Presidential welcome to DC
18 June 2007 | Washington DC
Lisa & Dave
Very cool... Today we were visiting the Washington Monument when a bunch of Secret Service Agents requested us to leave the immediate area. After about an hour wait we witnessed the president's helicopter landing on the lawn. As you can see, we got a picture of him waving. There were several folks in the crowd that were extremely disrespectful towards our President . I told the kids that not everyone agrees with the President, but the position is a position of honor and should be respected. If we don't like what he is doing, don't vote for him. Sticking up your middle finger takes away from your credibility even if you are free to do so.
We have been very busy moving north and have not had much time to update our blog. I will try and catch you all up. We have just arrived in Washington, D.C. and will spend a week touring the nations capitol. In the last two weeks, we have covered a lot of ground. First we met up with our friends Beach Magic(BM) in Beaufort, N.C. where we spent a couple of days provisioning and picking up our mail. On the 5th, we departed Beaufort with BM and headed for Oriental, N.C. where we spent two fun days. What a great little boating community. We spent two days on a dock with access to hot showers (we have hot showers on the boat, but still need to refrain from taking 20 minute showers) and a pool. We enjoyed a great dinner out with BM to celebrate Norman's and Max's birthdays. From there, we moved onto the outer banks and a town called Ocracoke, which lies about 20 miles south of Cape Hatteras. Another beautiful spot, which is well- known for it's great sport fishing. With easy access to the deep waters of the Atlantic, recreational fishing boats are everywhere. It continues to amaze me how much money there is out there. The following day we moved north along the outer banks and headed to Manteo, which is located on Roanoke Island. We spent a couple days here enjoying what this beautiful town had to offer. The kids enjoyed some bridge jumping until they spotted a water snake just below them. Lisa did some research and believes it was not a cottonmouth. But, they got out of the just in case her research was wrong. Next it was up the ICW and onto Norfolk, VA. While there, we caught the last day of the Tall Ships. They were magnificent. Especially at night when they strung their lights. Our stay in Norfolk was cut short when a North East front was predicted with winds running 15-20 knots. You don't want to be heading up the Chesapeake with winds out of the N or NE. So we departed earlier than expected prior to the front and ran the 70 miles up the bay to the Potomac prior to the front hitting. When the front came, we sailed the first 50 miles up the Potomac before the winds died. The next two days, we motored slowly up the river to DC fighting a 1.5 knot current the entire way. I was surprised how desolate the Potomac was with very little development or life of any kind. We finally made it to DC on the 16th where we expect to spend the next week. With the temperature forecasted to hit 95 degrees for the next three days, we are starting to think we should have stopped here back in October when we were heading south.