We agreed to meet friends Peter & Gigi when they traveled south from Boston to Florida via the inland coastal waterway in their 90′ yacht. We selected the portion from Annapolis (DC area) to Norfolk. This would also give us a chance to visit with friends and former environs as well.
We arrived Friday evening October 8 and rendezvoused with Peter & GG at the Embassy Suites – Foggy Bottom. I had made reservations here thinking this would be closer to GG’s former hangout in Georgetown and being recently renovated would be a good deal. Unfortunately, the renovations were still ongoing and the parking was not convenient. So dragging our friends there might not have been ideal, but we all made the best of it.
They were supposed to look for a restaurant for us for that night. They walked around but didn’t spot any to recommend. Peter said he wanted a steak, so we opted for spontaneous reservations at the Capital Grille via OpenTable and taxied over. Everyone admitted that our meal was excellent.
Saturday morning we took the metro to DCA and got a rental car. We drove to Easton to meet the Hazen’s at Londonderry on the Tred Avon, which is a senior community near their childhood and previous retirement home and near family in Annapolis. We had lunch with them in the dining room, which had a wide range of offerings. We spent the afternoon catching up as it had been a year since our last visit. We had dinner with Art & Roselee Roberts at Scossa restaurant there in Easton that evening. Art was my DC consultant at ERAU and helped us move several projects forward including the Lehman Center. We drove back to DC that night and took the metro back to Foggy Bottom.
Sunday we met Peter & GG for breakfast and decided to taxi to the Air & Space Museum. We watched an interesting 3D movie in the IMAX Theatre and after a couple of hours we migrated to the National Gallery of Art. We had lunch in the Cafe. We split up. I went to an exhibit that described the building of the Museum itself, which was primarily started as gift by Paul Mellon, of which I was unaware. He chose the name and built it near the Smithsonian to insure we had a national gallery in our capital city. We then spent some time at the American Indian Museum. The new African-American museum is now open on the mall, but it was heavily booked for private showings.
Interestingly, our guests from Europe are heavily influenced by the mainstream media and, therefore, couldn’t understand why there was any blue vs red controversy in the US. Clearly the blue is right and the red is wrong. We taxied back to the hotel with an African American driver who was a big supporter of Trump. He was quite animated, explained a number of the controversies on the blue side and with Hillary, and then said Trump’s victory will be HUGE … HUGE. It was an eye opener for them. They wanted to watch the debate that night so we had a really nice dinner at the Grillfish (sustainable seafood, oysters, and meats) around the corner. After the presidential debate (#2), they agreed with us that we don’t have a good option for which to vote. Also agreed that it may be coming down to registering a non-vote (skip that part of the ballot) or voting against the candidate for which you are most against (hard to pick).
The next morning (Monday Oct 10) we packed up into the rental car and stopped in Georgetown on the way back. It gave an opportunity for Gertrud to visit some of her old haunts (Dean & Deluca, Potomac Wine & Spirits, and others.) We then traversed to Annapolis with some gymnastics to maneuver around traffic jams. After we boarded the boat I stayed behind to log in and do some online meetings and work. The others went shopping for food and turned in the rental car.
We had refreshments and a nice dinner on board. Then Peter and GG taught us how to play Rummikub. They had been talking about this for awhile and they were anxious to pull us into their circle. We ended up playing each night for a couple of hours. Generally, Peter and GG are nearly addicted. 🙂 Fortunately, Nancy and I picked it up quick enough and we even each had a couple of victories over the course of the week.
The boat departed Annapolis at 7AM on Tuesday morning. This particular morning the bow thrusters were needed to help maneuver out of the dock and that woke up Nancy, but she went back to sleep. Generally, I worked until about 1AM each night and then got up at 7AM to work until brunch, usually about 10:30AM. Then I mostly spent time with friends from brunch until Rummikub each night. On this particular morning, we ended up going to Reedville.
Reedville was very interesting as it was founded by Captain Elijah Reed as a key port for harvesting menhaden fish (small herring-like fish). The menhaden are processed into fish oil, margarine, pet food, livestock feed additives, etc. The port processes about 500 million pounds of fish per year, making it the largest (by pound) port in the US. In fact, in 1888 it had the largest per capita income in the US. Now it is quaint and isolated still with a population of about 500.
We walked down Millionaire’s Row and viewed the old victorian houses. We met a nice women who told us about town and then urged us to visit the Reedville Fisherman’s Museum, which we really enjoyed and can recommend. We had dinner that night onboard and departed the next day (Wednesday) at 7AM again.
We arrived at Yorktown Riverwalk Marina shortly afternoon. This was a treat as Nancy and I lived in Yorktown after getting married while we were still working at NASA Langley. I got the rental car while the other 3 visited town and we rendezvoused at the Yorktown Battlefield Visitor’s center. The movie was great describing the battle and siege at Yorktown. That night was chili for dinner and, of course, more Rummikub.
The next morning we hosted Al and Juleen Jackson for lunch at the Riverwalk Restaurant. After giving a tour of Magic Moments, Nancy and I took the rental car and rendezvoused with GG and Peter at Jamestown Settlement. It has been greatly improved and they are about to open the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown. We then toured a portion of Colonial Williamsburg on foot, saw a canon firing ceremony, and had refreshments at Chowning’s Tavern. We had dinner (with reservations) at the Kings Arms Tavern. We all had dishes we liked and the ambiance was excellent.
I dropped them off and then returned the rental car. By the time I got back, I had only missed 1.5 games of Rummikub and we finished that night with each winning at least one game.
The next morning we left for Norfolk. This is an area where Nancy and I had also spent quite a bit of time. Tabitha was born here, Dave had lived here, Nancy spent here last year of high school here, finished college at ODU, and lived here when she was starting here career at NASA. We even got married at the Hermitage Museum (link). We tied up at the old Waterside Center (currently being rebuilt) and walked around for awhile before heading to the airport.
All in all it was a good trip. We enjoyed the cruising and the site seeing but especially visiting with our friends GG & Peter, Hazen’s, Robert’s and Jackson’s. We wished we had time to spend in Yorktown/Norfolk as there are dozens of friends with who we would have liked to visit, but it’s a busy time at Seeq.
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