Rock Hall

On May 15, we participated in our first regatta since 2019 with the Union League Yacht Club. Bonus: it was in Rock Hall! The Sharps have been working hard on the boat over the last year and it’s beautiful! As usual, the ULYC regatta was a low-key, family friendly affair with 5 boats. It was a beautiful day – although not a lot of wind – so the race was a slooooow one. Regardless, it was great to be out on the water.

  • Captain Lauren
  • Captain Sophia
  • The “Kind of Blue” crew!

After the race we got dressed up and headed to the after party, which was held outside at a beach club on the Chesapeake. It was the first time in well over a year we had the opportunity to get dressed up!

  • Finally fancy again!

It was such a great weekend – mostly because it just felt “normal.” Because most adults are vaccinated, no one wore masks at the party, and it was the first time we’ve been in a group that large without masks. This whole pandemic has put a different lens on what used to be every day things – like meeting new people, making small talk, catching up with acquaintances. It’s been 14 months since I’ve just “caught up” with someone I haven’t seen in a while. Nearly all interactions have been through Zoom, which is the opposite of informal, and I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed small talk. We’re still at baby steps to “normal,” whatever that is anymore. But it was a great weekend of baby steps!

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We’re leaving for vacation on Dave/Pop pop’s actual birthday, so we celebrated a week early with a nice dinner and wine pairing down in Rock Hall. If it was non-COVID times we probably would have thrown a big party, but this was the second best option. Dave cooked the whole dinner and I made a cake. It was another beautiful early spring weekend, so we got to spend a lot of time outside.

  • The birthday boy!
  • The menu

On Sunday morning we walked to the beach where the Bay was like glass. Petunia loves to run around on the beach and will dip into the water, but won’t go in past her chest.

It was a really great, relaxing and celebratory weekend. It made me very excited for this coming summer and warm weather! This has been a long, cold winter and these glimpses of spring have been wonderful.

Happy 70th Birthday, Dave!

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My family didn’t take a vacation this summer because of COVID-19 and they’ve been dying to get out and do something, so the Sharp’s graciously offered their house in Rock Hall for the weekend for a little getaway. Dave and I and the kids met them down there for a three day weekend and it was lovely. All three kids are still in virtual school, so they all did their own remote learning on Friday, and then we had the rest of the weekend to just chill.

Although the weather was only so-so all weekend, we were still able to get in some good beach time, including Penny’s first time ever on sand (she loved it!), and some biking around town, a little shopping (our first time shopping in a store other than a grocery store in six months!), and a visit to the boat (no actual sailing).

The beach was never that crowded so the girls had the run of the place. One evening we took Penny down with us – even though no dogs are allowed. No one cared and she was in heaven in the sand!
We never took the boat out for a sail – just had some cocktails sitting in the marina. Penny came along and we can confirm, she’s not a good boat dog.
These two! They were inseparable most of the weekend.
  • Outside of Evergrain
  • Down on the dock
  • Sophie in her current favorite sweatshirt
On Saturday we went to Chestertown where we hit the farmer’s market and then walked around town to do some shopping.

And of course, there was a lot of ice cream consumed!

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Our planned August vacation this year was supposed to be Alaska, but since that couldn’t happen, we decided to do another week on the boat on the Chesapeake. We didn’t travel quite as far as we did the first go round, but did stay in a new spot each night. This time we also met up with our friends the Townsends, who were supposed to be in St. Maarten the same week, but obviously couldn’t go. They chartered a boat out of Rock Hall and we met up 4 of our 7 nights out. At one point we also met up with a family we had met down in Tangier the last time we were on the boat. A dad and twin 7 year olds who have been on their boat nonstop since the spring.

We spent a few days with the Sharps in Rock Hall before heading out.

  • The girls with Mom Mom and Pop Pop on a beautiful night in Rock Hall

We always travel with sea kayaks, which are the best way to get around into little coves and shallow rivers. The Townsends up the game with inflatable standing paddle boards, which were pretty cool. Sophie in particular loved them and was really good getting around on it.

