Days 80-84: April 7-11, 2023

When traveling on the Great Loop there are times you can’t or don’t want to boat to a location that you really want to see. In this case, it was Washington DC. Yes, you can boat there. However, we chose not to for a few reasons. The boating distance and time to get there would have added to many days to the schedule. And a bonus was we could get direct flights to Seattle for our upcoming planned trip back to Seattle. The plan included driving up, getting an Airbnb for a few nights, and checking out what DC has to offer.

National Mall

The first stop in DC was the National Mall area to check out the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and all the stuff in between. We used the Capital Bike Share, which turned out to be pretty convenient (our Airbnb was only about a mile and half away) and quite cost effective (was just $20 flat rate/person/month with unlimited rides). Below are pics of the Hodak family making their way past us at the Washington Monument.

Smithsonian Natural History

The next stop on Day 1 was the Natural History Museum. Lots of cool things to see! We especially like the ocean exhibit. 😉

National Zoo

On Day 2 while having morning coffee, the question came up of what we should do today. I grabbed the DC guidebook and said we’d do whatever I randomly selected. The random draw was the Smithsonian National Zoo. After a few minutes of discussion, we were off to the zoo. It was a great excursion and only line was for the pandas, of course. Pro tip: The lumpy blankets in the photo with the sign are the orangutans hiding for a nap!

Smithsonian Stamp Museum

On the Day 3 we decided to go check out Union Station. While walking over we got sidetracked by the Stamp Museum. That’s right! The Stamp Museum. Who could pass that up!?! It was on a whim though actually turned out to be surprisingly neat. Tonia found the Bugs Bunny stamp of which she still has an original – saved from the year Emily was born. Can you find the misprint stamps? We also could create our own Forever stamp and it surely would be a collector’s dream! We even mailed postcards from the post office there.

Union Station

Once we had our fill of stamps, we trekked next door to Union Station. Tonia had pictures of it from high school, so we were reliving her past trip. It has a cool design and houses lots of shops and places to grab grub on your way.

Dinners: Croatian restaurant & Easter dinner

During the trip we had a couple memorable dinners. One was at Amber Shaw, a restaurant that specializes in cuisine from Boris’ homeland of Croatia. It was a fun night trying the various dishes and listening to Boris converse with the restaurant manager. We were treated to

Another memorable dinner was for Easter. Tonia and I stopped by Safeway and picked up all the fixings for Easter dinner. We made due in the Airbnb and made our traditional ham with mashed potatoes and corn. Yum!

It’s all illusions

A fun stop was the Museum of Illusions. We enjoyed going thru the different rooms and seeing all the ways you can trick your brain. My favorite was a room that had a walkway in the middle and the sides spun around you. It really felt like you were going upside down. I couldn’t stay in there long though Tonia fared better in it.

Around DC Part 2

We decided to hit some of the areas we didn’t get to see on the previous days. We biked out to the Jefferson, FDR, and MLK Jr Memorials and took in other sites along our way to the White House.

DC at Night

On our final evening in DC, Mayli declared we were going to see the National Mall at night. We hopped on the bikes and were soon viewing the wonderful images of DC lit up. It’s a perspective not to miss!

Into the travel stats? Not to disappoint, here are the ground travel deets:

Car Trip Details:
217 Miles, 3.5 Hours
Atlantic Yacht Basin to Washington DC

Days 77-80: April 4-7, 2023

We departed Coinjock and traveled up to Chesapeake, Virginia. The trip up was pretty mild. We had two bridges that needed to be raised in our path. They are timed on the half hour so we had to pick up the pace in between so we could make it through without waiting.

We landed at the Atlantic Yacht Basin, the temporary home for Saga and Lil Sudden for the next month while we traveled to DC and Seattle. We chose this marina and boat yard so some work could be done on the boats. Lil Sudden had some preventative maintenance and Saga repaired the damage from Ocracoke. Both required haul outs so they were “on the hard” while we were away. Steve decided to stick with the original plan of Bennett’s Creak. I don’t blame him. $400 for a month’s moorage is hard to beat!

Once settled in, Barbara was nice and gave Steve and I both haircuts before rushing off with friends that were giving her a ride to the airport for her trip back to San Diego for a couple months. We know we’ll miss her scrumptious desserts, salads, and sparkling drinks!

Norfolk

The next day we headed into Norfolk to explore. The first stop was a St. Paul’s Episcopal Church with a cannon ball in one of its sides (the area points to the small circular orb stuck in the brick wall). We visited the MacArthur Memorial and then strolled around a bit seeing the city. We checked out the Taiwanese Pagoda and Oriental Garden on the waterfront in Freemason Harbor where there was a pond with BIG koi fish. We then made our way through the historic Ghent district with unique home architectures on our way to the Chrysler Museum of Art.

Chrysler Museum of Art

After everyone had their fill of walking around, we went to the Chrysler Museum of Art. This is a very cool place and highly recommend stopping. They have glass of all different kinds and from all locations. Amazing! There’s other art too, including an exhibit from Alaska that we recognized right away from our travels there a couple summers ago. Below are just a few highlights of art pieces we especially liked: a cool chess board with glass figurines, Tiffany glass windows, a standing glass chandelier lamp (told Tonia that would not be boat stable), an art restoration in progress, a “tapestry” of multicolored electronic wire over motherboards (my fave), and a hanging steel sculpture with a single lightbulb inside.

