Thursday marked the day that Grandma Cathy and Jim were finally arriving!  The girls were so excited.  My mom was able to spend a full week with us at Easter time back in April.  It’s hard to believe it had been almost 3 months since we’d seen her!  That was way back when we had been in Florida for months on end.  We saw my mom when we were in St. Petersburg, Ft. Myers, Islamorada and Cocoa Village, FL.  So this felt like a long time between visits.  Molly was able to rattle off that since then, we had gone through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland!

Unfortunately my mom and Jim weren’t arriving until close to bedtime so we had the whole day to wait.  We took the shuttle from the marina into town and looked at a boat we’ve looked at once before.  Then we walked into the cute little downtown part of Annapolis and grabbed some lunch and shopped a bit.  I love these old cities.  I love their charm and their houses and their cute little streets.  As usual it was hot so after some shopping we stopped for the girls to get ice cream.  We knew all day it was going to storm and it had held off for quite awhile.  As we were walking to the shuttle stop we saw the sky turn colors and knew we were in trouble.  We had pushed Mother Nature too far and 10 minutes before the shuttle was due to pick us up she unloaded on us!  There was no protection.  I had the girls’ rain coats and had umbrellas for the three of us.  Ben won’t do jackets or umbrellas usually so I didn’t have one for him.  Unfortunately he was carrying the activity bag I packed for the kids when we were looking at the boat including Maddy’s summer workbook.  It has now completely dried out but is about 2 inches thicker than it was previously with VERY rippled pages!  We sprinted through rivers and flooded streets to the shuttle where Scott from the marina was standing with the doors open for us, taking umbrellas and hurrying us in.  Such a sweet guy!  Thank you Scott!

We got back to the boat and changed clothes and dried out a bit and went back to waiting for Grandma to arrive.  My mom and Jim arrived around 8 PM and the girls ran full speed ahead to greet them.  After hellos and hugs we all got back on the boat and eventually got the girls in bed.  Molly was super excited because my mom brought birthday presents so the birthday celebration would continue in the morning!  We had a lazy day Friday.  Birthday presents in the morning followed by breakfast at the café by the pool.  Then the playground and pool for a few hours.  Later Friday afternoon we went into town for dinner.  We had quite a few recommendations for Annapolis restaurants and hit as many as we could.  Friday was Boatyard Bar and Grill and we had a great meal.

Saturday morning we were ready to go in the morning for a day of sight seeing.  We took the shuttle into town and headed for the Naval Academy.  When we got there my mom realized her ID was in her other purse so we saw the town instead.  We walked the charming streets and up the hill towards the circle around the State House.  We stopped in a lot of shops and had a nice lunch.  We passed a public piano in the square and an amazing pianist happened to be sitting there playing when we walked by.  After quite a bit of walking we went back to the shuttle stop, which happens to be right across the street from the marina with the boat we keep looking at so we took my mom and Jim to see the boat while we waited.  We opted for dinner on the boat that night and prepared the rest of our crab cakes for them to try.  They still tasted good!

Sunday my mom, the girls and I went to St. Mary’s Church – a beautiful old church with a steeple that we could see from all over town.  It was founded years ago on land owned by the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence.  The inside was beautiful with a ceiling that looked liked starts.  Maddy is a sucker for a good ceiling, dome, rotunda….you name it. She loves them.

After church we had a fantastic brunch outside overlooking the water at Carol’s Creek.

Then we went to the Naval Academy for the afternoon.  What a wonderful treasure open to the public.  We started in the Visitor Center and watched the introduction video about the Academy.  We did a self guided tour and began in Lejeune Hall – the sports Hall of Fame.  The girls (and adults) were amazed at the Olympic sized pool and the diving well.  We were able to go in and look at the pools.  The diving platforms are SO HIGH.  The naval academy students have to conquer jumping off the platforms at the start of their sophomore year.  If they have height issues (like me!) or can’t quite do it at the start of the year they are given that year to work out their issues.  This height is the height of the top of the ships they will be stationed on and it’s important for the candidates to find out now if they can handle the heights and the jumps or get out before they get in too deep.  Seems logical!

After Lejeune Hall we walked the campus a bit.  We passed some of the pretty Commander’s Houses on our way to Bancroft Hall, the largest student dormitory in the United States.  We were treated to seeing candidates marching in formation while we walked.

Bancroft Hall is a work of art.  Nothing like the dormitories Ben and I lived in at University of Illinois!  We will have to take the girls there and show them the difference.  Bancroft reminded me of DC with the white stone and front steps.  Up we went into the main hall where we were treated to another rotunda and amazing ceiling!  Then up the main staircase into the assembly room where the “Don’t Give up the Ship” flag is displayed.  This room is gorgeous and contains quite a bit of history and museum like exhibits.

We also got to tour a sample dorm room.  This was neat for the girls since they have never been in a college dorm.  These rooms were HUGE compared to ours as well with large closets for uniforms and big desks below the beds.  And each room contains it’s own sink and shower because cleanliness is very important at the Academy.  Bathrooms however are down the hall.

Next we moved onto the Main Chapel at the Academy.  Services are open to the public on Sundays.  The chapel is huge and ornate.  I loved that in addition to being a house of worship it also pays tribute to the Navy with a ship!

Finally we moved onto the museum.  We had hoped to just stop in and see the model ships exhibit but the rest of the museum was great too.  We spent quite awhile looking at everything and really enjoyed the model ships.

There was a whole group of models carved out of bone.  These actually had nothing to do with the US Navy.  They were carved by French POWs during the French Revolution.  The prisoners were allowed to make things out of whatever scraps they could get their hands on.  The bone was from their meat rations.  The prisoners were then allowed to sell what they made.  These ships were amazing.

After a very full day at the Naval Academy we decided to head back to the boat and save the State House visit for Monday.  Monday morning started with a sewing lesson!  We acquire clothes with holes in them and give them all to my mom when she arrives.  Madelyn had some pajama pants and Ben had a t-shirt that needed to be mended.  The girls love to sew and I can hardly thread a needle.  So they truly enjoyed the grandma time learning new skills.  They each took turns with my mom sewing up different holes until everything was as good as new.  While they were sewing I headed out for a haircut and a pedicure.  YAY!

Next we headed back to the other marina for a test ride on the boat.  This boat is perfect for us in so many ways and we just keep coming back to it.  Monday we got to go for a test ride.  It’s a great boat but during our ride Ben did some math and tested out various speeds and realized that the fuel economy on the boat is downright bad.  We are looking for a boat that will allow us to do longer range cruising, so burning more fuel isn’t the answer.  So, sadly I think we have put that particular boat behind us.

It was another sweltering hot day.  We walked into town and straight to an ice cream shop!  Jim opted for a beer.  My mom, the girls and I got ice cream.  And Ben stayed at the marina for a few talking to the broker.  Then we all convened at the Maryland State House.

There is so much history everywhere we go.  We quickly learned that this is where George Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental army and stated that he wanted to go home to Mt. Vernon to be a farmer.  State congress was not in session so we were able to see the Senate and House floors as well as an elaborate silver service on display in the Caucus room.  The silver was commissioned by the Maryland governor when the state had no money to pay for it.  The governor started a state wide fundraiser including school children to raise the $5000 to pay for it.  There are six themes present in the silver ranging from country (an eagle) to state (crops) to the Navy (ropes and ships).

The State House contains the actual room where George Washington gave his resignation speech.  This room is not used by congress anymore and is set up as a museum room now.  To be standing in a piece of history was pretty incredible.  His resignation is what led to returning the military back to the people and the development of the structure that has the President serve as Commander in Chief over the military.

Finally we got to tour the Old House of Delegates room.  The Old Senate Chamber is currently under restoration.  Just outside the State House is the original Treasury building, still standing on the grounds.

Back to the boat to cool off and have some pool time while Grandma Cathy and Jim went out for dinner.  The girls loved playing basketball in the pool!  After my mom and Jim were back it was our turn for a date night.

