Colonial Beach to Washington DC

It started raining in the early am so we didn’t leave until 7:30.  It was another cloudy day with periods of light rain as well as some of sun.  When we called the city marina in Alexandria about a slip for two nights we were told it was city policy that we must back into the slip.  We checked an aerial photo and realized with the dinghy hanging off the back as well as the problems this boat has backing that we would have to pass on Alexandria. We ended up for the night at the National Harbor that is across the Potomac from Alexandria.  It is a resort with several large hotels, shopping and restaurants, a little on the pricey side for us, so we will move on tomorrow and see if we can get into our slip for the next week a little early at Capital Yacht Club in D.C.  We did have a very enjoyable Anniversary dinner at McCormick and Schmick’s.

Mount Vernon

National Harbor

Wednesday morning we decided to take advantage of the free washer and dryers at the National Harbor and maybe off set the expense of the slip a little so we did eight loads of laundry, including our lines from the boat.  They had gotten really bad looking and we were both surprised how white they turned out.  We left for Capital Yacht Club around noon, since it was only about 5 miles away we took a side trip down past the Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson Monuments and under five bridges and into Georgetown.  It was fun to see this all from the water as we had seen it many times when we had visited Christy and Eric when they lived in D.C. five years ago. 

This area is busy with a lot of Police, Coast Guard boats and many military helicopters.  As we came into our harbor today we were greeted with four helicopters (one equipped with missiles), coast guard boat and two fire boats all going after something at full speed.  Quiet a sight. 

Woodrow Wilson Bridge leading into Alexandria Va.

Arlington Memorial Bridge

Georgetown

Our welcoming to D.C.

John has been on a spring cleaning of Passport over the past few days, working on the yellow that has come from the tannins in the river waters.  He has gotten her looking very good again.

Thursday morning a few more boat projects, John needs to clean all the sea strainers and try and stop a small leak by the rudder.  I hope to find a nail salon close by while he finishes up the boat projects.  This afternoon we plan to do a bit of sightseeing.  Tomorrow we are sleeping in and will do some re-provisioning for when Christy and family arrive on Saturday.  They will be staying with friends but all the kids will be doing a sleepover on the boat.  We are very excited!!

Christy has put together a whole itinerary for the week they will be here in DC so most likely we won’t be blogging until we are on the move again.  

Izzy is celebrating her third birthday on May 20th and we wish her a very happy day and wish that we could be with her to celebrate. 

Hugs to all,

Mary and John