Tag Archives: Maryland

Crab, a boat ride and a beautiful sunset….yeah we’re good!

July 28, 2014TourismCantlers, Maryland, Ridout Creek, Whitehall BayDiana

We left Annapolis, which has turned into our home base this summer, to go less than an hour to Ridout Creek in Whitehall Bay. We were visiting our friends Kirk and Donna who were staying at a friend’s dock. This is yet another idyllic creek with gorgeous houses around it. But the difference here is that their friend had a power boat! So, the six of us took off on the boat to head to Cantlers for some Maryland crab!

Arriving at Cantlers

Enjoying the crab in some of that delicious Old Bay Seasoning

After dinner we took a fun boat ride through some of the nearby creeks and enjoyed a gorgeous sunset!

Relaxing with friends in Shaw Bay

July 27, 2014TourismEast Wye RIver, Eastern Shore, Maryland, Shaw BayDiana

We spent 3 nights tucked away in Shaw Bay on the Eastern Shore. The trip was organized by some friends who usually stay in Annapolis. We all ate together and there was so much food to go around! It was nice to go somewhere to relax and enjoy the good company.

Gail on the ATA Marie.

There was nothing around except some big fancy houses and grass and trees, but our dinghy could go fast and we zoomed around for a while!

And there was a beach there! Stanley had gotten used to running and playing on the beaches in the Caribbean and the Bahamas so he was happy to relive that experience!

Harness Creek

July 26, 2014TourismHarness Creek, MarylandDiana

Harness Creek is a nice little spot about an hour by water from Annapolis. It’s off the South River and there are lots of pretty houses to look at and a nice park to go walk around in.

We rode our dinghy around to check out the creek.

And walked Stanley in the park. They even have a dog park where he made a new friend!

And spied Ryana through the trees from the park!

And we took the kayaks out to explore! This was such a nice relaxing place.

All dressed up for America’s birthday

July 25, 2014Uncategorized4th of July, Annapolis, MarylandDiana

To celebrate the 4th of July Ryan got the boat all dressed up with our signal flags. Here she is looking good.

And after a fun bbq with friends we watched the fireworks from our boat with some other friends. Kaboom!

The Eastern Shore

July 24, 2014TourismChesapeake Bay, Cox Creek, Eastern Shore, MarylandDiana

We were lucky to be invited to share the dock at the house of our friends brother in Cox Creek. We spent one night there enjoying their hospitality and took a fun walk around the neighborhood. I think that seeing this beautiful house and neighborhood was the highlight of the trip for Ryan’s Mom!

At the dock and looking up at the house:

We took a fun walk around the neighborhood with our friend Kirk. It used to be an old plantation that is now broken up into a few parcels for houses. There is still co-op farming done on the land and we met the farm manager Mr. Fred. He gave me a start when he saw a fly on me and smacked it away, but as he said “that’s how we do it around here.” LOL. What a fun time! And we are continually amazed by the hospitality shown by folks in these parts. But, I guess ,that’s just how they do it around here.

A quick trip to St Michaels

July 23, 2014TourismBistro St Michaels, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Maryland, St MichaelsDiana

After visiting Washington DC we took the boat over to St Michaels which is a delightful town on the Eastern Shore. Ryan and I had never been there so were excited to visit somewhere new. The harbor has plenty of room for anchoring and the town is very cute. We pulled our dinghy in next to the Crab Claw restaurant and maritime museum.

We had a great time and wandered around town.

And then had an amazing dinner at the Bistro restaurant. Chuck’s comment was that this was the first time in 30 years that Cindy had eaten her whole dinner. I just wished we had gotten a picture of the empty plate!!

The next morning we visited the maritime museum. It has an old lighthouse that you can tour and a lot of old boats and exhibits about the Chesapeake Bay. We spent about 4 hours enjoying all the sights!

They even have some tools for you to catch oysters! St Michaels was a fun place I’m sure we’ll visit again!

After the rain http://t.co/L8KQW1f7Tk

Back in Annapolis!

June 15, 2014TourismAnnapolis, Maryland, Naval AcademyDiana

After a few stops as we made our way up the Chesapeake we were finally back in Annapolis! Annapolis is such a fun town. We took up residence on a mooring ball behind the bridge on Spa Creek and settled in. Ryan was going to school for his Captain’s License for 2 weeks and I had some free time on my hands. Luckily for me our friend Cynthia made a surprise visit and kept me company for a few days while Ryan was in class.