Tuesday came quickly and my mom and Jim had to leave for the airport after lunch.  My mom and Molly took a walk on the nature trail in the morning and Ben and I ran and got some last minute grocery shopping done.  We headed back to Boatyard Bar and Grill for lunch since we all enjoyed it on Friday.  We finally got a picture with all of us in it!  And then all too soon had to give goodbye hugs.  The goodbyes are never easy but we’ll see them again soon.  We spent the rest of the day soaking up the pool and relaxing.  We loved our time in Annapolis!

 

 

We were sad to leave Crisfield, but wanted to keep moving on the Chesapeake.  We still have so much to see.  So, we pulled out Sunday morning and headed 70 miles north to St. Michaels, MD.  We told the Davis family on Endeavour where we were headed.  They said they couldn’t make it that far in one day so they may stop at Solomons Island instead and catch up with us the next day.  We said great, but asked why they couldn’t make it that far.  They said they weren’t sure, they’d never tried.  We’ve all been there…when we first started the loop we were challenged by others to do things we hadn’t tried yet either.  We pulled out around 8 AM and headed north.  About 45 minutes later we saw Endeavour pop up on AIS!  They were on the move and texted that they were following us to St. Michaels.  We planned to anchor in San Domingo Creek on the backside of St. Michaels.  Their generator is not working and we said we’d be happy to have them raft up and share some power.

We ran against a current that slowed us down so it took awhile to get there.  We got into San Domingo and anchored.  As our friends had told us it was absolutely beautiful.  We got settled and then helped Endeavour raft up to us.  Another first for them!  We haven’t rafted up too often either but have done it enough to know where to dump fenders, tie lines, etc.   Isabel immediately jumped over to our boat and the girls played while Ben and Andrew fiddled with power.  They needed an adapter they didn’t have.  It was hot!  We put our dinghies into the water and off we went to town.  Isabel rode with us.  Molly was so happy to have a playmate!  She plays so well with Maddy but it was great to have someone close to her age to play with too.  We tied up at the dinghy dock and headed into town for dinner.

Town is quaint and cute and one of the more prosperous we’ve seen in awhile.  We had a good dinner with a view of the marina and then headed back to the boats, anxious to explore the next day.  The girls played awhile longer on the boats while Ben and Andrew went back to work on the power situation.  Between an extra shore power cord Andrew had, and a different end for it Ben had, they were able to work up a solution and get some AC pumped into their boat.  Either way, once the generator was off it was HOT and sticky!  We got to catch yet another gorgeous Chesapeake Bay sunset.

It took a long time to get the girls to settle.  Between new friends rafted up to us and the knowledge that Ben was on his way in the dinghy to pick up his cousin all while I was trying to get them in bed, it was hopeless.  Ben’s cousin Isaac was driving from NYC down to Miami and stopped to hang out with us for a few days!  We were thrilled to have him.  He is so good to the girls.  He plays with them and spends time talking with them and is WAY more fun than we are.  He got to St. Michaels around 10 PM and parked his car.  Ben zipped over in the dinghy to pick him up.  Isaac has grown up around and on boats so he isn’t fazed by anything in the boating lifestyle.  He also lives in NYC with no air conditioning so he said he was fine with us shutting the generator down at bedtime.  We all quickly learned just how sticky the middle of the nights are in St. Michaels!

We spent Monday morning on the boat.  I used all of the crab we had from Crisfield and made the crab cake mix.  We planned to have lunch in town and cook up our crab cakes for dinner.  Ben talked routes and options with Andrew and Carrie, Molly and Isabel played, and Maddy was in awe of Isaac and his Lego building skills.  He sat on the floor with her and built her an airplane.  She was so happy to have such undivided attention!

After we said our goodbyes to the Davis family we headed into town for the rest of the day.  We started with lunch and then moved onto the maritime museum that we had heard so much about.  The museum was pretty incredible.  It was a lot of outdoor exhibits, many that made it feel like walking around a working boat yard.

We also toured a lighthouse on display.  We learned a lot about the Maryland lighthouses.  They are such a different style than the tall lighthouses we have otherwise seen.  These are low and round and close to the water level.

The exhibit had a great history of lighthouses around the Bay as well as the lighthouse keepers and their stories.  The exhibit was set up as the house would have been set up with a kitchen, bedroom and office.

After sweltering in some of the outdoor parts of the museum we ducked inside for some air conditioning and looked around there a bit.  We also saw a full dock house full of crab boats and the story of crab pickers.  Years ago the men would go crabbing and the women were crab pickers.  There were accounts of bringing children to work and those kids learning how to pick crab at a young age by watching their mothers.  Crabbing and picking is hard work.

The girls also got to see and walk around an oyster boat and try out using oyster tongs.  The tongs are taller than Ben and heavy so they needed some help scooping the oyster shells off the bottom.

The museum was great but it was a HOT day so ice cream was in order next!  Isaac treated us to ice cream and a huge root beer float for Molly.

Ben and Isaac took off for West Marine and I took the girls into all the little shops.  After we’d exhausted our energy and seen most of what there was to see we all headed back to the boat for crab cakes!

Ben and Isaac formed the crab cakes and then we cooked them up.  They were pretty good!  Molly was not happy with the pieces of shell in hers.  Oops.  Now that I’m finally writing this I’ve had crab in restaurants twice this week and picked shell out of both dishes.  So, I felt better about the bits of shell in our crab cakes.  First try was a success.

The next day was 4th of July.  Happy Birthday America!  I thought we’d go into town for the children’s parade but no one was interested in the heat.  Understandably.  So, we turned the generator on and hung out on the boat to cool down.  We decided to boat across the bay to Edgewater.  We had planned to go to Annapolis on the 5th, but the water was really calm on the 4th and we had a place to use a mooring ball in Edgewater so we decided to head there.  Isaac was scheduled to leave at sunrise on the 5th and drive all the way to West Palm Beach, FL.  By moving to Edgewater on the 4th it got him on the correct side of the Bay and shaved an hour or more off his drive.  So, he drove over and we boated and then grabbed him with the dinghy again.  In St. Michaels the water was filled with jellyfish.  Everywhere we looked we saw them.  We saw none in Edgewater!  Isaac was so hot he jumped in.  He promised he’d check out the water and let us know.  The girls begged to swim.  We said of course, but don’t complain if you get stung!  Molly jumped right in.  She and Isaac played for quite awhile in the water, jumping off the boat, etc.

Maddy was nervous.  I was so hot I dunked in and got back out just in case.  Ben was in.  Maddy finally got in and joined in the jumping.  My daredevil children jumped off the flybridge with Isaac and then with each other time after time after time.  It was CRAZY!

It was not feeling much like 4th of July until this.  Finally swimming, enjoying the water, good company and just having fun.  That’s what we do every 4th of July on the boat and we were happy we were able to make it happen.

We were going to dinghy to dinner but we couldn’t get the girls out of the water and decided to instead throw together a 4th of July cookout.  Perfect end to the day and fortuitous as a HUGE storm moved through and we would have been soaked in the dinghy.  We got to see a lot of local private fireworks around the bay we were in and enjoyed the show.

Early (5:45 AM) Wednesday we said goodbye to Isaac.  The girls said sad goodbyes the night before.  Ben took him to shore and off he went on his 15+ hour drive south.  Ben went back to sleep.  I tried to doze a bit.   Once back up, we spent the day at Burr Yacht Sales looking at boats again.  It’s a favorite pastime of ours.  After that, we boated around the bend into Annapolis and got settled at Port Annapolis Marina.   The Annapolis fireworks had been rained out on the 4th so lucky for us they were doing the show on the 5th instead.  The girls were all ready for bed when the fireworks started and they jumped off the boat and ran onto the dock to watch.  Watching them watch the fireworks is magical.  They just love them!

 

Wednesday morning the girls got a quick swim in before heading to Tangier Island.  It was a calm, hot and sunny day.  Perfect for a boat ride – although strange for Ben to be a passenger!

