Potomac River

The advice of many was: "Don't do the Potomac!"  The reasoning that Washington, DC, is 100 miles up the river, then requiring a return by the same route 100 miles back, makes a good argument.  Our Land-Bound-Friends may think a 100 miles is a short jaunt, but at 7,5  miles an hour, and less with an unfavorable current, a trip of that length requires serious consideration.  The advice was appreciated, but the decision was to cruise the Potomac River to Washington, DC.  It proved to be a good decision as the river has some interesting places to visit along the way.

The Potomac River divides Maryland and Virginia in an interesting way -- all the water is in Maryland and the Virginia border is defined by the water's edge.  The term "separates" may be more appropriate as the river keeps the people of each state apart since the last 96 miles of the river, from the Chesapeake Bay to Alexandra, VA, is spanned by only one bridge.

On the northern shore, up the St. Mary's River, is a college by the same name.  St. Mary's College is a boating college, friendly to cruising boaters.  The College is a State of Maryland College, designated as their Honors College.  The athletic programs focus on the water with intercollegiate crew and sailing teams.  The waterfront center has over 40 sailboats and as many kayaks on the docks and the beaches.

St. Mary's College allows cruising boaters to tie up to their dock for a short period and to join them for dinner in the student center.  The variety, quantity, and quality of food are more than one would expect at a college.  There are at least 12 different food stations, some staffed with chefs who prepare your request to order.  Then, the Commons, where students eat their meals, is beautiful.  The photo of the Commons below is included to provide guidance to St. Johns River State College as they work toward building a new, more adequate student center at the St. Augustine Campus.

The women's crew team walks their racing shell to the water and practices with their coach observing.

Last Dance shared a dock with some of the College's sailboat fleet.

Colonial Beach, VA, is located on the southern shore of the Potomac, farther up the Potomac.

The city hall has only one parking place and it is reserved for the mayor, who was not using his spot.

Colonial Beach is a weekend resort town, filled with cottages from an earlier era.  It appears that little has changed in decades.  The architecture is interesting, with many Victorian cottages throughout the town.

Alexander Graham Bell's cottage has been converted into a bed and breakfast, the  only one observed in town.

Visitors without their own cottage are served by 1950's motels, reminiscent of the Florida beach motels that have disappeared to provide space for big condominiums.  Doc's still has a sand parking lot that was common of west Florida motels of that time period.

There is a beach at Colonial Beach, located on the Potomac River.

And, streets devoid of traffic making it a perfect spot to unload the bikes and tour the town safely while pedaling.






















Last Dance was tied to the dock at Nightingale's Motel and Marina, a six unit motel with a dock on Monroe Bay, which with the Potomac River, boarder the skinny, four-street wide penninsula of the southern half of town.  Monroe Bay provides a protected, albeit shallow, spot for boats.

The owner's house is located right at the motel/marina.  Marine radio is not monitored, so you must contact them by phone.   The instructions received when we called were:  "We will not be here when you arrive.  Just pick a slip or the T-head, and we will see you later in the day."  This is a laid-back kind of place.  The only disappointment with the Nightingales, was that they did not accept the suggestion that their 1958 Corvette should be the courtesy car for transient boaters.

The Lighthouse Restaurant is located next to Nightingales.  The exterior did not suggest that outstanding dinning experiences were contained within.   However, it was given a try and resulted in another restaurant recommendation.  The cream of crab soup and the crab cakes were the best sampled  in the Chesapeake Bay.

As documented in an earlier post, Nightingale's was the spot where Last Dance experienced snow for the first time -- a bit of winter reminding everyone why they look forward to spring.







There are interesting places and people along the Potomac River.  It is a place that adds to the journey.

Washington, DC: Facts, Remembered, Memorialized

Monuments have been constructed along the National Mall to remind us of important people and events in our history.  They do bring one closer to a historical person or event.  Some are placed so that they may be seen from many vantage points.  And, all seem more spectacular when viewed among the cherry blossoms.

Washington Monument across the Tidal Basin

Washington Monument from the FDR Memorial

Jefferson Memorial across the Tidal Basin

Jefferson Memorial from the National Mall near the Washington Monument

When one stands in the larger-than-life presence of a Thomas Jefferson, and is reminded of the words he spoke to explain his philosophy, the wisdom applied to the struggles of the time becomes clear.

When one stands before the Lincoln statue, the reminders of his devotion to equality and the challenges he faced reverberate throughout the body and soul.  One is also reminded of others who have stood on the steps in front of this statue.

The Vietnam Wall created an atmosphere that could be felt as people silently walk along the wall looking at the 58,267 names of those who died in this war.

The black granite is highly polished, bringing the reflection of the viewer into the wall surface, making them a part of the memorial.

This monument is personal to many who visit.  They trace the names of loved ones and friends lost in this war.

Near the wall is a sculpture commemorating women’s role in the Vietnam War.

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt monument is one of the more recent and uses different strategies to communicate with the viewer.  There is an area for each of his four presidential terms with various depictions of the era.  There is a water feature that may signify turbulent or calm times.  There are sculptures of people of the time and quotes from the President’s speeches.  The below sculpture of men standing in a bread line during the depression next to a related FDR quote seems to still relate today.  It would be good if our elected representative up the hill would walk down and read this quote daily.  Maybe their decisions would be more compassionate.

