BoaterHomer
New member
First, Floyd, thank you for that AWESOME Google Map of our trip. I've been meaning to make one but need my laptop and we've had VERY limited wi-fi. So, thank you for saving me the trouble! There are some missing dots between Ft. George and Charleston so I will fill you in on those details.
One thing interesting is that my SmugMug photo album automatically creates a map using the metadata from the photos. How cool is that! It should load on the first page of my album:http://caseyandmary.smugmug.com/Florida-to-the-Chesapeake-2015/
Second, I'm going to copy my last post to Facebook since I think it has some good info for folks making the decision on whether to do the Potomac River. If you are following me on Facebook, it's the same info. If not, feel free to "friend" me. I'm under Mary Burtner Casebeer.
Here's the post:
We always say: When you come to a fork in the road, take it!
Casey and I had both lived near DC, been to DC many times, and had seen "everything". Casey's first job with the National Park Service after the Army was as an Interpretive Ranger at the Lincoln Memorial. I grew up near DC, going there for school field trips, and later as an adult to see the sites almost every year while I visited my family in MD.
So when we got to the junction of the Potomac River, with 100 long miles of choppy water between where we were on the Chesapeake Bay and DC, we came very close to skipping the trip up river. I'M SO GLAD WE DIDN'T.
Having fond childhood memories of the Potomac of Frederick and Washington counties in MD and of the C&O canal beside of it, I wanted to see what this end looked like. The differences were like night and day. The Potomac I grew up near was narrow, shallow and rocky. But on this end, the Potomac was several miles wide, white-capped, and potentially as rough as the ocean.
But what an incredible experience to be in DC on our own boat for a week over Memorial Day.
Gangplank Marina was the perfect location...only a block and a half from the Waterfront Metro station and the nicest Safeway Grocery store we've ever seen. And only 0.7 miles to the National Mall. Oh, and we had a view of the Washington Monument from the boat! It was especially pretty when lit up at night.
The showers were perfect and as far as we could tell, no one else ever used them - the marina seemed to be all live-aboards besides us. We had three social invitations within 10 mins of arriving and had happy hour the first evening with the Capital Yacht Club folks.
Despite buying Metro passes and using the heck out of the Metro, we still walked 5-7 miles per day - over 10 one day. But seeing everything we did was worth the aching feet.
We started every day with breakfast at Safeway where our Starbucks coffee was more expensive than the delicious $2.49 breakfast burritos and sandwiches.
I can't describe everything we did and saw without writing a book so I'll list:
-The beautiful National Botanical Gardens.
- Union Station -always impressive.
- Mark Rubio's office for Senate and House passes.
-An all day, extensive tour of the Capital including sitting in on sessions of both the Senate and House.
- US Supreme Court
- Library of Congress
- National Archives
- All day at the well done Spy Museum.
- The historic DC Fish Market where we ordered Chincoteague oysters shucked as we waited as well as fresh shrimp and snow-crabs that were steamed as we waited. And THEN a customer standing beside of us while we were digging in (no seats there), GAVE us their 7 steamed Maryland Blue Crabs that they were too full to finish ...lucky us! ... what a feast we had!
- Rolling Thunder 250,000+ motorcycles, mostly veterans, circling the National Mall showing support for Memorial Day. Incredible. Emotional.
- Several wreath laying ceremonies at various Memorials.
- WWII Memorial while many Korean War veterans were visiting with Honor Flight. We shook their hands and I cried.
- Smithsonian Castle
- American Indian Museum
- The 2 hour patriotic National Memorial Day Parade.
- Changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
- Visit to Casey's parents graves in Arlington National Cemetery.
It was an emotional, moving, and very patriotic visit to our nation's capital.
The other stops we made along the Potomac were delightful as well. Very eerie Mallow Bay - the largest shipwreck fleet in the Western Hemisphere, quaint Colonial Beach, Quantico, with its spectacular Marine Corps Museum, an awesome anchorage on Mattawoman River with bald eagles and great blue herons, Historic and friendly St. Mary's City, and the resort-like Dennis Point Marina in Drayden with its well-placed shade trees by the swimming pool.
Yes, we loved our 2 weeks and 2 days on the historic Potomac.