The ferry goes to Tangier Island, VA every day.  It’s 14 miles away from Crisfield, but just across the state line.  There are also daily ferries to Smith Island which is just north of Tangier.  Both are small islands with very small populations and not much else.  We had read a lot about Tangier and been told to go by a number of friends.  It was first settled in 1686.  There are about 600 people on the island now.  The residents of Tangier have their own unique dialect.  Ben and I were able to catch it while listening to locals talk to each other.  The girls were not.  Tourism is big business here from May to October.  We got off the ferry and were greeted like a cruise ship…local kids waiting to say hi, many others waiting with golf carts wanting to take us on tours, still others fanning pamphlets and flyers at us.

We only had 2 hours before the ferry went back to Crisfield but that was plenty.  It’s a very small island and we chose to just wander around ourselves.  We turned right first and walked down towards the marina.  Crabbing is big business here and we had passed all of the interesting looking crab shanties on our way in.  The watermen boat out to them and then there is a little house on a dock and a crab boat tied up there.  A fellow boater told us that many of them are set up as man caves with crabbing supplies in one section and possibly a recliner and TV in another.  The marina is very small but we ran into and walked with another boater for awhile who was staying for two nights.

There are a few good restaurants on the island but it was 2 pm and we didn’t want to spend a lot of our time eating, so even though the food smelled amazing we skipped it.  We turned and walked the length of the main road the other direction.  Constant golf cart and scooter traffic zoomed past all the people walking and on bikes.  We stopped in a couple of little shops and read the plaques that gave the history of many of the houses.  Many houses have gravestones in their front yards.  We learned this was done for a couple of reasons.  One reason was to keep grave robbers away years ago.  Another was to keep your loved ones closer to visit and care for the grave.  And a third, and likely most practical reason was to keep them away from the water line where they could be washed away in high tide or a bad storm.  The houses are set back from the water line a bit and therefore on higher ground.  However the entire island is sinking into the Chesapeake.  The locals believe this is all due to erosion, not climate change but not everyone agrees.  Either way scientists think that within 50 years the residents will have to vacate the island.

We found kittens galore.  There are cats everywhere and at least a couple of them must have just had a lot of kittens.   We were on our way to look at the school which houses K through 12th grades and found one little guy all by himself.  Ben scooped him right up and the kids were elated to take turns holding him.  Maddy begged to take the kitten with us.  For so many reasons the answer was no, but it sure was tempting!

Before heading back to the ferry we stopped at a food stand for a crab flatbread and some ice cream.  All the crab in this area is so good!  We hopped back on the ferry and said goodbye to Tangier Island.  It was definitely unique but reminded me so much of the Bahamas.  We saw a lot of communities like this in the Bahamas.  Tangier reminded me specifically of town on Green Turtle Cay.  However in the Bahamas the boat with food and mail comes once a week.  Tangier has food and mail deliveries 6 days a week from the mainland.  Otherwise the communities were so similar.

The girls hopped right back in the pool when we got back and swam til around 7.  We were treated to another incredible sunset.  Crisfield, MD is the place to be for good sunsets!  They did not disappoint!

Thursday we decided to stay put because of wind.  We walked around town for a bit and stopped in some of the little shops. We also walked down to the town pier and watched the mail/grocery boats be loaded.  It was fascinating to see what all goes over.  Boxes and boxes of fresh food for the grocery stores.  Amazon boxes galore.  A recliner and scooter on one boat.  A golf cart on another.  Some people seemed to be loading luggage.  Once these boats are loaded we were told you could hop on and ride them over to the islands as well.  And at 12:30 exactly all of the mail boats and ferries start their engines and pull out in a line.

We headed back to the marina and were in for a real treat!!!!  Tom from the marina is an absolute gem of a person!  He’s one of the best we’ve met on this trip.  Our friends Sonny and Phyllis from Corkscrew had told us to make sure to go to Crisfield when we got to the Chesapeake. We’d never heard of it. Sonny said find Tom and have him teach you about crabbing.  He told us Tom would show the girls all about it.  Tom did not disappoint. When he had some downtime he came down the dock and showed us and the girls how to catch crabs right off our boat on a piece of twine!  Ben bought fishing gear.  We don’t fish.  We have no idea what we are doing and don’t want to deal with cleaning it if we did catch something.  But crabbing is easy!  First, all we had to do was tie a weight to the end of a piece of twine, and then a piece of chicken neck (gag) and then we just tied it to one of the lines off our boat and dropped it in the water.  The Maryland blue crab is absolutely everywhere.  Tom patiently showed the girls how to slowly pull the line up to see if something was there.  Then you just scoop a net underneath the little guys and pull them out and drop the line back down.  He taught us the difference between a male and a female….females go back in the water.  The males’ underside looks like the Washington Monument and since we’d just been to DC they both knew what to look for!

Next lesson was that in Maryland crabs need to measure at least 5 inches across to keep.  Ben handled all the crab.  We didn’t want the kids getting pinched and I was too scared to pick one up.  So he did the picking up and measuring.  He got pinched really badly at one point. The crab would not let go.  Our slip neighbors split time between Crisfield and Key Largo and do a lot of crabbing.  He yelled over and asked how to get it to let go.  Cindy showed him where to grab and then to shake the crab to sort of stun it and then it’ll let go.  He had some good puncture wounds and she quickly grabbed iodine for him to clean the punctures.  His finger hasn’t turned black or fallen off yet so we think he’s all good.  All joking aside that happened to one of her fingers and she had a large portion of it shaved down and off.  Yikes!  Tom kept all our crab for us in a refrigerator overnight and told us he’d cook it for us and show us how to clean it the next day.  Did I mention what a gem he is???  We ended up with 13 total!

Friday morning we trekked out to the grocery store.  The people on the docks and in the office were so friendly.  We had so many offers for rides to the store or anywhere else we wanted to go.  But the girls had their scooters and it was only about 1.2 miles away and was more of an outing for us.  We don’t mind the walk.  Probably one advantage to being younger and having kids with lots of energy.  Not that I’m discounting anyone older….my mom walks 3 miles most days and definitely could have walked to the store.  But many people look at us like we are crazy when we grab the wagon and walk to the store.  It doesn’t bother us!  We saw a whole other part of town going this direction.  We stocked up on groceries and then headed back, stopping by the Smith Island Baking Company on our way back.  When we checked into the marina they gave us four slices of Smith Island cake.  We had to get more!  The Smith Island cakes symbolize community and togetherness and have been a staple on Smith Island and around the Chesapeake for years.  A Smith Island cake has many layers with fudge frosting in between.  It reminds us a lot of a special dessert Ben’s mom makes.  Hers has thinner layers and more of them, but these were very similar.  The traditional cake is great.  But they make other flavors as well.  We stocked up and have now tried traditional, double chocolate, lemon and red velvet.  I think traditional and red velvet are my favorite.  But I love them all.  I could survive on dessert alone.

We got back from the store and our boat neighbors told us Irma the activity director heard we had kids and had come looking for us.  What?  An activity director???  Friday was my mom’s birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!) and we were on the phone with her. The girls had finished talking and were back outside checking our crab lines again when Irma returned.  I was talking to my mom and before I knew it off they went.  Irma asked if they wanted to come do some arts and crafts and Molly basically leaped off the boat.  My kids are always super clingy and hesitant to go anywhere without us, but when Molly gets comfortable at a marina she becomes very independent and little sister doesn’t hesitate to follow.  I found myself with this strange thing called adult kid-free alone time!  What???  What’s that????  I grabbed my book and sat on the back deck and read.  Alone!!!!!  Ben was there but he likes the air conditioning so he was inside.  It was amazing!  Irma did 3 different craft projects with the girls and then she walked them back to the boat.  Somers Cove Marina is amazing.  Anyone doing this trip should stop there.

