Beaufort, NC

Wednesday morning we got another early start with Brown Eyed Girl, which will be our last one with them for a while.  Craig and Ginny were stopping at Moorhead City (which is a sister city to where we are) for a few days before heading to the Virginia Cut on their way to Norfolk.  We on the other hand will only be here two nights and then are taking a side trip to New Bern before taking the Dismal Swamp up to Norfolk.  We have enjoyed their company for the past two months and look forward to catching up with them somewhere in the Chesapeake.

Shrimp boat at sunrise.

A very pink house along the ICW.

Waiting for the bridge to open.

Brown eyed Girl leading the way.

When we pulled in to the Town Dock we noticed that the “fast” John & Mary from Mackinaw City were here also.  We caught up a bit before we headed off to look around the town which is right across the street from the marina.  They had just taken a double decker bus tour of the town and loved it.  After a quick tour of a very well done maritime museum, (it was closing) we made plans to take the bus tour, a historical houses tour as well as a second look at the museum on Thursday.

A nice little garden between two buildings.

A nice model of an old sailing ship.

The admiral viewing an exhibit.

Sailboats.

On our way back to the marina and noticed that My Way was here.  While John was making a quick hardware run and Mary was hitting a few more shops she had a call from Mary to join her and John and Wayne and Francine on the deck of the restaurant at the marina at 5:00 for a drink.  Francine’s sister and her husband were also there.

We had a nice time catching up with Wayne & Francine and swapping sea stories of what we have all been up since we saw them last in Fairhope, AL before thanksgiving.  While we were there we were joined by another couple who Wayne and Francine had seen a few times along the way.  It turns out the have a house in Charlevoix, which is just 50 miles from Mackinaw City. It sure is a small world.

A little while later another couple joined us who just started their Loop less than a month ago.  They are headed to the spring rendezvous and were eager to hear of all of our experiences.  As the night progressed Linda mentioned that Jeff used to live in Chicago.  When he came back to the table we asked him where and he said Palatine!  That is where John grew up and Mary moved to in junior high. It is also where we met in high school, yes we are “high school sweethearts”, 41 years later this month. When we mentioned that we now live in Rolling Meadows, Jeff said he used to have a business in an old shopping mall that has since been torn down and replaced with a parking lot.  It turns out Jeff just sold his house in Palatine which he moved to from Rolling Meadows, with a total of  nearly 30 years in the area.  Now it’s not just a small world, but it’s getting kind of freaky.

Before the night was over our group had grown to 12 and everyone had a great time.  What was just going to be one drink before dinner, ended up being two (ok maybe three) and appetizers lasting until nearly 10 pm.

Thursday was a sleep in morning (for Mary at least).  Once we got going, Mary did laundry while John took care of a few boat misc. projects.  After lunch aboard we headed over for the double decker bus tour which was very interesting.  We then toured 4 restored homes in the historic district and after that a tour of the graveyard.  While Mary hit a few more shops John checked out the Maritime Museum Boat Building Shop.  Then back to the boat for dinner aboard and Thursday night TV.

The view from the tour bus.

Wild horses across the way.

Boat projects at the Boat Building Shop.

Tomorrow it's off to New Bern for a couple of days.  It's a 20 mile side trip but someone (we can't remember who) was very adamant that we should visit there, hopefully it was good advice.  Though due to a bridge closing between here and Norfolk we need to kill a few days, so  it will be shorter travel days for awhile.  After Norfolk there will be a big push to Washington DC to meet up with Christy, Eric and the grandkids.

John and Mary