One thing interesting is that my SmugMug photo album automatically creates a map using the metadata from the photos. How cool is that! It should load on the first page of my album:http://caseyandmary.smugmug.com/Florida-to-the-Chesapeake-2015/
Second, I'm going to copy my last post to Facebook since I think it has some good info for folks making the decision on whether to do the Potomac River. If you are following me on Facebook, it's the same info. If not, feel free to "friend" me. I'm under Mary Burtner Casebeer.
Here's the post:
We always say: When you come to a fork in the road, take it!
Casey and I had both lived near DC, been to DC many times, and had seen "everything". Casey's first job with the National Park Service after the Army was as an Interpretive Ranger at the Lincoln Memorial. I grew up near DC, going there for school field trips, and later as an adult to see the sites almost every year while I visited my family in MD.
So when we got to the junction of the Potomac River, with 100 long miles of choppy water between where we were on the Chesapeake Bay and DC, we came very close to skipping the trip up river. I'M SO GLAD WE DIDN'T.
Having fond childhood memories of the Potomac of Frederick and Washington counties in MD and of the C&O canal beside of it, I wanted to see what this end looked like. The differences were like night and day. The Potomac I grew up near was narrow, shallow and rocky. But on this end, the Potomac was several miles wide, white-capped, and potentially as rough as the ocean.
But what an incredible experience to be in DC on our own boat for a week over Memorial Day.
Gangplank Marina was the perfect location...only a block and a half from the Waterfront Metro station and the nicest Safeway Grocery store we've ever seen. And only 0.7 miles to the National Mall. Oh, and we had a view of the Washington Monument from the boat! It was especially pretty when lit up at night.
The showers were perfect and as far as we could tell, no one else ever used them - the marina seemed to be all live-aboards besides us. We had three social invitations within 10 mins of arriving and had happy hour the first evening with the Capital Yacht Club folks.
Despite buying Metro passes and using the heck out of the Metro, we still walked 5-7 miles per day - over 10 one day. But seeing everything we did was worth the aching feet.
We started every day with breakfast at Safeway where our Starbucks coffee was more expensive than the delicious $2.49 breakfast burritos and sandwiches.
I can't describe everything we did and saw without writing a book so I'll list:
-The beautiful National Botanical Gardens.
- Union Station -always impressive.
- Mark Rubio's office for Senate and House passes.
-An all day, extensive tour of the Capital including sitting in on sessions of both the Senate and House.
- US Supreme Court
- Library of Congress
- National Archives
- All day at the well done Spy Museum.
- The historic DC Fish Market where we ordered Chincoteague oysters shucked as we waited as well as fresh shrimp and snow-crabs that were steamed as we waited. And THEN a customer standing beside of us while we were digging in (no seats there), GAVE us their 7 steamed Maryland Blue Crabs that they were too full to finish ...lucky us! ... what a feast we had!
- Rolling Thunder 250,000+ motorcycles, mostly veterans, circling the National Mall showing support for Memorial Day. Incredible. Emotional.
- Several wreath laying ceremonies at various Memorials.
- WWII Memorial while many Korean War veterans were visiting with Honor Flight. We shook their hands and I cried.
- Smithsonian Castle
- American Indian Museum
- The 2 hour patriotic National Memorial Day Parade.
- Changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
- Visit to Casey's parents graves in Arlington National Cemetery.
It was an emotional, moving, and very patriotic visit to our nation's capital.
The other stops we made along the Potomac were delightful as well. Very eerie Mallow Bay - the largest shipwreck fleet in the Western Hemisphere, quaint Colonial Beach, Quantico, with its spectacular Marine Corps Museum, an awesome anchorage on Mattawoman River with bald eagles and great blue herons, Historic and friendly St. Mary's City, and the resort-like Dennis Point Marina in Drayden with its well-placed shade trees by the swimming pool.
Yes, we loved our 2 weeks and 2 days on the historic Potomac.
. We've discussed a number of options including continuing north to the Erie Canal then flying home in Septmber or October and returning with the truck/trailer rather the retracing the ICW all the way back to Florida. At this point we really don't know what the final answer will be ... but we're considering options. Stay tuned!