I took Cynthia on a tour of all the Annapolis attractions…

The Capitol

The Naval Academy

The Happy Hours

Ryan joined us or a Sunday afternoon at Pussers. Always a fun experience people watching. 🙂

Bonus picture of Ryan with his diploma from Captain’s School. Yay! So proud of him!

Bonus Stanley picture of Stanley being weird and sitting in the window.

Visit with my Mom and Kay – Baltimore

October 29, 2013TourismBaltimore, Baltimore Aquarium, Constellation, MarylandDiana

My Mom (Sally) and her friend from the library Kay came out to visit in early October. This is the continued saga of our adventures… 🙂

We spent a couple of days in Baltimore checking out the sights and enjoying the beautiful weather. First stop on our itinerary was the Baltimore Aquarium. My Mom had heard this was one of the best aquariums in the US! We went in and first thing you go on this tour up through one of the building enjoying all kinds of fish as you go up these escalators and then walk through each level. It’s a pretty cool building as well as having lots of interesting fish and animals to look at.

They also had dolphins there and we got to watch a dolphin training show!

The Baltimore waterfront is actually quite nice and we spent some time walking around. There are also a number of old ships that you can tour. We did a tour of the tall ship the Constellation. We were given an audio tour and were able to visit all four decks of the ship. It was interesting to see how the sailors lived aboard!

My Mom steering the ship.

Ring Ring! All hands on deck!

Kay sporting her new Baltimore Aquarium shirt!

We were able to get a birds eye view of the Baltimore harbor by going up in their trade center. That was fun to be able to see out over the whole city.

Since there wasn’t much going on in D.C. at this time (thank you government shutdown :S ) we spent another day in Baltimore touring the sites. This time we stopped at the Conservatory of Flowers. We have a wonderful conservatory in Golden Gate Park in SF that I have fond memories of going to with my family so this was a fun stop. We took in the flowers and different climate rooms they had. They even had a lovely orchid room! I wish I could keep orchids but I have a purple thumb!

The Conservatory from outside

Enjoying the pretty gardens

Orchid room!

We also were able to visit the Baltimore Museum of Art. They have some very nice exhibits; we all agreed we like the classic paintings the best!

Art!

After driving around some trying to find some lunch we finally found a great french bistro in one of the picturesque neighborhoods. They had beautiful churches nearby and a huge monument to George Washington. They also had a very good museum that we visited. They had a lot of information on the civil war and how Maryland was divided between the north and south.

After another fun filled day we returned to our home base in Annapolis. Dinners on the boat were fun and we were able to relax and enjoy the ambiance.

Goings on in Worton Creek

June 17, 2013TourismMaryland, Worton CreekDiana

Our first stop post Annapolis is Worton Creek. It’s a nice change of pace to be somewhere quiet, pretty and rural. There are a few marinas down the creek but no town to speak of. We were told by a couple we met, Paul & Monica, that Worton Creek was chill and beautiful and they weren’t wrong! They also told us to avoid a nearby creek that is a power boat playground. We realized what good advice that was when we met several sailboats who had been there and escaped to Worton Creek for some peace!

So, with no distractions we settled in for a few days of chores and exploring. We took a dingy ride around enjoying the area and stopped on the beach to walk Stanley. There were several other boats out enjoying the day with kids swimming and kayaking.

Stanley shading his head

The “Beach”

Looking for a spot to lay out the beach towel.

We also had our hearts beating a little faster watching a tiny float plane come in for a landing on the water. It looked like they were headed full speed for the shore! They made it just fine but Ryan was ready to gun it and go over to pull people from the wreckage!

Float plane

Since we had some quiet time we decided to get some exercise too. I pumped up the inflatable paddle board and took a few turns on that. We had seen several people in Annapolis take their dog on their paddle board so we decided to try it with Stanley. I thought for sure he would knock us off and we’d go swimming. It turns out that if he sits still the board feels more stable! There were a few hairy moments when Stanley decided to walk between my legs to check out the back of the board but it was so calm we were fine. Stanley actually liked the paddle board and so when Ryan took a turn he jumped right on with him too! We now have a new way to take the dog for a “walk”!! 🙂

Taking Stanley for his walk.

This is so fun!!

Ryan gets in on the action.

It was so nice and calm here we really relaxed and enjoyed the area. We met some folks who were on two Island Cats, which are really different looking catamarans. They were taking a three week trip through the Chesapeake recreating a trip they read about in a book from the 1800s! They planned to write a book of their voyage and compare it to the original trip. Pretty cool stuff and interesting folks.

Relax…

Oh, and while we were there this happened….

VAMPIRE DOGGIE!!!

The Voyage of Ryana

Ryan, Diana and Stanley explore the world Western Atlantic by boat