  • Sophie & Crystal
  • Bella paddle board dancing
  • A boat of 7 year olds
  • Sophie taking one of the twins out for a ride

The Townsends also brought along a huge pink blowup unicorn, which was of course a hit with all the girls.

5 girls getting ready to set sail on their pink flying unicorn
Dave and the girls using the seine.
Dinner with a view
Bella with an ice cream face in Havre de Grace. Ice cream was a destination in each place we stopped and this place was by far the best.

It was another amazing week on the boat!

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Dave, Don and I did the Waterman’s fall triathlon in Rock Hall again this year. Last year’s was my first tri ever, and I won the novice category. This time I raced with my age group – 40-44 and got third!

Here are our overall results:

Jess – place: 65th overall; 3rd in age group/ Total time: 1:26:34/swim: 14:13/bike: 46:17/run: 22:45

Dave – place: 68th overall; 11th in age group/ Total time: 1:27:18/swim: 14:59/bike: 43:00/run: 25:10

Don – place: 74th overall; 12th in age group/Total time: 1:29:15/swim: 15:02/bike: 45:29/run: 25:22

Here’s what we looked like a year ago.

  • water was cool enough for a wetsuit
  • Dave jumping in
  • the men’s start
The podium for women 40-44. Our “prize” was a cheese board. One of the more useful prizes I guess.

After the race the day was beautiful so we took the boat out for a sail and swim. The kids had a great time jumping off the side. It was the first time Liam and Oliver were on the boat and they had a blast!

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Last weekend we celebrated Dave’s 40th birthday by spending a weekend in Rock Hall with a few friends. John, Crystal, and Bella came up from DC along with Joe, and Rebecca, John, Ava, and Emma came from Philly, along with Walt. We had a mini raft-up with our boat and Walt’s boat. There was no wind, so we motored right to our favorite spot in Swan Creek and spent the afternoon swimming and grilling. The weather was perfect!

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We’ve passed the midway point of summer, and even though people are already lamenting the end of summer and talking about back to school, we’ve still got time!! We’ve been fitting as much as possible into our weekends to make them all feel like mini vacations.

A few weeks ago we did a weekend in Rock Hall with the Townsends. We had originally planned on spending the whole weekend on the new boat, but it was ungodly hot, so we stayed at the house and just went out for an afternoon sail/swim. It was a ton of fun, as it always is with that crew.

  • Bella & Lauren
  • Lauren
  • Dave and John doing what they do best
  • Bella, Sophie & Lauren at our favorite Rock Hall spot – the Harbor Shack
  • Lauren doing the hard work while I relaxed 😉

The next weekend we took the girls to their first real concert – Jojo Siwa. It was a glitter, rainbow, unicorn explosion and they loved every minute of it. We had bought the tickets for Sophie’s birthday, so she was allowed to bring a friend, so she choose to bring her friend Dior.

This past weekend Dave sailed in a regatta called The Governor’s Cup, which is a 70 mile overnight race from Annapolis to St. Mary’s College. The crew left Annapolis on Walt’s boat at 3pm on Friday and arrived at St. Mary’s at 1:30 on Saturday. They were completely exhausted and totally spent, but had a good time (I think) and ended up placing 2nd in their class! Here’s the crew, with and without kids, and their 2nd place trophy.

And finally, we’ve begun construction on our new kitchen!! We’ve been planning since January and demo finally started last week. Our contractor thinks it will take him a month, so in theory we’ll have a spanking new kitchen by the time school starts. Fingers crossed that actually happens! Here are shots after the first day of demo.

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Dave and I decided to do another triathalon in Rock Hall. We did one at the end of September (my first) and it was a lot of fun. We stuck with the sprint distance, which is a 1/2 mile swim, 16 mile bike ride, and a 5K run. This was Dave’s first race since injuring his foot back in January. He did great, beating his time from September. I trained a lot for it and also beat my time from September by 10 minutes! That also put me in 3rd place for my age group, which was 40-44 (they made us compete as the age we will be at the end of the year), so I got to stand on the podium!