Glass blowing at the Perry Glass Studio

Tonia, Mayli, and Michael liked the Chrysler Museum so much they went back the next day to watch glass blowing demonstrations. They even got to watch Grace Whiteside, a contestant on the “Blown Away” glass blowing competition, make a piece in the Hot Shop for the performance art show that weekend. The narrator, Robin Rogers, was also a guest judge on the show. (We watched that full season over the upcoming week that followed!)

Big Pizza!

Meanwhile, the guys were checking out the local fare. The ultimate choice was Benny Damato’s. It was a great slice! We keep reminiscing about that pizza!

USS Wisconsin

After the pizza outing was over, we headed to the USS Wisconsin, a World War II Iowa-class battleship. It was in the Pacific during the war and took part in the Battle of Iwa Jima and Battle of Okinawa. It was in service long enough to be refitted with modern missiles and take part in Desert Storm. What we marveled at was how big it was, especially compared to the aircraft carriers we’d already toured this year.

Video Game Exhibit

The Nauticus museum also had a gaming exabit that went thru the progression of video games thru the ages. Tonia had to check out Tetris of course.

Amazing Glazed Donuts!

Close to the marina was a donut shop called Amazing Glazed. They made fresh donuts just like Pike Place market. The difference is they were then topped with glaze, chocolate, peanut butter (for those with Tonia’s taste buds) or pretty much whatever your heart desires. YUM!

Coda & The Great Bridge

On our last day in the Norfolk area, it was time to move Coda up to Bennett’s Creek. That required the Great Bridge Bridge (yes, that’s the full name) to be raised and a locking thru the Great Bridge Lock. It was about a 2.5-hour journey to get Coda settled in. Then I was picked up for our road trip to DC (to be continued in next post).

Day 77 Trip Details (April 04):
Waterlily, US to Atlantic Yacht Basin, Chesapeake, US
Time 4 h 47 m (09:17 to 14:04)
Distance: 31.67 nm

Day 76: April 3, 2023

The weather calmed down and it was time again to brave the shallow waters around Manteo. We made it out of the shallow channel with only a few “pucker up” moments. After that excitement, the rest of the day was a lazy cruise up to the Coinjock Marina.

This is another relax destination. We walked around the property and down the street a bit, though there just isn’t that much to see. We had a happy hour at the restaurant and then prepared for the night’s dining experience. Steve and I decided it was Hawaiian shirt night. We were the only ones that participated thou.

The marina at Coinjock is known for their restaurant and the restaurant is known for their prime rib. So, you know what we had for dinner! Ok, in full discloser I had the ribeye, which was still amazing, and Tonia had a seafood fare. The others had the prime rib.

Day 76 Trip Details (April 03):
Manteo, US to Waterlily, US
Time 5 h 11 m (08:00 to 13:12)
Distance: 37.04 nm

Days 73-75: March 31-April 2, 2023

Our final stop in the OBX (Outer Banks) was Manteo, a small town on Roanoke Island. We headed out for the day’s trip with a beautiful sunrise. The transit from Ocracoke to Manteo had some narrow channels and the entrance to Manteo basically required a hard ninety degree turn to get in but we navigated successfully and docked up at the Shallow Bag Bay Marina.

Festival Park

The town of Manteo is a nice tourist area. It has a small downtown area with shops and restaurants. Next to downtown they have the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse. It shows a great example of the historic lighthouses of the area. Also close to downtown is Festival Park. The park sports the Adventure Museum, an American Indian town, and a full-size reproduction of the Elizabeth II sailing ship. They tell the experience of what it would have been like for the early English explorers. The museum was pretty neat and showed a lot about the travels and adventures of the explorers. It also told the story of the missing Roanoke settlers—the ones that were to be left for a few months and were actually left for a couple years. What happened to those settlers is still a mystery today.

The ship was very cool to see. I don’t know how 50 people lived on a ship of that size crossing the Atlantic. We have enough angst just going out in the Atlantic up the coast for a few hours.

Axe Throwing

We found out that close by was a trampoline park that had an axe throwing range. After Michael was done bouncing off the walls, we tried throwing a few. It was a bit tricky getting the timing and distance figured out though after a while we got the hang of it.

The Christmas Shop

On one of the afternoons, Tonia and I walked about. During that walk we passed the Christmas Shop, we saw many interesting things in the window, from a whole two-story window of wind chimes and another window with a creepy doll peering out. We decided that we’d need to visit the next day when it opened.

We recruited Mayli and Barbara to join us, and we headed to the store the next morning. The shop has been open for over 50 years and during that time they kept expanding with new rooms and areas. There was so much to see. My favorite was the Bob Ross ornaments! Tonia was partial to Who-ville.

The Christmas Shop had pretty much any kind of ornament you could every think of and much, much more. While shopping the General Store area with lots of food stuffs and candies, we hit up the wine section where they were doing free tastings and, well, couldn’t pass that up. Found a cool mini keg on the sale rack that passed muster.

There was even a Halloween section, where we found the creepy doll window from above spotted the day before. It sported many scary items and was fun, except Tonia said she’d have nightmares. We did think of a couple friends (Jamee and Paula) that would have really enjoyed this part though.

Elizabethan Gardens

The girls did a thing at the place! Okay…time for Tonia to chime in here…

Mayli really wanted to check out the gardens at the north end of the island. The kids and guys were less keen so she grabbed Tonia and Barbara to check it out. While it was still early in the season for some blooms, it was still quite pretty and a lovely little getaway.

Just outside the gardens was the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site where there was a well-detailed museum and there was also The Lost City theatre.

Day 73 Trip Details (March 31):
Silver Lake Marina, Ocracoke, US to Manteo, US
Time 7 h 48 m (06:34 to 14:22)
Distance: 58.23 nm