Cape May, New Jersey

We are here at the southern end of New Jersey at Cape May.  Cape May is a beach resort for people from all over.  It's also where we depart from to head out into the Atlantic Ocean and go North to New York.  There is an Inter coastal route from here but after super storm Sandy most of it is shallow and not recommended.  Weather and wave conditions are our focus for now and it looks like maybe on Friday we will be leaving and stopping at Atlantic City for a couple of days.  Jan and I got on the ole bikes and headed into the town yesterday, had breakfast and did a trolley ride that described all the different Victorian houses that are here.  Cape May has the largest consentration of Victorian homes other than San Francisco.  We also toured a home from the late 1800's owned by a rich doctor called the Emlen Physick Estate.  At the time it cost $15,000 to build.  So far we are enjoying Cape May and are going out to dinner tonight at The Lobster House that is right next door to the marina.

Traffic on Delaware Bay, 

Ship John Shoal Lighthouse

Ferry goes between Cape May NJ and Lewes DE

Some of the Cape May inlet

Utsch's Marina

Memorial Day

Take a carriage ride if you prefer

Washington Street Mall

A place to sit and relax

St Mary's Catholic Church circa 1911

Only two bathrooms

On to Delaware City

We left around 8:30 am for Delaware City and the weather called for small craft warnings but I decided leaving a little later we would hit the wind as it calmed down.  We did get some wind spray on the boat but as we continued on it became like glass and was a great ride.  Navigator caught up with us just before entering the C&D canal.  When you go to Delaware Bay you have to go through the C&D canal.  This is a canal built to connect the top of Chesapeake Bay to the Delaware Bay, thus C for Chesapeake and D for Delaware Bay.  We arrived at Delaware City around 4:00pm and stayed on the boat for the night before leaving the next mooring for Cape May New Jersey.  I thought that it was interesting we left Maryland ended up in Delaware and the next day we were in New Jersey.  I know by car that is no big deal, but when you are going 10 mph it is a big deal.  We didn't go into town in Delaware City because we just were tired and wanted to get up early the next day for a favorable weather window down Delaware Bay to Cape May.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Turkey Point Lighthouse

Entering the C&D Canal

Chesapeake City Bridge on the C&D

Summit Bridge on the C&D Canal

Leaving Delaware City

Bye Bye!

Still at Annapolis for a Couple More Days

Thought we were going to leave for Delaware, but woke in the morning and the wind was blowing and decided to stay a couple more days in Annapolis.  Things could be worse, right?  Tom and I took the opportunity to visit and tour the Naval Academy.  It's unbelievable what a midshipmen goes through and the requirements to even attend such an acclaimed and respected institution.  We just happen to be here during graduation week.  Unfortunately when we went to DC we missed the two days that the blue angels flew over Annapolis.  I don't know if I'm repeating myself but, I could live here.  The second day we rented a car again and drove to Baltimore.  We were going to go there by boat but with the delays with weather we decided to bypass Baltimore and head to Delaware City.  A good thing about the delay was that Al and Marianne came to visit Chloe and us on our last day.

Captains row where the rank of captain for Navy or Marine lives

This is where the Superintendent (Dean) of the campus lives.  Three star Admiral.

Cathedral on the campus was closed for a wedding

We did get to see the crypt of John Paul Jones.  You need to Google the bio of this famous man.

This is the bust of John Paul Jones, which is actually a death mask.

Olympic pool that all Midshipmen have to swim a half mile with their uniform and jump off a 30 meter platform

Bancroft Hall, the largest dorm in the world, all 4500 Midshipmen live here 

Walking into the front door

Dedicated to the Alumni who died in service

Cool chandieliers in Bancroft Hall 

Can't really remember but the graduating class had fun

Baltimore

USS Constellation

Baltimore Harbor walk

Old Coast Guard ship

Cool dolphin art

Fort McHenry, the birth of the Star Spangler Banner.  Look at the flag carefully and see how it has changed

God bless America!

New friends forever, you made our stay special.

Tom, Jan, Jan, and me in Baltimore

I don't know, there was this hand coming out of the building

Washington DC

So while we are here in Annapolis, Tom and Jan from Navigator and we rented a car for three days so we could go to DC and check out our nations capitol.  We drove to the metro line and took the train into DC.  Good thing, because their is not many parking options with a car.  The train stop we chose was the Smithsonian stop which put us right in the middle of all the nations museums and memorials.    None of us had ever been here and it was a really emotional and great feeling to be an American.  The one thing I really like about the East Coast is the history.  Granted, it has mostly been about war and growing into the nation we have become, but there is no where else I would want to be than here.

Jefferson Memorial

Jefferson himself

Lincoln Memorial

Looking down from the Lincoln Memorial

Proof that we were here

FDR Memorial

Don't we all

There is soooo much more to see

MLK Memorial

Korean War Memorial, Korean Vets were there at the time, 

This was etched or not sure how but really emotional at the Korean Memorial

You can say that again!

I too am a Vietnam Vet but did not endure what these men went through.

Went to school with Steven

World War II Memorial.

The next day we did the same thing to get here, but had to go to at least to one of the Smithsonian museums.  We chose the American History Museum.   I need to add at the time it was the end of the school year and a million elementry school kids were everywhere.  Needless to say when we tried to get into the space and aerospace musem the line was out the door, but hey, I did see some really cool things.

Our house

First Apple computer

Ruby shoes in Wizard of Oz.  In the book the shoes were silver.

Happy Trails to you.