After a week in Daytona Beach, we were ready to head north and find some cooler temps. Two days of driving later, we ended up at a campground just to the south of Washington D.C. in Maryland. On the way up, we took a quick tour of St. Augustine, ran into quite a bit of rain, and found a neat campground near Charleston that had a nice pond and nature area.
Once we got setup at our campground in Maryland, it was time to explore DC and the National Mall
First stop though was out near Dulles airport with a visit to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center an extension of the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. If you like planes, this is the place to visit.
We found it easier to park and ride the metro to downtown. It meant more walking, but we didn’t have to deal with traffic or finding a parking spot. We went to the Air and Space museum on the mall then walked over to the Natural History Museum.
The next day we started a bit earlier and walked down the mall to the Lincoln Memorial. Walked back up to the White House, then spent the rest of the day was spent in the National History Museum
After three days of walking and museums, we were ready for something different. The next three days we spent at the Annapolis sailboat show. Most of our time was spent looking at vendors selling solutions to problems we don’t have, or climbing in and out of boats trying to find the perfect one. What’s interesting is that since we now live in a small home and have a better idea of what space works or doesn’t, the boats we really like last year are no longer our favorites.
While there we ran into (in reality, we hunted them down) Ben, Tambi, and Molly from who live on SV Sand Flee and have a great Video Blog on YouTube called Sailboat Story
On Saturday we participated in a seminar called Take the Wheel. The morning portion took place on the Naval Academy and was a discussion on what is the right boat. In the afternoon, we moved back to the water and we went out in the water on two different boats. The first was a 40 foot catamaran, and the second was a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 479 monohull. While the cat was roomy and comfortable, the 479 was a blast. We each had a chance to take the helm. I didn’t think that the 479 would be responsive, I was wrong. that boat can go, at one point I almost had a rail in the water and the readout showed us hitting 10.5 knots.
We had to recover from all the excitement with a few Painkillers. Met some new friends who had similar dreams of sailing off to far away sandy beaches.
So, are we getting a boat? Someday.