The day just kept getting better.  While I was sitting out back reading Tom and his friend Joe came past in a little boat.  It was Tom’s day off and he and Joe were going out to set a trot line for more crab.  He introduced us to Joe and said they’d be back in awhile to go back out and see if they had any crab.  The new and incredible experiences just kept on coming here in Crisfield.  Joe and Tom said we could hop on board and join them!  Yes please!  The kids jumped right in the boat and off we went.  We learned what a trot line is and how the bait is set. And then Ben, Molly and Madelyn all got to catch the crab off the trot line!  I could have as well but I was resident photographer and happy to watch.  We had so much fun.  I can’t describe the expressions and pure joy on the girls’ faces (and Ben’s!) as they were scooping up crab after crab out of the water.  No picture does it justice.  As with so many experiences we’ve had I just hope they remember as many of them as possible!

The fun continued when we got back to the marina.  Tom cooked all of the crab for us!  We can hopefully replicate all of this on our own now.  My mom and Jim come to visit this coming week and we told Jim we’d show him how.  Anyway we had a feast.

Tom spent much of his Friday evening and day off of work sitting with us.  He showed all of us how to crack and pick the crabs.  First taking off the apron and the shell and then scooping out the inside parts.  Cutting off the legs. How to crack the claws, etc.  He was so generous with his time and we truly appreciate it and wish we had a way to thank him.

He left us to our mess and we continued working and eating until around dusk when I said we needed to clean up and head to the boat.  We put the rest in Ziploc bags and dumped them in our cooler til the morning.  Tom mentioned many times that you can eat crab all night and never get full.  I had fed Madelyn an entire other dinner of course but Molly kept saying no because she wanted crab.  Once done she said she realized why I kept pushing other food.  You do so much work and eat as you go but it’s small pieces and not super filling.  What a fantastic end to the day.

Saturday morning we got up and cracked and picked all the rest of the crab.  Madelyn even pitched in and got a little dirty!  The girls had a lot of fun doing it.  We saved all the meat to make crab cakes.  This will be my first attempt!  A looper friend gave me her favorite crab cake recipe.  Last night as we were about to head back to the boat we ran into Tom and he came out with a big tub completely full of crab meat.  He filled a whole container for us from crab he had at home to supplement what we had.  I wish I could taste his wife’s crab cakes.  I’m sure they are nothing short of amazing.  He said he goes crabbing all summer and she makes crab cakes to freeze and last for the rest of the year.  I’ll be sure to give an update on how the crab cakes turn out!

Yesterday we got another treat!  Friday night another looper reached out that they were on Tangier Island and because of our DC side trip had almost caught up to us.  This is a new looper family with 8 and 11 year old daughters from Charleston.  I was supposed to reach out in Charleston and completely forgot.  They are just spending 10 weeks on the boat this summer and then hope to do the full loop sometime soon.  I’m so glad they reached out!  They were heading to Solomons Saturday and we were on the fence about heading to St. Michaels, Solomons or staying in Crisfield.  We’d become attached to Crisfield, the wind was still fierce and gusty, Freedom Fest was last night, Molly wanted to do more crafts with Irma and both girls wanted to swim more.  And the Sunday forecast was much better so we stayed.  Somers Cove probably thought they were never getting rid of us.  We asked Endeavour if they wanted to come to Crisfield instead.  They did!  It was short but icky ride for them because of the ridiculous wind.  I know I’m from Chicago and it’s windy a lot but the wind this spring has been insane.  Anyway the Davis family pulled in right as all of the 12:30 boats were pulling out so that was some adventure for them.  They got tied up right behind us and we all introduced ourselves.  We did the immediate tours of each others’ boats and then headed to the pool.  My girls had so much fun having friends to play with again!!!  They swam and then magical Irma appeared at 3:30 for crafts and off they went again.  An hour or so later they reappeared decked out with all their new creations.  We swam until 5:30 or so and then got cleaned up and headed to Freedom Fest.  We spread out picnic blankets and ate and listened to live music for a couple of hours.  The girls all enjoyed the beauty of a small town and had free reign to run back and forth wherever they wanted.

We headed back to the boat as more crazy dark storm clouds were moving in.  We wanted to watch fireworks from the boat anyway so this was good timing.  The clouds blowing through with the cool gusts of air were kind of amazing.

We watched fireworks from the boat and dock just as the first drops started to fall.  The fireworks finished up, and boom, rain.  We hopped on our boats, said a quick goodnight and closed up for the storm.

It has been such a wonderful week in Crisfield.  A definite highlight of the Chesapeake so far.  A big thank you again to Tom and Irma and everyone else at Somers Cove who were so good to us!

We pulled out this morning for St. Michaels.  We convinced the Davis family to come with us!  A longer day than they usually do so hope all is well on their boat.  And the girls are anxious to play when we arrive at our anchorage.  Ben’s cousin Isaac is joining us tonight for a couple of days and my mom and Jim arrive Thursday.  Time is flying.  No idea how it is July already.  Today would have been my dad’s 71st birthday.  Today I’m enjoying the peaceful day on the water and remembering him.  He would have LOVED this trip and soaked up every minute of it he could with us.  I know he’s with us in spirit and smiling at this amazing adventure we are so lucky to be on.

Sunday was our last full day in D.C.  My list of sites to see was still long but we also still had a lot we wanted to get to back on the Chesapeake Bay.  Ben and I felt like we had covered a lot of D.C. highlights.  So, we took it easy again on our last day there.  We met my childhood friend Molly, her husband Mark and their two girls for a picnic on the National Mall.  Molly and Mark put the whole thing together and were there waiting when we arrived.  Their daughters are very close in age to Molly and Madelyn and the girls have met once or twice before so after a few short minutes of being quiet and eating their sandwiches they were off and running playing on the Mall.  Frisbee, gymnastics, and some other games.

I had hoped to go to both the National Museum of American History and Natural History but knew that Maddy’s patience was waning for museums.  Molly and Mark had not been to American History yet so we went there.  We started in the Transportation exhibit and found a whole section from Chicago.  The girls climbed into a very old el car and looked at newer electric cars as well as very old cars.  Adult Molly (as opposed to daughter Molly) found a minivan like her family had that we both remember riding around in when we were in high school!  We also found school buses and fun big bicycles.

Next up was some playtime for the girls.  We popped in the Wegmans hands on exhibit where Madelyn was so happy playing with groceries and cooking meals and playing house.  She’s creative and likes to make and cook full meals for us with her play food all the time.  Molly and Silva and Ben headed next door to the invention lab.  Eventually Claire was ready as well and I dragged Maddy out and next door.  The invention lab had all sorts of stations for kids to be creative.  Molly and Silva worked on a few things before we came over.  Madelyn worked on building a pet enclosure.

I was really excited to see Dorothy’s ruby slippers and the First Lady dress collection.  It turns out Dorothy’s slippers are not on exhibit right now.  The museum apologized and said they have had a lot of people asking about them.  But the First Lady exhibit did not disappoint.  The history and the dresses were just beautiful.  All the girls picked their favorites and learned a little about some of the First ladies as well.

The President’s room was right next door and we went in search of the hat Abraham Lincoln was wearing when he was shot.  The girls also got to take turns giving a press briefing at the podium.

One of the most fascinating exhibits was the Star Spangled Banner.  No photos were allowed unfortunately.  The exhibit walked through a history of the Star Spangled Banner and how it inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem.  We talked through the war and a few of the lyrics with the girls to make sure they understood.  The original flag was on display in the museum.  It’s incredible.  And HUGE (30×42 ft!).  Molly (adult) and I both commented that it is so much larger than we ever expected.  It has seen a lot and shows some wear and tear.  But what a moving exhibit.

We went on to read about the one woman, Mary Pickersgill, and the 4 teenage girls that helped her sew the flag.  They ran out of room in her house and had to move the flag making across the street to a brewery to assemble all of the pieces.

