Visiting a Century

The main event of the week was a trip by auto to Hendersonville NC for the 100th birthday of Larry's Aunt Fern. This grand lady is truly amazing. She organized the party gently "encouraging" the more than 150 guests to be there and made several memory filled speeches during the proceedings. Although she is technically blind she walks extensively every day and is very free with advice on the conduct of almost everything about her. Fern's two sons Bill and Dick, who Larry had not seen for 60 years hosted the party in grand style and it was truly a memorable event in every respect. There are several pictures of the affair, including a stunning picture of Fern at age 25, at picasaweb.google.com/lropka at file "Fern"

To the edge of the earth and beyond

A taste of paradise at Dunn Cove on Tilghman Island

You may think we fell off of the edge but
the past days have been full of adventure on both land and sea. Last Tuesday we ventured to Washington D. C. The evening started with dinner al fresco served at Union Station while watching folks run to catch their train. We took the Metro Rail and thanks to Laura's navagation we found our way to the Washington Monument grounds to hear the U.S. Army band perform a program ending with the 1812 overture replete with the Herald Trumpets, Army Chorus and Cannon Battery from Ft Meyer. Sitting within feet of the monument surrounded with American flags, hearing and seeing the band up close resplendent in dress uniforms was truly a memorable experience. We spent the next few days at our dock armor plating the bow of the boat with stainless steel. Our big anchor has been eating away the stem when we retrieve it so rather than try to repair all of the dings we just formed some heavy stainless plate and tube and screwed it on over the nicks.

We then shoved off Friday for the Choptank River, 5hrs north east of the Solomons, to spend Fri and Sat night anchored in a pristine cove just north of the village on the "Island" which is actually a peninsula. We explored ashore Saturday finding a nice lunch waterside (but isn't everything at Tilghman's waterside) and discovered perhaps the best nautical book store ever. Sunday late morning we weighed anchor and motored 12 miles east to Plaindealing Creek, a mile north of Oxford MD on the Tred Avon River. Oxford is the most charming town we have visited thus far. About the size of a big city block, it is populated with charming little houses, many dating from the 1700's, and not over two stories. A magnificent old Inn built in 1707, could be a movie set, serves the only breakfast in town. Guess where we are off to at 8:00 AM tomorrow.

Oxford deserves at least another day of exploration and then hope to run around the corner and up San Domingo to the south side of St Michaels, possibly the most popular stop on the Eastern Shore. Since we arrived in the bay there has been a shortage of crabs mainly thanks to Joan so I guess we should give St Michaels fair warning.

We have to be back to Solomons Friday as we are leaving Saturday for Hendersonville, NC for my Aunt Fern's 100th birthday party. Be back Monday or Tuesday to a long list of "want to do's". We will see which entries win out. Joan thinks Peach blossom Creek sounds like a good place to look for peach ice cream.

Again, pictures can be found on picasaweb.google.com/lropka in a folder called Choptank. Additional pictures in folder called Oxford St Michaels

Post Patrick syndrome

Not much to report. We got Patrick off from Regan National at 6:30AM Tuesday after departing Solomons at 3:45 and returned home to crash and burn totally out of gas. We deferred several cruising plans while regenerating and now hope to be off to the Choptank for a week or so midweek. 98 degree weather also contributed to our reluctance to leave our 120v tether that runs the air conditioner :-). We continue to have fun with our slip mates, Laura and Jason and will miss them as they return to fulfill duties in Florida for a few weeks. Should have more to report next week.