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Portsmouth, VA to Washington, DC; April 30-May 29

April 30 to May 20 ~ Portsmouth, VA to Washington, DC

The day we arrived at Tidewater Marina in Portsmouth we got fuel on the way to our slip. We liked this marina
because it was well protected and the office, bathhouse, and the Deck Restuarant were close to the boat. The
restaurant had a wonderful view of the Elizabeth River and Norfolk, VA.
There was a lot of activity in the river. There were a lot of very big cranes, working and being moved from place to
place. A huge navy ship was across from us, being painted.

There were ferry boats with paddle wheels that carried people back and forth across the river and ran every thirty
minutes. A tiny red taxi boat, and I do mean tiny, ran back and forth across the river. Its dock was right behind us at
Tidewater Marina. Cruise ships came in and docked in Norfolk. The Spanish Navy brought a four-masted sailing ship,
which was 370 feet long, and docked in Norfolk. It was a training ship which we got to tour, with a Spanish sailor as
our guide.

May 1 was our anniversary and we celebrated by having dinner at the Deck Restaurant at the marina. It was quite a
romantic setting with the skyline of Norfolk in the background. We were going to go home on Thursday, May 3, and
we had many things to do on the boat before we left, so we did not get to sight-see before going home. However,
after a wonderful and busy trip home, we arrived back in Portsmouth on May 14th.

A friend, Laurie Peyton, who has a boat on our dock at home, flew back with us to cruise for a while. We had a lot of
maintainence work done on the boat as well as some nice upgrades.

The weather was stormy, cold and windy. We stayed in port for several days, went sight-seeing and met old cruising
friends, Ginger, Laura, Pat and Mike. We were glad to get together for a visit again. We rented a car and went to
Williamsburg for the day with Ginger and Laura.

I t was a fun day. We went to the coffee house there and listened to George Washington speak. He stayed in
character so well; he really made you want to quit buying British products, a voluntary embargo on goods made in
England! We ate lunch at the King’s Arms Tavern and dinner at Christiana Campbell’s Tavern, where, of course, all
the employees wear period dress. Both meals were excellent, but Christiana Campbell’s in my favorite. We drove to
Jamestown on our way back to Portsmouth. The drive was at dusk and was beautiful. We saw a bald eagle, several
Canadian geese with many babies and many deer. One day, Laurie and I took the ferry to Norfolk. We went to the
mall and then caught the tiny, red water taxi back to the marina. Those big ships in the river looked “ginormous” from
the taxi. It was fast, though. One night, we went to the Commodore Theater, which is an old movie theater in
Portsmouth, built in 1945, and restored to its original splendor. It is now a movie dinner theater, with club chairs,
tables with white clothes and lamps. You place your dinner order on the telephone that is on your table. We saw the
movie “Fracture” with Anthony Hopkins. It was excellent, a real psychological thriller.
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Another day, Laurie and I went on a self-guided walking tour of the historic district in Portsmouth, where we saw some
very interesting and pretty homes.

Sunday, May 20, 2007 ~ Portsmouth, VA to Deltaville, VA

We left Portsmouth early, about 7:00 am. We were going into the Chesapeake Bay for the first time! Who would have
ever thought we would cruise the Chesapeake Bay in our own boat?!! It is a huge body of water. It was a little rocky
and rolly part of the way, but for the most part was not too bad. Some other Loopers left on Saturday for Deltaville
and called us to report that it had been a terrible trip, really rough, really rocky. They took waves over their bow. We
were so glad that we waited an extra day. We stayed at Regatta Point Marina and it was lovely. The club house has a
wide porch that runs across the entire front of the building with nice rockers on the porch. There were several
Loopers there, among them Tom and Paula from Home Aweigh, Cheryl and Barry from Seaquel, Jeff and Ann from
Foxy and Duffy and Russ from Work of Art. We were glad to be in port and it was nice to be with Looper friends again.
Phil had been in touch with our Deltaville friend, Bill Tice, whom we had met in Fernandina Beach, Florida.
He and Abigail, his monk parrot, stopped by the boat for a visit. Abigail is no ordinary parrot. She is quite adept at
picking up not only words but entire phrases and can put them accurately into context as well. Consider the following
exchange between Bill and Abigail. Abigail usually stays on her perch near her cage, but on this particular day she
descended to the floor and moved to where Bill was working on his engine. She said, "what's ya doin?" Bill replied "I'm
working on the engine". She replied, "How's it goin?" Bill said, "not well." Abigail then said, "are ya hav'n fun?" and he
said, "NO!!!!! I'm not!!!". Abigail said, "ut Oh!" and returned to her perch. When asked what a duck says, she replies,
"Aflack".