We didn’t give this museum the time it deserved, being day 5 and all.  We saw a lot and before losing the attention of our crew we headed outside for some ice cream instead.  I let my wish of seeing the Natural History museum go and we all headed back to the boat to show it to Molly, Mark and the girls.  We so appreciate them driving into the city to spend the day with us!

After they headed home we decided to go out for our last night in D.C.!  We hopped in a cab to Georgetown and had a great dinner.  Molly (daughter) really wanted to go to Georgetown Cupcake one more time so we did that after dinner.

Washington, D.C. was an incredible trip that I hope our girls will remember.  We walked a lot, saw a lot, learned a lot and had a lot of fun.  And it’s refreshing to see the wonder in their eyes over the buildings and the history there without any political climate clouding or influencing their views.  I truly hope they enjoyed it as much as we did!

Monday morning came and it was time to say goodbye and head back down the Potomac.  We traveled about 70 miles south on the Potomac and anchored in Breton Bay, near Leonardtown on the MD side of the Potomac.  What a gorgeous night we had. We were the only boat in the anchorage.  The shoreline was scattered with beautiful houses.  The random boat with someone water skiing would pass us by.  The kids and Ben jumped in and swam immediately as we were still in fresh water and the water was 84 degrees!  And then we were treated to an incredible sunset.

Tuesday we finished our trip back down the Potomac to the Chesapeake and crossed to the east side of the Bay to Crisfield, MD.  Crisfield is the crab capital of the world according to everything here.  We pulled into a lovely marina for the first time in a week.  As great as anchoring was, it was also great to run up the dock and watch the girls jump in the pool!  We walked into town to have some crab and it did not disappoint.  On our walk back to the marina there were dark skies and thunder to one side and blue skies and white clouds on the other.

We quickly got back to the boat just in case and watched one of the most incredible sunsets I have seen yet.  We could see the rain through the clouds and setting sun.  The pictures do not quite capture how purple and beautiful the water and sky were.  But they got close!

 

Friday morning brought a tough goodbye.  After a wonderful fun filled visit, our friends had to head home.  After tears and lots of hugs we said goodbye for now and waved as they drove away.

Then we pulled ourselves together and headed back into the city.  First stop today was going to the Senate Office building.  We stopped by our IL senator Tammy Duckworth’s office and picked up passes for the House and Senate galleries inside the U.S. Capitol.

On our way back towards the Capitol we stopped to see the Supreme Court.  The building is breathtaking.

Once inside, Ben and I tried to explain what the court does and some of the decisions that have been made in this ever so important place.  Court was not in session but we were able to get fairly close and take pictures of the bench.  The halls around the building hold a lot of interesting displays both about the history and construction of the building as well as history of many of the justices.  We got to peek around a doorway and see part of the beautiful spiral staircase as well.

We headed across the street back to the Capitol.  Maddy wanted to see the Rotunda again but we went right for the House gallery.  The House was supposed to be in session until 3 pm so we started there.  They must have ended early because there were just a few people down on the floor that appeared to be taking a tour.  But we got to sit in the gallery and look for as long as we liked.  Then we headed over to the Senate gallery.  The Senate has a booklet they hand out to visitors with a lot of useful information.  It gave us a short history of the Senate and then had a tour of the room.  We were able to sit in the gallery and study everything with the girls.  We read that 48 of the desks date back to 1819.  The rest have been purchased to match over the years.  I love that they are old fashioned wooden desks.  Not fancy computer tables or long conference tables.  In the 1830s writing boxes were added to the tops of the desks.  Senator Daniel Webster supposedly refused to have one added to his desk, deeming it unnecessary.  Madelyn and I looked for a long time for the 1 desk out of 100 that does not have a writing box affixed to the top.  We didn’t find it.  The room has such a historic feel.  We found the roll top desks the official party secretaries use and the busts that line the top of the gallery.  Unfortunately no pictures were allowed in either gallery.

Once done in the Senate gallery we headed outside and walked to the National Archives.  This was our first stop in D.C. where we had to wait in line!  We wanted to pop in just to see the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution.  We waited in line to get inside and then waited in line again to see these sacred documents.  Again no pictures allowed.  We spent quite awhile looking at different sections of the documents and explaining in some detail what was included in each.  The originals were impressive to see.  The history in that building is amazing.  The Declaration of Independence is almost illegible and very faded.  The Constitution is in excellent condition considering how old it is.  We talked about how the Declaration of Independence was never a legal document and it’s pretty incredible that it was saved so many years ago.  The Constitution on the other hand was well preserved and cared for carefully.  I hope our girls understood even a tiny bit of how important these pieces of history are to our country.  What an experience to see them in person.  We walked through a couple other galleries in the Archives building and then headed back to the boat.  We were all pretty tired and grabbed a quick dinner at the restaurant next to the marina.  Our days have gotten shorter and less ambitious as we run out of steam!  However the long list of things to see persists.

Saturday we had a short list and no history lessons!  We had a leisurely morning and headed to the National Portrait Gallery.   Another beautiful building and so much fun inside.  Right inside the front door is a floor to ceiling piece of license plate art spelling out the preamble to the Constitution.  Ok, so a little more history.  It’s hard to escape in D.C.!  But it was fun to try to read it in license plate speak.

Next we headed straight up to the top floor and worked our way down.  The girls love sculptures and unique art.  We passed an awesome exhibit all made from old tube televisions.  Then we stumbled upon an Art-o-mat.  It was an old cigarette vending machine repurposed to sell small pieces of art.  Some wood carvings.  Some jewelry.  Some tiny pieces of art.  All $5.  The girls chose a whittled piece.  The put in their money and out it came.  They opened it to find an adorable turtle.  Great selection!

Then we moved into a room full of current day portraits.  We found Katy Perry right away and then Toni Morrison.  These were most impressive because they looked like large photographs but were actually oil on canvas paintings.  When we got up very close we could see the brush strokes.

We continued to move through the various galleries and found a cool sculpture Madelyn liked.  One of my favorites was a neon outline of the United States filled with old televisions.  I liked this one more than the first television piece.  This one had the TV screens each playing something that represented that state.  Some played pieces of history like MLK giving his I Have a Dream speech in the Alabama outline.  Some played fun pieces of history like The Wizard of Oz in Kansas.  Washington D.C. had a mini-cam set up that recorded anyone who walked past the exhibit and showed that feed on a tiny screen.  Next we found a random woman eating her lunch.  Maddy jumped about a mile when she realized it was a piece of art and not real.  They loved it.  We found interesting piece after interesting piece on this floor.

Last we looked through the gallery of Presidents.  We found some of the old ones that the girls know like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and the moved onto the Presidents we have had since Ben and I were born.  This was a fantastic fun stop and such a change of pace from everything we had been seeing.

Continuing with the change of pace we headed across the street to The Spy Museum.  Here we met a friend of Ben’s from Chicago and spent the rest of the afternoon with her.  She was kind enough to wait in line and get tickets while we were in the Portrait Gallery so we got to skip the line and go right in.  The girls enjoyed the museum but it was a bit overwhelming to them trying to understand all of the spy history and tactics.  As we went in we all got to choose a profile and memorize all of the details of our cover story before getting assigned our mission.  Molly was Sandra Miller and Madelyn was Angelena Falcone.  I snapped a picture to help them but they did a pretty good job of remembering.  As we moved along reading and seeing spy history we came to the kiosks where we input our cover story details and received our missions.  Madelyn was traveling to Vietnam to obtain some security details.  Molly was heading to Austria.  They both completed their missions successfully.

Again since we can’t go anywhere without at least a little bit of a history lesson we found the Civil War spy room.  The exhibit had 3 kinds of ciphers set up and the girls worked together to solve the hidden messages using the ciphers.

Finally some physical activity other than walking!  The girls took turns hanging from a slippery, twisting, vibrating bar that appeared as if they were hanging off the side of a building.  Maddy did a great job hanging on as long as she could!  Molly is a complete monkey always.  She can do monkey bars at a park for hours on end and has arm strength like not many 10 year olds have.  As she got to about 20 seconds the attendant cheering her on told her she would get a prize if she made it to 60 seconds.  Challenge accepted.  She claims swinging back and forth and constantly regripping helped her hang on and of course she made it.  She won 20% off in the gift shop!  Music to her and Maddy’s ears!

Much to Madelyn’s dismay our next stop was a walk to the White House.  I told her she couldn’t really complain.  We took a cab from the  marina to the Portrait Gallery.  The Spy Museum was across the street.  This was the first actual walking we’d done all day!  Wednesday when we stopped by the White House we couldn’t get close because it was all closed off.  We were happy to find the streets open this time.  We got pictures of the back of the White House and Ben’s friend suggested walking around to the front since you can get closer.  Absolutely!  Madelyn grumbled.  Ben and I took turns with piggy back rides for her and we made it.  She pointed out as soon as we started walking that to get to the front we were going to have to walk a long way out of the way around.  Yes, yes we did.  And that’s just fine because we hadn’t already walked 8 miles Saturday.

After the White House we walked a bit back towards the Monument and past the new National Museum of African American History and Culture.  We found a water fountain and grabbed a cab back to the  marina to show Ben’s friend the boat.  This was another great day in D.C.!

 

Well, we recovered from our insanely long Day 1 and decided to take Day 2 at a slightly slower pace.  First up was our tour of the U.S. Capitol and we smartly decided to take a cab there rather than wear everyone out walking.  When we booked the tickets for our tour Kathy found a U.S. Capitol Study Guide for kids.  On our long day on the water getting to D.C. we had the kids complete the packets about the Capitol.  This was important for both of my girls but especially for Madelyn.  Having some concrete things to look for on the tour and some background information about the Capitol made all the difference for her.  She went into the tour excited about seeing the Rotunda.

Our tour started with an introductory film, which we have learned is the norm for everywhere we’ve been recently.  I thought this one was well done and really did a good job covering the branches of government, the U.S. Capitol building, the Senate and the House galleries in the Capitol, the Rotunda, the history, and a somewhat moving coverage of all of the laws and amendments that have been passed under that roof.  For the kids the display of dates and laws flew across the screen too fast to read them all.  But I sat there in awe seeing important issue after important issue flash across the screen and it really hit home how much has been accomplished even since I was born.

After the film, our tour started. We breezed through the crypt pretty quickly and saw a few of the statues and moved into the Rotunda.  Madelyn was in awe of the dome.  She absolutely loved it and took a lot of pictures.  In the study guide the girls had learned about the murals that circle the Rotunda and the scenes they depict throughout history.  We were able to find the very first one of Christopher Columbus and follow it all the way around covering events throughout history including wars, mining for gold, the first flight by the Wright brothers and many in between.  Our tour guide also gave us some background on the statues and murals on the walls in the Rotunda.

After the Rotunda we moved into the National Statuary Hall.  In the study guide we had covered a dozen or so of the statues, mostly of people the girls had heard of but some they had not.  It was a great point of reference to be able to find some that they recognized.  Our tour guide told us that each state has 2 statues in the building somewhere.  I asked about Illinois.  I had just taken a picture of the Rosa Parks statue since that is one both girls knew.  Turns out the other woman statue I snapped in the picture is Frances Willard.  She is one of the statues from Illinois and the first woman statue added to the collection.  She was a women’s suffragist and was active in the fight to pass the 18th and 19th amendments.

 

 

Madelyn says the Capitol, and specifically the Rotunda, is her favorite place we went in D.C.  She says she’d like to live in the Capitol so that every morning she can go look at the dome and the Rotunda.

From here we took the underground walkway to the Library of Congress.  We were directed down the hall to the Children’s room.  The little girls played with puppets and put on a show and the big girls headed to the reading room.

Then we insisted we move along to the main section of the library!  We could have spent hours here touring all of the rooms but we had a long list to see still so we went upstairs to look at the main floor and take pictures of another beautiful structure.

Then further up to the viewing gallery for the main reading room.  It was equally beautiful.

Next up, the National Gallery of Art.  We headed out into the heat, walked past the Supreme Court and headed out onto Constitution Ave. towards the National Mall.  First stop was the National Gallery of Art to see a few paintings Kathy wanted to see.  Had we had more time we would have grabbed headsets and done the children’s tour.  The girls loved doing that at the Dali museum in St. Petersburg and Madelyn asked if we could come back here and do it if we had time.

After a few minutes in the National Gallery of Art we headed out to the mall.  The kids asked to run around for a few minutes.  This was the first picture worthy shot of the Capitol building so we stopped for them to play and snap more photos.

Onto the next stop, the National Air and Space Museum.  We have been told by multiple cab drivers as well as a friend that the new Air and Space museum outside the city is phenomenal.  It’s 5 times the size of this one and just amazing.  But it was a 20 minute drive outside the city and that just didn’t work this time around.  The kids enjoy air and space things.  Lots of hands on exhibits and flashy exhibits to look at.

Ben commented that the museum seemed tired in a way that other places in D.C. do not.  I have to agree.  Additionally we’d been to the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL last fall and it was fabulous.  But, this museum did have exhibits from a wide span of time. We walked through a WWI exhibit as well as a Wright brother’s exhibit and then moved into a hands on room for the girls.  The Wright brother’s exhibit was great.  The museum has the glider from 1903 on display!  The canvas has been replaced but it is the actual glider.  We studied the Wright brothers last fall when we covered inventions and inventors.  It was really neat to see the glider in person.  We also learned that they tested all of their glider ideas as kites first.  Some of the model kites were on display as well.  I spent quite awhile with Madelyn and Claudia going from exhibit panel to exhibit panel.  We learned the glider on display made three successful flights, the longest of which flew 852 feet in 59 seconds!

 

I shouldn’t sell the National Air and Space Museum short.  It had a lot we did not cover as we were tired by the end of the afternoon.  We stopped for a quick ice cream and then walked back to the marina and called it a day.  We stopped by to grab some groceries on the way back and had some excitement.  While Ben, Kathy and I were checking out Livia and Molly came running over to say that they needed Ben because Maddy’s arm was stuck.  Huh?  I looked over and there is Maddy lying on the floor with her arm pinned under a pallet of watermelons.  I took off running as well.  She had gone after a dropped toy that rolled under the crate and I thought the pallet had crushed her arm. Turns out she reached in an opening under the pallet and got stuck.  It took a group of men to move the huge crate of watermelon just an inch or two so I could yank her arm out. Thankfully just a scratch and she was fine.  We were shaken up.  That could have been so much worse!  Always an adventure.  After that we walked back to the marina all intact, made some tacos for dinner and enjoyed our last night together before the Burnetts had to head home.

 

 

We set out early Tuesday morning for our 100 mile trip up the Potomac River to Washington, D.C.  This time Jack drove and Kathy rode on the boat with us and the girls.  We had a 10 hour boat ride.  He had a 2 hour drive.  The Potomac winds and twists and turns.  Parts are very wide.  Parts get a little more narrow.  Parts are beautiful.  We passed Mt. Vernon and told the girls that was George Washington’s home.

We passed Alexandria.  We sped up for a little bit along the way and ended up breaking off the Potomac into the Washington Channel ahead of schedule.  The trip ended up taking about 8.5 hours.  We decided to anchor and get a dinghy dock pass for our time here.  It’s been great, however Tuesday when we pulled in after a very calm beautiful day on the water the winds picked up and anchoring was quite difficult.  We really wanted to get all the kids off the boat for a bit but that wasn’t happening.  The water was rough and Ben got soaked just running to pick Jack up.  Instead we offered movie night on the boat.  We had a VERY ambitious list for Wednesday and wanted everyone rested.  We enjoyed a quiet evening with a view of the Washington Monument.