Washington, DC: Facts, Old, Collected, Displayed

History has been an important aspect of this journey with much of our country's history being made along the waterways.  Washington, DC, is where history has been collected and displayed for all to see.  To keep the alliteration theme continuing, Old Collected and Displayed Facts was selected for a title.

People often talk about the Smithsonian Museum as if it is one museum.  The Smithsonian Institution is one organization, but the museum is actually 19 museums, many too large to see in a day.  The collection is amazingly large with so much history being demonstrated with the actual items.  The American History Museum items ranged from the Hope Diamond to Julia Child's kitchen.

Even if the items are very large, they find a way to display them so you can get up close and personal.

This Wright Brothers plane is a replica, but the other planes are the actual plane that made history, including the Spirit of St. Louis that was the first plane to cross the Atlantic nonstop, and Bert Rutan's Voyager, the first plane to fly around the world nonstop.  Did you know that Orville Write built a wind tunnel to test wing designs?  Or, that the upper wing surface shape he developed is very close to the shape used today?  Or, that he was the first to use aluminum in internal combustion engine construction?  His calculations indicated that he needed 12 horsepower to fly the plane, which in those early days of engine design required a 4 cylinder engine.  The engine manufactured for him weighed too much, so he took it back and had the manufacturer cast the crankcase in aluminum.  History is more exciting when you can actually see it.

Aircraft were the field of technology in the early 20th century, with many different ideas and techniques tried by inventors around the world.  Above is a French radial engine with the plane designed for it.  The idea tried here was not to mount the propeller to the crankshaft, they mounted the crankshaft to the plane and had the cylinders spin with the propeller.   With all that weight spinning it acted as a gyroscope.  When the pilots would try to make the plane turn, it would just go straight.

For the defense effort in World War I, Packard designed an airplane engine known as the Liberty Engine.  The first version was a V-8 producing 330 horsepower, but it vibrated too much.  The engine was expanded to a V-12, producing 400 horsepower, powering over 10,000 planes during the war.  Airplane engines had moved from 12 hp to 400 hp in only 14 years.

During World War II, Rolls Royce continued development of their Merlin V-12 engine designed in 1930 and increased its horsepower output from 1000 hp to 2200 hp, an exponential jump in technology from the Wright brothers 12 hp in only 42 years.  Then, engineers realized that reciprocating engines, with pistons moving up and down, valves doing the same, was inefficient.  The idea of a rotary engine, with all the moving parts spinning smoothly, was explored, with success.  Today, we call those rotary airplane engines jets, and the development of high horsepower piston engines ceased.  Much detail, but it demonstrates the level examples displayed that makes history come to life.  A very, very tiny piece of just one museum, the Air and Space Museum,

For my good friend, Andy, a picture of his favorite American WWII warplane, the P51 Mustang, had to be included in this history segment.

As you walk around Washington visiting the many museums and sights, you never know who you might run into.  It is a place where many well-known people live and work.  Strike up a conversation and they might invite you over to the house.

OK, OK, I cannot take credit for the above photos; they are images of photos.  The National Geographic Society has a museum also, displaying many great photos that have appeared in their magazine.

Photography captures history and, when done well, is art.  Photos can capture emotion and give events of history a recorded image to save forever that moment in time.


Speaking of art, the Smithsonian museums include the National Gallery of Art and the National Portrait Gallery.

The National Gallery of Art includes original artwork from around the world, spanning many centuries.  The last painting is by Martin Johnson Heade and is included because it probably was painted in St. Augustine.  Heade was one of the artists that took advantage of Henry Flagler's hospitality, staying the winter season in a building constructed to provide studios for artists at the Ponce de Leon Hotel, among the buildings now housing Flagler College.  While in St. Augustine, Heade painted still lifes of southern flowers, particularly magnolia blossoms, and landscapes of salt marshes.

















The Smithsonian has another huge gallery devoted to portraits.

Sculpture is displayed both inside museums and at outside galleries.

The sculpture at right, Monkeys Grasp for the Moon (1), is 4 stories tall, hanging from the skylight to a reflecting pool, at the Shakler Gallery.

American sculptor, Roxy Paine, created a 45 foot high Dendroid, a tree-like sculpture, displayed in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Gardens.

A very small, narrow touch of the history on display in Washington, DC.  To have any level of appreciation of the collections and the breadth of topics, one must experience it personally.


(1)  The Chinese saying, "monkeys grasp for the moon" is based on a folktale about monkeys who try to capture the moon's reflection in a pool of water.  Linking arms and tail to form a chain, they reach down from a tree branch to touch the moon's form as it shimmers on the water's surface.  To their dismay, the moon vanishes at the very moment they grasp it.  The moral of the story: Those things we work hardest to achieve may prove to be naught but illusion.

Monkeys Grasp for the Moon is an installation of word shapes, each one a representation of the word "monkey" rendered in twenty-one languages and writing systems including Chinese, Japanese, English, Thai, and Braille.  The words resemble monkeys, stretched at the beginning and end to form long tails and arms that link together, reaching from the skylight above to the floor far below, where the final monkey hangs poised above a reflecting pool, hoping to catch the moon.  (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery)