to do for his birthday.

Boat Collisions, Part II . . . We're Out of Here!

I didn't blog yesterday morning.  I had a yoga class.  It was at the waterfront park by the docks.  It was like a meet up group, and yesterday just happened to be steps away from the boat.  It was a great class, a vinyassa flow.  I just haven't had a yoga class in almost 3 weeks, so a flow class was a bit challenging for me.  Everyone around me were instructors and very advanced yogis, it seemed as if I was the only one struggling.  I'm sure that's not true.  We did three different flow sequences with the "Bird of Paradise" bind and stand up.  Geez.  It was hard to focus with people walking around staring at us, and it was especially difficult to adjust to the earth not moving.  Usually I practice on the boat, and even in a marina there is a slight rocking that I've been accustomed to.

So much has happened since I last blogged.  I shouldn't have jinxed us with the thought of no more collisions.  Saturday afternoon I was changing the sheets on our bed.  Evan was napping and Zachary was helping me.  Ryan had walked over to the Naval Academy to check out the museum there.  I was in my happy space, having spent the morning shopping at all my favorite places in Annapolis.  My closet has been restocked.  Lew and Teresa were on their way here and we were all excited about that.  So, I'm busy making the bed and I hear a huge BAM on the port side bow.  I race up on the deck to see what happened and some idiot in an old Bennetau was trying to dock in the slip next to us.  He had already crashed into us once, taking a nice chunk out of the teak on the rubrail, and was about to hit again.  I fended him off.  He wasn't drunk (the drunks were what we were warned about) but he was slow, in every since of the word.  I helped prevent crashes into our boat 3 more times (thank God this was before yoga or I might have been too worn out!) and watched him crash his bow into the dock.  There was a dock hand trying to help him, but it was ridiculous how little both of them knew.  The telltale sign was he didn't set an aft spring line, to keep him from running into the dock repeatedly.  He never even apologized for ramming us.  In the last couple of days I've seen more small crashes in this harbour.  It's like NASCAR with boats.  Our boat will be okay, but we did file an incident report.

In light of the drama Saturday, Saturday night (with Lew & Teresa) became a drinking night.  We partied.  I ate and drank too much (maybe that's why I struggled so in yoga?) but it sure was a fun time.  We usually only get to see them once or twice a year, so it's so nice to see them a little more often.  Even the kids had a great time.  The boat on our starboard side (not the one who hit us) had a man and his two sons on it.  One was a year older and one was a year younger than Zachary.  They became fast friends.  The Dad and kids came over to visit.  The adults had a drink while the kids played down below.  It was sweet watching them all play together.  I'm kicking myself for not getting pictures, but I was in a really happy place then.

Yesterday we surprised Ryan with Father's Day presents and cards.  We never mentioned it to him so he thought we forgot, precisely our plan.  After my yoga class, it was a busy day cleaning the boat, doing laundry, and generally getting ready to go.  Annapolis is a non stop party.  The waterfront park by the docks had a festival last night with bands, vendors, and dog frisbee demonstrations.  It was like having the band in our cockpit, it was so loud (but fun).  Fortunately they finished right after I put the kids to bed (although Ryan picked that precise time to rinse the boat, sending strange noises emanating down below and giving the kids more questions with which to stall the inevitable).

This morning we had our requisite breakfast at Chick and Ruth's Delly (that's how they spell it).  It's such a great place, locally owned by the same family for generations.  We eat there every time we come to Annapolis, which has been for the boat show every October for the last eleven years.  This picture was taken Saturday, today is a rainy and overcast day.  It's time to go to.  Our next stop is Baltimore.  It's been fun, but we're out of here.

Day Tripping

Yesterday we took a day trip to Washington, D.C.  We took the kids to the Air & Space Museum and the American History Museum, as well as a stroll along the mall and a sightseeing tour.  It was quite the trip.  We began our adventure at the Air & Space Museum.

We went for a stroll along the mall.  They were setting up for a folk arts festival.

Then we decided to hop on an open air bus for a sightseeing tour.  

That was a fun way to see D.C. with kids.  Then we took another stroll past the Washington monument.

Then we went to the American History Museum.  We saw C3PO, much to the boys' delight.

Then the trains, oh my!  The trains!  We saw one that looked like Uncle Kurt.

After all that walking and "museum-ing" the kids needed a snack.  Sponge Bob fit the bill wonderfully.

Then the long stroll back to our rental car.  On the way we saw the carousel.  We took a ride.

We got back to the boat and relaxed on the bow for a bit.  Notice how close the restaurant is across the way?  

After this picture was taken we walked up to our favorite crab restaurant for dinner.  Along the bulkhead, we are tied up in a slip, we are a good 10 feet longer than all the other boats.  We stick out into the waterway a good bit.  That has made us a bit nervous, so we've had our running lights on in the evening and at night.  Annapolis is a happening place on the weekend, there are lots of boats coming and going, and most of them are drinking.

When we returned from dinner we discovered, via a note left, that someone had run into the bow and smashed the running lights.  I was pissed.  Ryan was calm and cool, as usual.  The note was left by an embarrassed boat taxi captain.  Fortunately it was just the crystal and bulb that were smashed, and those are (hopefully) easily replaceable.  The water taxi captain promised to go to West Marine for replacement parts today.  Hopefully.  It did, however, make for a good conversation with our neighbors.

This place is so fun, I cannot emphasize that enough.  Last night was like a frat party with boats, but not quite out of control.  This morning when I got up most of the boats were gone.  I didn't hear any of them leave last night.  Tonight Lew and Teresa are driving up from Virginia Beach to hang with us here.  More excitement and fun to be had tonight, but hopefully no more boat collisions!