Category Archives: Maryland

The Washington Memorial in Baltimore, MD

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Tuesday, August 25 — We were heading back to San Diego soon, so we spent the morning and early afternoon doing chores and getting things ready to go. Keith also continued tightening screws around the boat. Eric ran the engines.

In the mid-afternoon, we wanted to go out, but nothing sounded good. There were still a few museums on the “to do” list, but none of us felt like going to a museum. We finally agreed on the Washington Memorial solely because we wanted to walk around, and we liked the idea of seeing the historic “wealthy” part of town. When we arrived, we were kind of surprised to see the Washington Memorial was in a roundabout in the middle of an intersection.

We found street parking easily just south of the monument. Here the meter was only $2.50 per hour, also with a four-hour limit. Each of the four streets feeding into the intersection had a park in their median. The monument plus the four parks together was called Mt. Vernon Place. Here were some shots of the park that we walked through on our approach to the monument.

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The Wharf in Washington DC

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continued… At this point, we were all hungry. Eric checked the map app and saw there was nothing other than snack stands in close walking distance. We continued on the loop, which became muddy and overgrown.

Near where we’d parked, the walking trail had been a little uneven, indicating that the sea wall had settled. Near the George Mason Memorial, the walking trail had actually been fenced off, with construction equipment behind the fence. A sign had said that the Tidal Basin and Potomac parks were created in the 1880s as part of a land reclamation project. The sea wall had deteriorated, and they were in the process of restoring the wall. There were quite a few geese on this side.

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Keith’s Perspective on Our Second Week in Baltimore/Le point de vue de Keith sur notre deuxième semaine à Baltimore

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This week has been fun. On Saturday, we went to a tower where they made musket balls during the war with our friends from the Bahamas, Parabola, but it was closed. Instead we went to museum about the American flag. After the museum, we went to lunch at a really weird, but good brunch restaurant. After lunch, they came back to the boat and we played board games. 

Cette semaine était amusante. Samedi nous sommes allés voir une tour où il créaient des balles de mousquet pendant le guerre avec nos amis des Bahamas, Parabola, mais c’était fermé. À la place nous sommes allés à un musée sur le drapeau Américain. Après le musée nous avons mangé à un, très étrange, mais très bon restaurant. Après le déjeuner, nous sommes retournés au bateau et avons joué à des jeux. 

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Bethesda, Stinky Dead Fish, and DC Memorials

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Friday, August 22 continued… Since it was rush hour, we decided to avoid highway traffic and take the scenic route back to Baltimore. The areas we drove through were high-end and beautiful. When we mentioned stopping for dinner, we were not far from downtown Bethesda, Maryland (a suburb of Washington, DC), so we decided to go there for dinner. It seemed like a good idea because the map showed a large concentration of restaurants. But when we arrived, we realized it was “the” place to be on a Friday night and was packed.

We did a lot of driving around before we found a parking spot. We didn’t write down how much the parking was, but if we recall correctly, it was about $2.50 an hour and was limited to one hour. Given the time constraints, we started jogging up and down the streets to find a place where we could get a fast meal that wasn’t fast food. We did see a parking garage and considered moving the car so we had more time for dinner, but we decided that, since it was getting late, it was probably best to just get a quick meal.

We settled on a place called Luke’s Lobster that was inside an interesting mixed use complex. We suspected that they took two blocks of old buildings, joined them, and turned what used to be the street between them into a pedestrian mall.

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The Great Fish Die Off and The Chesapeake and Ohio (C & O) Canal National Monument, Maryland

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Friday, August 22 — As predicted, the hurricane passed on Wednesday night/Thursday early morning with little effect on Baltimore. Conditions were more severe in Norfolk, so we were glad we’d moved. Yesterday was another cool day, with 10-knots of sustained wind with occasional gusts in high teens, no rain, and temperatures in the 60s. 

Yesterday morning, the alternator belt that Eric had ordered arrived, and he installed it right away. The one he’d ordered was 1/2″ less in diameter than the belts he’d been using, and he was pleased to see that it was a perfect fit! There was just enough room left for adjustment. He also ran main engine and cleaned one of the sea strainers. Surprisingly, it was clean. We were worried they’d be muddy and full of creatures like they’d been in Little Creek.

In the early afternoon, we went to Sprouts, which we knew had some particular items we wanted to stock up on, and then to Target for a more general stock up. In the evening, we had dinner an Italian restaurant in the neighborhood called Verde. They had Napolese style pizza, which was our preferred type of pizza. The cheese was made in house, and it was amazing.

This morning, we walked up to a foul odor. There were thousands of small dead fish floating in the bay!

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