Smith Creek
21 May 2014 | Miles = 357
Stephen
The National Portrait Gallery is very interesting. Its purpose is to document the true appearance of all of the presidents, as well as other prominent Americans. No landscapes, very few abstracts, and most portraits done during the subjects lifetime.
We had not previously visited the FDR Memorial, and found it to be very moving. Our visit to Hyde Park last year added a lot to the background.
Sunday we visited the U.S. Botanic Garden and Conservatory, established by Congress over 150 years ago to collect and document plants from all over the world.
The central location of the Capital Yacht Club has been very convenient for visiting the sites in DC, and the staff has been very helpful and friendly. We departed at 0800 Monday and had an uneventful trip down river. There was a tremendous amount of debris in the water requiring constant attention. The good part was a very helpful boost from the continued down river current due to last weeks rains.
Since we were making such good time we decided to continue on to St. Clements Bay where we anchored in Canoe Neck Creek for a clear quiet night. The major event was that about 3 trillion gnats descended on the boat, making me very glad that I had put the screens up before we left Pleasure Cove.
From St. Clements we came a short distance further down the Potomac to Smith Creek where we anchored in a small isolated cove. It was nice to have no other boats around and to be surrounded by trees. No gnats!
We have enjoyed kayaking and touring the creek in the dinghy spotting wildlife (osprey, large rays on the bottom, and I even saw what I thought was a river otter). Tomorrow we will cross the bay to Crisfield.