On Monday, we went to lunch with Bill, went to the grocery store and West Marine (our second home). Abigail and Bill
invited us to their boat for cocktails and to meet some friends. It was a lovely evening, even a little on the chilly side
at dusk. Bill provides cherrios to Abigail and she takes them in her beak, transfers the cheero to her claw and then
snacks on the cheero a bit at a time. In this picture she is standing on one leg and holding the cheero to her beak for
a nibble. This area is beautiful with many trees.
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May 22, 2007 ~ Deltaville, VA to Belmont Bay Harbor

We left Deltaville about 7:30 am. Chesapeake Bay was very smooth. We had to go twenty-three miles on the
Chesapeake before we made the turn into the Potomac River. There was no wind that day, making the trip itself very
uneventful and beautiful, just the way we like it! The Potomac is an interesting river, which is also huge or, I could say,
ginormous! (The mouth of the Potomac is eleven miles wide!) Many points of land or shoaling at the end of a point of
land were marked with buoys or markers that were fifty-four feet tall. Some looked like lighthouses, others, like big
spiders. We passed through what is called the Lower Danger Zone, Middle Danger Zone and the Upper Danger Zone.
The three zones are from the Naval Surface Weapons Center in Dahlgren, VA. The lowest zone, for aerial bombing
and strafing, and the upper zone, for long range and aerial machine gun firings, are generally unused. The middle
firing range is normally active daily from 8 am to 4 pm, except Saturday and Sundays and national holidays. You have
to call the range patrol to see if the zone is “hot” or “cold”. We called and no one ever answered! That did NOT give
us a sense of security! However, we went through it with no problem. So, I guess, it was an off day… We passed
Quantico, although we could not see very much from the water.

We got to Belmont Bay Harbor Marina about 8:15 after a long day, about thirteen hours and 122 miles later. Our
marina was serene and beautiful. We heard the honking of many Canadian geese flying overhead, saw huge Great
Blue Herons, fishing, swallows and ospreys, nesting and flying. The marina has a resident snake that swims over to
the dock to sun almost daily. We saw the snake, both swimming and sunning. The dock master assured us it was
harmless… It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeurvres on the back deck at dusk. The
next morning we did washing and rested.

Wednesday, May 23 2007~ Belmont Bay to Washington, D.C.

We left beautiful Belmont Harbor about 1:30. The Potomac River was very smooth. As we were passing Fort
Washington, we hit a dead-head or something, seemed to do no damage, but scared us all to death. We never saw
anything in the water before or after we hit it. We passed Mt. Vernon.
It is often said that the prettiest view of Mt. Vernon is from the water and we believe it! It was lovely. There is a dock
at Mt. Vernon and we could have tied up there, but, because it was getting so late, we would not have had much time
there and we needed to get to the marina before they closed the office. We arrived in Washington, D.C. at the
Gangplank Marina, not far from the Washington Memorial, at 4:45 pm. We were tied up in a slip right across from the
Presidential Yacht, the USS Sequoia. It is a 1925 Trumpy yacht, 104 feet long, with the Presidential Seal on the side
of the cabin. It no longer belongs to the federal government. It is privately owned, but is available, on a limited basis,
for private charters of up to 50 guests. Scheduling is coordinated with any use by the president or vice president. It
“rents” for $12,500 for four hours. It has been carefully restored and is absolutely beautiful. It has been in use by
presidents since the 1920s, beginning with Herbert Hoover. I googled it and was amazed by the historic events that
have taken place on the Sequoia. We enjoyed looking at it all the time we were there. For a better up close and
personal look at the history and a large number of beautiful pictures click on this link, http://www.sequoiayacht.com/
and for a different

We were not too far from the White House and the first night we were there, three helicopters with the Presidential
Seal flew over on their way, I guess, to take George and Laura home. We sat on the back deck and listened to great
country western music, of all things! There was a cute, open-air, very busy and crowded bar just across the water
from us and we had no difficultly hearing the music, a different band each night we were there.

Thursday – Monday ~ May 24 – 28 ~ Washington, D.C.

Thursday dawned hot and bright. We ate lunch at a wonderful little Asian restaurant, Jenny’s, near the boat and
boarded the little bus, the Circulator, to go to the National Portrait Gallery, a museum of the Smithsonian. We went to
the Presidential Exhibit, which is one of only two complete exhibits of portraits of all of our presidents. The other one is
at the White House. It was so interesting. We were all glad that we got to see it. For complete tour of the Presidental
Exhibit at the National Gallery click on this link and remember that you can enlarge any image by clicking on the
image, http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/travpres/index6.htm.

