July 29th: D.C. and Solomons Island

Thomas Jefferson Memorial – he probably did more as a President to get this country on the right track than any other President

We’ve been busy for the last six days. First we sailed 13-miles from Mount Vernon to Washington. The Potomac starts getting narrower up here – kind of like what you would expect for a river. Our plan – be tourists for a coupe days. The marina we went to was right down town, like four blocks from the National Mall. Paula had never been to Washington, so it was time to see it all.

Wednesday, with just the afternoon left, we took Annie for a little walked over to the Jefferson Memorial and the FDR Memorial. Afraid we wore out our poor little dog. That evening, we had a couple drinks at our marina – the Capital Yacht Club. It is actually a yacht club that encourages cruisers, like us, to stay there. The club has been around since 1892. It’s pretty neat the way they welcomed us into their private little enclave.

Thursday we gave Annie a rest, and took the Washington Trolley Tour, including the trip over to Arlington Cemetery. I won’t go on too much about Washington, because many of you have been there. If you have never toured Washington, I highly recommend it for your Bucket List. We would have stayed to see more, but our old bodies needed time to recover from all that walking. One not so good note, the helicopters were unbelievable. They were flying low over the Potomac and our marina the whole time. Plus, the jet traffic from Reagan International was continually going overhead. Washington has to be just about the noisiest city we’ve ever been to.

The next two days we sailed back down the Potomac – about 100-miles – with a mid-way stop at Port Tobacco River, and a stop at the entrance at Smith Creek, MD. Both very nice anchorages.

Monday we headed up the Chesapeake to Solomons Island. They say this is one of the most popular places on the Chesapeake Bay. On a Monday and Tuesday, the place is really quiet. Lots and lots of boats in slips, but no place to provision to be found. Best we could tell, this is a “Weekend Town”. We found it as a fairly nice place to anchor. But, nothing to make us hang around. We were told that the popularity comes from its close proximity to Washington and Baltimore.

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FDR Memorial is a “Must See” in D.C.

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Washington Monument – Currently in Bubble-Wrap

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Kennedy Memorial at Arlington Cemetery

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Another “Must See” – Changing of the Guard at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier