Washington DC

We are continuing our great American tour and arrived in Washington DC early this afternoon. We settled into our hotel and wasted no time hopping onto the metro for a romp on the National Mall. After eating pizza and hot dogs in the park, we spent several hours in the Natural History Museum. Highlights there (aside from the museum being free) were the dinosaurs, the Hope diamond and the exhibit on Mammals. We watched a short film about the evolution of mammals and the kids were unable to peel their eyes off the screen. We also visited the Lewis and Clark exhibit and Hayley was able to quickly identify 18th century style clothing that we had just seen in Williamsburg. Somehow, all this history is coming together!!
The kids and I popped out of the metro this afternoon and in front of us was the Washington Monument with the Lincoln Memorial just beyond, to the rear the Capitol building, and to the right was the White House. I felt like we hit the DC jack-pot! We are excited to get going tomorrow and see some more! I am amazed at the stamina our kids have! We hope you enjoy some of the pictures we took today. Check back soon for another day in DC!!

Colonial Williamsburg Photos

Gardening tips
Parade rest!
Guns do this to Jack!

The new American Girl Doll
FELONS!

Colonial Williamsburg

Sowing seeds in the garden
Joining the militia
An afternoon swing!
Playing with period toys at James Geddy House, Silversmith
Visiting with horses in the morning

Welcome to the Revolution!!

The royal government has collapsed and the Patriots and Loyalists are engaging in heated debates! Supplies are dwindling and families are becoming desperate while the war drags on...Welcome to Colonial Williamsburg!!
Today we began the day outfitting Hayley and Jack in 18th century period dress. Hayley wore a white dress with a blue sash and cap. Jack wore a blouse and satchel and carried a training musket. All throughout the colonial town, they had chores to attend to ranging from sowing seeds in the garden, learning proper courtesies and delivering mail to the printer. Hayley was instantly transported back in time and played the part while interacting with all of the townspeople. Her favorite stop was in the milliner shop where she interacted with a woman who was choosing fabric for a new dress. This woman spent 30 minutes asking about dresses and fabric and invited Hayley to help her choose one. The woman was dressed in period clothes and used period verbage. The woman was on staff but Hayley was unaware and only became suspicious when they wanted the woman to pay in shillings. Hayley had truly forgotten where she was and was just shocked to find out that the picky woman was on staff. Even then, it was hard to convince her! I just told Hayley that this is a living museum!
Jack was oblivious to many of the goings on but truly enjoyed seeing the craftsmen and women at work. We visited a gunsmith, blacksmith, and a silversmith where they worked and created before our eyes. We found the silversmith to be fascinating where we watched hot liquid pewter transformed into a spoon in mere seconds. Jack was enthralled with the magazine and guard tower that held many antique guns that are 250 years old. He took his duty of joining the militia quite seriously and never missed an opportunity to train with his musket. He participated in several parades and loved the cannons being fired at the end of the day.
We walked for nearly 12 hours and the day flew by. Hayley would like to move to Williamsburg and be an historian here. I could see her doing that someday.....
Please enjoy some of the pictures we took today and check back for our visit to the nation's capital!!

A few Zoo Photos

Asheboro Farm and Zoo

Hello from Asheboro, NC! We said goodbye to Jason in Mount Pleasant and he began his northern migration to Canada. He called from Cartier, Ontario where he was going to catch a freight train to finish his last leg of the trip to the Canadian Wilderness. He commented that the landscape was beautiful and very similar to Alaska without the mountains. He was excited that the temperatures were more comfortable than the sub-tropic heat to which we have grown accustomed!
The kids and I spent a few days visiting with Jason's parents in Asheboro where they have a farm with many animals. We really enjoyed the break from the road and low key visit was just what we needed! Many thanks to Ta-Ta and Grandy for our nice stay! The kids stayed busy feeding dogs, cats and horses with the grandparents while I planned our trip to Williamsburg and Washington DC. I loved watching the kids enjoy the outdoors a la farm style. We have spent so much time on the coast so they really are lucky to have the best of both worlds. Picking apples off the trees for the horses while the sun was setting in the afternoon was a real treat!

We also made time to visit the NC Zoo, situated only a couple of miles from the grandparents!! The natural surroundings that the NC Zoo Society has replicated for the various habitiats is astounding! The park is divided into continents and that makes it quite easy for children to remember the native land from which these creatures have come. The Australian Walkabout exhibit was a new addition since our last visit. Please enjoy some photos from the Zoo! I only took a few on our way out of the park so I didn't get a huge variety. We are on our way to Williamsburg in the morning!

Land Ho!

Jason is headed to Canada for a fishing trip with his dad. He is leaving for Buffalo at midnight tonight and is currently in Greensboro, NC. He will calculate the number of miles he will spend on the road but that will take awhile...he is going pretty deep into Canada!! The kids and I stopped off in Mount Pleasant to visit with some friends and are headed to NC to visit with family tomorrow. After that we will head to Washington DC and maybe Williamsburg if all goes well. More soon.....Thanks for checking back. We really love to hear when people have been visiting our site!

LOBSTERS DISCOVERED IN THE MOORING FIELD!

Yesterday afternoon, Cindy and the kids went searching once again for the elusive spiny lobster while Maximus took an afternoon nap. Maximus was awoken to the sounds of Hayley and Jack screaming that "Its Alive!" Sure enough, the dinghy arrived alongside shortly with a cargo of one lobster. The crew immediately sprang into action to measure its carapace and determine if it met the 3.5 inch keeper size. Unfortunately, this one was more like 3 inches. So back into the drink he went.

However, the discovery of one lobster led to a feverish search of all the rocky ledges around the bay and we found many more before the sun went down. These too, were a little too small to put into a bisque. We think the area around us has already been picked over well by the locals. At any rate, we'll keep trying.

Tomorrow we'll pick up our rental car and start our northward migration. First stop will be back at the little town of LaBelle, where we'll trade our rental car for our trusty Suburban. We'll be back into Mount Pleasant by Tuesday. From there, Maximus will be heading off to Canada for Walleye fishing while the rest of the crew visit family and begin school with some interesting field trips. We hope you'll continue to check the site to see what we're up to on our two week hiatus from the sailboat!

Lobster Hunting

So yesterday was the inaugural day of Lobster Hunting for us. We went to town and got our licenses, our net, our "lobster prodder" (a 3 foot long stick), and our lobster head measuring device. With all this gear in tow, we went back out to the mooring field and started searching for the spiny devils.

We learned one very important thing during this exercise. Lobster hunting is HARD! We didn't actually see a lobster. In fact, all we did was lose the lobster measuring tool. The lobster measuring tool is bright flourescent green. If I can't find that thing in the water (and I know just where I dropped it), then I don't think I'm ever going to find a lobster (perfectly cam0uflaged for its surroundings)! Oh well, it'll keep us busy anyway.

Snorkeling at Fort Zachary Taylor

Here are Hayley and Jack with the Sponge Monster that they found at the bottom of the sea. They fought long and hard with this guy and are happy to put him on display for all the tourists in Key West.

Yesterday we spent all day snorkeling at Fort Zachary Taylor. The kids climbed up on some rocks and searched for fish swimming in the holes below. Then they would jump in and work together to try to trap them in a crevice so they could observe them. We were worn out by the time we left late in the day. After we returned to the boat, we dined on a fabulous meal of Spam Quesadillas topped with Mango chutney. (Only a few of us, not Hayley and Cindy, relished the Spam part) Any takers for the recipe?

That evening, I decided to take the dinghy ashore with Hayley and get some chores done. We really can't keep ice for any length of time so in order to have a cold beverage, we had to make the trip. We had to make two stops. After the first stop, the dinghy engine started just fine. By the way, we left the boys back on the boat to give them a break. And, I guess you know where this is going...the second stop to fill our fresh water jerry jug went well until I tried to start the engine. Fortunately, I had the hand held VHF to let Jason and Jack know that we would be taking a little longer while we continued to try to start the engine. We had to just sit there and let the flooded engine dry out and after a small waiting period, we had success. I never was happier to smell the exhaust from that little 5 horsepower engine!

Another day in Paradise! We are off to enjoy the day!

Key West Adventures

Yesterday we spent the day at an offshore reef snorkeling at a Marine Sanctuary. We saw a variety of fish and had a great time staying cool in the water off Key West. Sand Key is one of the places where you can snorkel on North America's last live Coral Reefs. Among some of the fish we saw were: Parrotfish, barracuda, Blue Tangs and yellow tailed snapper.
We spent today trying to troubleshoot the website and had to begin all over again. However, we took a break to see Hemingway's House and the Mile Marker Zero. Everyone enjoyed seeing the beautiful Hemingway house and hearing the history of his life on the guided tour. The kids really enjoyed seeing the many 6 toed cats that still roam the property and are direct descendents of "Papa's" cats. Hayley is now reading "The Old Man and the Sea".

Sailing Synposis

After a short time in the work yard, sailing vessel Mariah is now back in the water and on her way again. Our port stays until now have included LaBelle, Cape Coral, Fort Meyers Beach and Key West. We hope you will enjoy some of the pictures we took along the way: Camel along the Okeechobee Waterway, Dolphins swimming along the bow of the boat, Catching fish in Florida Bay and snorkeling at Sand Key.

Cyberspace Blues

Hello all! We had some temporary problems with our website. We are going to take some time to publish pictures that we had featured....so, we are officially under construction and single handedly keeping the coffee shops with WiFi connections in business!