Thankfully the winds died down and we had an ok night.  The next morning looked much better.  Kathy and I got up early to go get tickets for the Bureau of Engraving tour.  The ticket booth opened at 8 so at 7:30 we had Jack dinghy us to the dock and drop us off.  We walked to get tickets and walked back to the boat.  We got everyone organized and took two trips from the anchorage to get us all to shore.  I mentioned we were ambitious.  We started by walking all the way to the Washington Monument.  It’s not all that far but probably a 25-30 minute walk with the kids.  Kathy and I had talked about grabbing a cab there to make sure we didn’t start the day exhausted.  She and I had already walked 4 miles.  But then somehow we were all energized and just started walking and there we were.  It was HOT.  As we knew D.C. in June would be.  Livia made a break for it when she saw the first water fountain of the day!  This started our trek from water fountain to water fountain.

The Washington Monument is beautiful.  I took so many pictures of it.  We can see it everywhere we go.  From the boat.  From anywhere we’ve visited.  It’s always there and I keep snapping new pictures of it from what seem like better angles.

From our tour of many angles of the Washington Monument we walked over to the WWII Memorial.  We haven’t really studied WWII much with the girls but explained that at the Memorial each star represent 100 soldiers that lost their lives.  It’s a moving display.  And from the fountains you can see the Washington Monument!

We kept moving on towards the Lincoln Memorial.  The girls stopped to look at the reflecting pool.  We had a lot of sunshine so we could see a perfect reflection of the Lincoln Memorial in the pool.  Another spectacular sight.

We walked down to the Lincoln Memorial and climbed the grand steps to the top.  I’ve mentioned it was hot right?  Really hot.  And humid.  And hot.  Really hot.  But awe inspiring to see such a grandiose statue and such an important figure in our history.

We have studied a lot about the Civil War on this trip.  It has been present in so many towns and cities we have visited and Lincoln has become the President that Maddy always brings up when asked about presidents.

We continued on to the other side of the reflecting pool and walked through the Vietnam Memorial.  I was last at this wall 20ish years ago and still remember being moved by it.  It’s all so overwhelming for the kids.  And it’s just a big wall.  But then we explained that every single name on the wall was someone who lost his/her life in the Vietnam War.  To make it more concrete Ben did a little digging.  My brother in law Brian’s older brother Marshall lost his father in Vietnam.  He was MIA.  Ben found out where his name was located and a ranger helped us find the row and eventually his name, William M. Price.  She then gave the girls pencil and paper to do a rubbing of his name.  We have them saved and will pass them along to Marshall and his daughter Price (both named after Marshall’s dad).  Livia and Claudia did rubbings of one of only 7 women’s names on the wall.  The loss of lives in these many wars represented here is so sad and hard to take in.  I’m glad we were able to show the girls and at least expose them so they may be able to comprehend the gravity of these wars later.

We stopped for lunch and an air conditioning break and then headed out to walk another half hour back past the Washington Monument to the Bureau of Engraving for our tour.  Otherwise known as the money factory.  This was a favorite with all of the kids.  The adults enjoyed it too.  We learned the process followed to make our money.  Our paper money is made from cotton and linen.  We got to watch as the paper was first dyed the correct colors, then printed and security features added.  We watched as men on the floor fanned the large pages of bills to separate them and then fed them through a machine to take a picture of every sheet.  We were surprised that there is a 5% defect rate.  For a lot of machines that seemed kind of high to Ben and me.  That money is shredded and then repurposed.  Some of it is recycled and some is used to make the items in the gift shop.  Finally we watched as the money was cut and stamped with the seal and serial number.  We learned that every 1 in 200 or so (we can’t remember exactly how many) bills is a “star bill”.  It has an * instead of a letter in the serial number.  We quickly opened our wallets and checked all our bills.  All letters.  But I will now be on the lookout for a star bill!  We also learned that it costs $0.11-0.14 to make each bill.  That seemed a bit high to us, but not shocked since it is an all government run process.  It could be highly efficient and right now it is not.

No pictures were allowed during the tour.  It was really interesting to watch.  After the tour we headed to the visitor center and gift shop where we could snap some photos, look at all of the generations of old bills and pick up some dollar bill magnets for the girls’ collection.

Since we were not yet exhausted enough we decided that since we were so close to the White House we’d walk on over.  We were trying to get to as much in that geographical area as we could so Burnetts could see as much as possible in the time they had in D.C.  Have I mentioned it was hot?  We began our water fountain trek again.  Some tired kids got shoulder rides from already tired dads.  We passed the monument AGAIN and trekked on to the White House.

We arrived to find Pennsylvania Ave. barricaded more than normal.  They were not letting pedestrians through and we spotted snipers on the roof of the White House. Security told us to go out onto the ellipse park area and look from there.  Security said it could reopen at any time and we could come back.  We watched for a bit and nothing happened so we decided that was close enough and we’d come back by another day.

By this time it was around 4 pm.  We promised Molly we would go to Georgetown Cupcake while we were in D.C.  She loves the show D.C. Cupcakes and this is the cupcake store where the show is set.  We knew we had to walk a ways from the White House to catch a cab so we started walking again.  Then we looked at a map and it was only about a mile and a half.  So we kept walking.  And walking.  And then it was annoying to get two cabs for 9 people so we just walked the whole way to Georgetown.  With 5 kids.  And 4 very tired adults.  Kathy said she thinks we may have been delirious.  I have never felt so dehydrated.  What were we thinking?

 

 

We thankfully arrived to a very short line.  We expected a line down the block but only had a few people in front of us before we got in the store.  Molly lit up when we got inside.  She was so beyond excited.  She is a truly genuine and sweet child.  She thanked us over and over for bringing her.

Once inside decisions had to be made.  They were out of red velvet!  A crime!  So Livia had to make a different choice.  Ben and Molly had peanut butter fudge.  I had peanut butter banana fudge.  Madelyn and Claudia had a birthday cake with unicorn topping.  Livia a rainbow and Sabina vanilla.  They were indeed quite good and a welcome treat after the long day.

We actually did NOT walk back to the marina.  We could hardly stand up.  The girls and Ben and Jack walked 8.5 miles.  Kathy and I had an extra 4 from first thing in the morning putting us at 12.5 miles for the day.  We fell into cabs back to the marina.  Took the dinghy back to the boat.  Drank gallons of water and collapsed.  We made the girls a quick dinner and got everyone in bed.  We were exhausted but we covered so much and had a wonderful first day in Washington, D.C.!

 

 

June 17, 2017 Molly turned 10!  The big double digits.  She was so excited about her birthday.  Age 9 was pretty spectacular being on this trip and we hope that we can make age 10 just as special for her.  She had a list of requests for the day.  She wanted donuts and fruit salad for breakfast, sandwiches on the boat for lunch and to go out for dinner.  She requested root beer floats in lieu of cake.  She loves a good root beer float but I feel a bit guilty because we didn’t have room in the freezer for her favorite, ice cream cake.  I told her I’d make it work but she said root beer floats were her choice.  The day was filled with phone calls and FaceTime calls from grandparents and cousins and she was lucky to have her very best friends here with her to celebrate.

We started the morning with donuts and candles and I made a big fruit salad.

We sang and Molly tore through her presents.  She’s now the proud owner of a Fuji Instax camera and a ukulele!

In the spirit of a lazy fun birthday we headed to the pool for the day.  We ended up having sandwiches and chips poolside for lunch.  The pool party continued until a big storm blew in.  We had storms forecasted all week with the strongest chance being on her birthday.  But instead of the crazy amount of rain forecasted we just had one pretty quick storm.  We all ducked under the shelter and watched it blow through.

Soon enough the rain cleared and the girls made a beeline for the pool again.  Next up, root beer floats poolside!

After a long day in the sun we all got cleaned up for dinner.  We had a nice dinner out.  Molly got a slice of key lime pie to go and we headed back to the boat.  Everyone else chose ice cream on the boat.  We ended the day with a beautiful sunset and dessert.  Happy birthday Molly!  We love you!

Ten years ago Molly was born on Father’s Day.  This year Father’s Day was the day after her birthday.

