Our niece, Jenny Turner came up from Dallas to visit us, and while she was here we wanted to take her sailing. So, with Jenny safely tucked on board "Two Sheets" and all of our gear stowed away, we headed out of Bay Creek and made straight for Tidewater Yacht Center in Portsmouth early Friday morning. While there were thunderstorms all around us, we had a beautiful weather window for crossing the bay! Jen was ensconced on the forward trampoline reading, sleeping and catching the rays. Jim was at the helm and I was in the cockpit catching up on my reading. It took us most of the day to reach Tidewater Yacht, and the majority of the day it was beautiful. However, once we reached the mouth of the Elizabeth River the weather turned and we had a light rain.

After docking and freshing up a bit we decided to brave the torrential downpour that hit while we were down below decks, and grab dinner up at "The Deck" restaurant. While the food was pleasant, it certainly was not a place I would recommend for anything other than drinks and appetizers.

Saturday morning was gray and dismal, and knowing Jenny wanted to shop, we all walked a couple of blocks down and caught the water ferry across the river to Norfolk where we walked about 3 1/2 blocks back to Macarthur Mall. We decided to eat some lunch, so it was off to Johnny Rockets and then to see the movie "G.I. Joe". Following the movie, Jenny wanted to go shopping at "Forever 21", so off we went in one direction, and Jim in another. Jenny did so well - she got all of her shopping done in about 1 1/2 hours!

Jim's brother Hanse and his family met us for dinner, and then we headed back to the boat with all of Jenny's shopping "booty" in tow! Dan Peterson, a friend of Jim's, came down to the boat that evening and joined us for a glass of wine and tour of the boat - one of the advantages of bringing the boat over to "our side" of the bay!

Sunday morning dawned clear, and with a nice breeze blowing down the Elizabeth River - a perfect day for sailing home! So we got our gear in place and headed home! The wind was great until we were about 10 miles from Cape Charles and then it died down to nothing - not even a cat's paw of wind on the water! So it was time to turn on the "iron spinnaker" and make tracks for home!

We stayed pierside Sunday night, and on Monday Jim putzed about the boat, putting in the first 2 reef points on our mainsail. Jenny and I spent the morning lounging by the pool and relaxing. All in all, we had a very chill, very relaxing weekend!