On Friday, we hired a town car and driver and went to Mt. Vernon. We spent the day there and it was even better
than I remembered it. It has been painstakingly restored and is absolutely beautiful. I enjoyed it so much, as did Phil
and Laurie. It is and was a large estate, with a lot of out buildings to tour. The view from there is so pretty. Even
though, Washington was away from Mt. Vernon for almost twenty years while fighting for our freedom as a country
and serving as its first President, he always considered Mt. Vernon his beloved home and looked forward to the day
he and Martha could come home to stay. Unfortunately, he lived only two years after returning to Mt. Vernon. Martha
continued to live there until her death in 1802. Alex, our driver, picked us up at 5:30 and took us back to the boat.
Although Alex made a few non-scheduled u-turns and whipped in and out, we arrived quickly in one piece and
immediately had wine. It was a nice day.

Saturday, we had the pleasure of meeting Justin Anderson, the son of our Clear Lake friends, Scott and Michelle, for
dinner. Once again we went to Gordon Biersch’s or as we called it ~ “GB’s”. It was fun to see him again and visit with
him.

Sunday was the day of “Rolling Thunder”, approximately 500,000 motorcycles riding in a parade to raise money for
the troops missing in action and prisoners of war. Many of the streets were closed in downtown most of the day.
Laurie and I went downtown early, before the street closings and went to the Spy Museum. It is huge and very
interesting. Phil worked in the engine room and planned to join us for lunch and the afternoon. He started out on a
Circulator bus that got stuck in the road closings and ended up in a supervisor’s private car, who delivered him to his
destination! We, of course, had lunch at “GB’s”, where we could have spent the afternoon listening to a great light
jazz trio. However, Laurie and I decided to go to the Peterson House where Lincoln died.

Then the three of us went to see the “Rolling Thunder”. We saw the end of the parade and then it was on to the
memorials. We were so moved by the Korean War memorial. It is life size sculptures of soldiers, moving through a
field. The wall that is beside it is almost like a hologram of soldiers’ faces. The Vietnam memorial was very
impressive. We went to the Lincoln Monument where there was a live band. We think it was called the “Rolling
Thunder”. There were bunches of bikers and they were very nice.
It was a very hot day and we were glad to get back to the air-conditioned boat!
Monday was our last day in Washington and we wanted to go to Arlington Cemetery. v:shapes="
BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5091680079335715874"> Since it was Memorial Day, there was the traditional laying of the
wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the president. We rode the subway and arrived just as the president’s
motorcade was leaving. It was just like I have seen on television. There were six identical black suburbans with black
windows, leaving at the same time. As they exited, they split up and went in different directions. The police had traffic
stopped for them and they were, quickly, gone from the area. The trolleys in the Cemetery were not running because
of the exiting crowd, so we walked. It seemed like twenty miles!

v:shapes="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5091685246181372994">We went first to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for
the changing of the guard ceremony. Different organizations were still laying wreaths when we got there. About thirty
minutes later, we did get to see the ceremony. It was very impressive. We then walked to President Kennedy’s grave
site. Jacqueline Kennedy and their two infants are buried there, also.
We saw the graves of Robert Kennedy, Joe Louis and Audie Murphy. We also saw the memorials to the crews of the
Challenger and the Columbia that had special meaning to Phil because of his work in the United Space Alliance. His
work involved work with the Flight Design and Dynamics Operations Center responsible for flight design and
operation of both the Shuttle and the Space Station. We were also impressed that so many of the graves held
several family members in the same plot.

After we left Arlington Cemetery, we decided to go to the National Cathedral. It is a beautiful sanctuary.

As we walked through the area of the war memorials and Arlington Cementary we couldn't help but reflect on a piece
that was near or part of the Korean Memorial. It is well worth all of us remembering the inscription on that piece,
"Freedom is Not Free". The picture is a bit hard to see clearly, not unlike the concept the picture attempted to
capture.
We decided that by the time we left Washington, D.C. we had ridden every time of public conveyance from the
subway to hiring a car and driver. The subway was a great and safe way to travel, the bus system seemed adequate
and the little Circulator seemed fine also. There was always a taxi when you needed one. We had no problem with
transportation in the city and, with the exception of a shooting down the street from our marina, we felt quite secure
the whole time!

Our Travel Log

Travel Log