Jack and Ben didn’t have any requests for the day and we went back and forth on our plans.  We could stay in Yorktown until Monday when the Burnetts planned to head home.  Or we could travel north a bit making some progress in that direction.  Or we could head north towards Washington, D.C. and they could join us.  The water forecast Sunday and Monday wasn’t great, but mostly just a lot of wind chop.  We decided to go for it and make our way north to Kilmarnock, VA and the Burnetts decided to join us all the way to D.C.!  Kathy drove and Jack and the girls rode on the boat with us.  We ended up in a very tiny marina with a very tiny pool that was just perfect.  The kids hopped right in, the dads chilled poolside and then we all enjoyed a quiet evening.

Monday had a similar forecast.  We only had about 12 miles out on the Chesapeake before ducking into the mouth of the Potomac River.  The Potomac is 9 miles wide at the base and not so much like a river.  I learned that the water on the Potomac is all part of Maryland but when we stepped foot onto land we were in Virginia.  We were only going a few miles up and turning into Kinsale, VA for the night.  It was a welcome change to get off the wind chopped water and into the protection of trees and land around us.  We found another very tiny marina where we were the only transient boat.  The owner lived next door to the property and after a little chaos with how he wanted our lines tied, turned out to be very nice.  The marina had another great huge pool.  We broke out the noodles and all 9 of us swam.  We knew there were large storms moving in so we took advantage until the clouds moved in.  After a great afternoon in the water we had a burgers and brats cookout to end the night.

Next stop, Washington, D.C.!

Just as an aside…Other boaters ask us all the time how we have so many guests.  We love it.  We have the space.  We’re thrilled people want to come visit us and share this journey.  And yes when our friends come we have 5 kids on the boat but we make it work.  The kids bunk up.  We have plenty of floor space for them.  They play like the best of friends they are.  And it’s fun for us grown ups too.

 

 

We pulled into the marina in York River last Wednesday and I headed to the pool with the girls.  The Burnetts were due to arrive that afternoon but the girls didn’t know.  We had been very vague about when they were coming and thought it would be fun to surprise the girls.  I was sitting poolside watching for their car to pull up.  Molly had just gotten out of the pool.  I saw their car turn into the parking lot and not long after Molly spotted them and took off running at lightning speed.  At the same time Livia came bolting out of their car the second it rolled to a stop.  The girls met in a huge embrace.  It had been 6 months since they had seen each other.  They’ve been inseparable since they were 3 years old so 6 months was a long time.  Madelyn was still in the pool with her mermaid tail on so it took her a few minutes to figure out what was going on and to get untangled so she could join in the hugs.  Claudia and Sabina quickly followed and it was hugs and smiles all around.  Surprise success!  We spent the rest of the day swimming and catching up.

Thursday we set out for some sight seeing in Yorktown.  We headed to the American Revolution Museum.  We had heard wonderful things about this museum and it did not disappoint.  We have studied the Civil War basically since we left Chicago.  So, I backed up a bit and explained that this was an entirely different war that took place before the Civil War.  My history knowledge is terrible so I learned right along with the girls.  We spent awhile inside looking at the exhibits and trying on period clothing and then headed outside to the model war camp and settlement.

The girls got to see the sizes of the tents that 6 soldiers would have shared during the war.  We also learned about some of the tools and items they would have had in their camp and how they cooked their food.

Next we all got to participate in a musket march demonstration.  We all chose a musket and learned how to hold it.  We marched in formation and learned commands for turning in a line and then how to ready the musket, prepare it and fire.  The girls did a great job!  Once we were commanded to fall out of line and return our muskets we went to see the commanding officer fire a real musket.  The girls then each got to go up and hold the real musket.  Quite heavy!

We moved on to the farm settlement where a typical family would have lived in the original Jamestown settlement.  We got to walk through a replica of a house and learned that the kitchens were in separate buildings next door.  The kitchen building had dried meats in addition to foods that were prepared that morning on display.

After a long museum morning we headed to the waterfront to grab a quick lunch.  After lunch Molly, Livia and Sabina headed back to the marina in the dinghy with Jack and Ben.  Kathy and I took Madelyn and Claudia down the beach a bit to find the cave where General Cornwallis was found after surrendering to the American troops.  We had all had enough history for the day so we skipped going to the Yorktown Battlefield where the Revolutionary War ended, but it was neat for the girls to look in the cave.

We must balance the learning with fun so it was back to the pool for the rest of the day!

The next morning we headed to the Jamestown Settlement.  Another fabulous educational experience!  I thought the museum exhibits indoors were great.  They were at an approachable level for the kids to read and understand.  We learned all about the Jamestown settlement and the hardships and successes the people that first settled there had.  I learned a lot and hope the girls did too.  Then we moved outside.  The settlement included replicas of the huts they lived in as well as replicas of some of the canoes and tools that the Native American tribes used.

We also got to see and walk around models of 3 of the ships that made the trip from England to Jamestown.  We learned how these ships settled in the James River.  It’s incredible and hard to imagine how many people were crammed on these ships with nowhere to sit or sleep other than on their luggage for the long 4 month journey to America.  We also got a lesson on navigation.  Our girls (Molly especially) have a lot of experience looking at charts and maps.  It was good for them to learn how to read a compass rose and hear how sailors way back when had to navigate the mighty Atlantic Ocean.

Our last stop at the settlement was the fort.  Our family is sort of maxed out on forts.  We’ve seen a LOT OF FORTS.  But we were there and said sure why not.  It was neat for the girls to see the similarities and differences of this fort and the others we’ve seen from the Civil War.  The fort was built out of wood which was a big difference from the others we have seen.  We got to see the blacksmith shop and the church and the houses within the fort.  The houses were impressive.  In St. Augustine we walked into the stone cave like areas where people lived.  Here there were full houses with multiple levels and rooms to spread out.  Madelyn and Claudia found armor to try on as well.  It’s heavy and uncomfortable!

On our way to the gift shop Jack spotted a snake!  I’ve never actually seen a snake before this that wasn’t in a zoo of some sort.

After our day at the settlement Jack and Kathy took all five girls back to swim so Ben and I could go shopping and finish up getting everything ready for Molly’s birthday!

I am WAY behind on blogging.  We’ve had our best friends visiting and having fun took priority over blogging.  So now I’m going to play catch up.  A couple of weeks ago we finished the Atlantic ICW.  I say good riddance.  We thoroughly enjoyed the towns along the way.  We thoroughly hated 90% of the boating.  It was stressful, narrow, shallow, shoaled in and not enjoyable for Ben.  It took tons of planning every evening to study all hazards and plan around tides, bridge schedules and depths.

We left Coinjock, NC two weeks ago Saturday and had a series of bridge lifts ahead and a lock.  We came through Norfolk, VA and were in awe at the naval warships on all sides for miles and miles.  Ben took lots of pictures.  We also got passed by a couple.  They are LARGE.  And as we looked at them with our binoculars we could see them looking back at us with theirs….and their large guns.  Large naval warships also brought DEEP water.  YAY!

There was a huge festival going on in Norfolk so we moved on through to Hampton, VA and the very bottom of the Chesapeake Bay.  We’ve been hearing about the Chesapeake for months so were excited to arrive.  We didn’t do a lot in Hampton.  The girls enjoyed the carousel and we went to church in a beautiful very old Episcopal church.  We rented a car and caught up on a lot of errands.

The dock master at our marina has a big garden he provides for boaters.  The girls enjoyed pulling carrots and snapping green beans every day we were there.  The tomatoes weren’t ripe yet unfortunately.  Fresh herbs and spices and greens were available as well.

After a couple of nights in Hampton we made our way 25 miles north and anchored in Yorktown.  We spent two nights at anchor right in the York River.  We saw two beautiful sunsets with water that looked like glass.

We took the dinghy into Yorktown and rode the free trolley around to get the lay of the land.  We stopped in another great used book store and grabbed some Ben and Jerry’s.  We were waiting for our friends to arrive to do all of our sight seeing.