  • Pre-race photo op
  • transition from the swim to the bike
  • 3rd place in the 40-44 age group

A few months ago the Sharp’s bought a new sailboat and after the race the new name was put on: Kind of Blue. It’s a Catalina 42, which is a good bit bigger than their previous boat, Stolen Moments.

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We just got back from a week vacation on the Sharp’s sailboat in the Chesapeake Bay. The timing weatherwise was not great, as the first part of the week was also the first heatwave of the season – but we made the most of it. Outside of the weather we had a great, very relaxing time.

On Sunday night we met the Sharps in Turners Creek, where we did a boat/car exchange. They had brought the boat from Rock Hall and they drove back that night in our car. We grilled on the boat, did a lot of swimming, and tried to stay cool. There was a nice breeze all night, so it wasn’t that bad.

You could easily spot us on the river, as we were the only boat with a giant inflatable flamingo and unicorn. The girls spent most of their times playing on these, especially on the very hot days.

The next day we headed over to Fairlee Creek, about a 4 hour motor away. We did some more swimming, seining for creatures, kayaking, and playing on the beach.

Here’s a shot of Sophie and Lauren in the kayak headed over to the beach. Soph is getting pretty good with the kayak.

Both he girls took turns steering the boat on the trip. Here’s Lauren with a little oversight from Dave.

The Sharps met us again and we made dinner over an open fire on the beach, which is pretty unusual because most places don’t allow fires on the beach.

Here are the girls cooking their dinners over the open flames… Sophie with her not so campfire easy tofu 😉

But soon the smoke got to be too much for the girls and the dads took over…

That night, after the Sharps left, the wind died and the bugs descended. It was a pretty rough night for all. Definitely the low point of the trip.

On Tuesday, July 3rd, we headed over to Rock Hall for their Independence Day celebration, which they do the day before. We watched fireworks from the front yard of the Sharp’s house.

 

The next morning, on the 4th, Dave and I ran in the Flat Five, a 5 mile race throughout Rock Hall. There are only about 50 people who do it, and Dave and I both placed in our age class (first time ever)! I won my class and he came in third.

Here we are with our coveted prizes: a coffee mug for me and a beer cozy for Dave.

That day there was a parade than ran through town and then Dave (pop pop) had a gig with the house band at the Harbor Shack. It was pretty cool to hear him play.

Here’s a video of the band:

IMG_3728

We stayed for the first set, and then got back on the boat and motor/sailed 3 hours to Baltimore, where we docked and watched their 4th of July fireworks, which was pretty impressive.

On our way over to Baltimore we passed right by the buoy marketing the spot where Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner, which was pretty cool.

The next two days we spent in Baltimore. Dave and to work 1/2 days, so I took the kids around – to the National Aquarium, the Maryland Science Center, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, and some shopping.

Lauren sitting on a “motorcycle” that was crafted from one piece of wood at Ripley’s, and the girls at the Inner Harbor.

We went to a famous dessert spot called Vaccaro’s where we got the biggest dessert I’ve ever seen. There was no way 4 of us could finish it.

It was called a snickers volcano.

On our last day we met the Townsend’s for lunch (who live just an hour away) before jumping back on the boat to Rock Hall.

 

 

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Our old neighbors and Sophie’s BFF from Greene Towne, the Marvin’s, came to visit from Hawaii. We met them for a quick brunch and visit in the old neighborhood.

Claire, Sophie, Lauren, and Emma outside of our old house. The new owners painted the door black, from our beautiful purple – how could they?! 
We spent another weekend on the Chesapeake with the Townsends, this time on the boat. We sailed to Cacaway Island and anchored for the night. The weather was beautiful and the water was really warm (almost bath warm). We kayaked, swam, grilled and hung out. It was an excellent weekend.
Sophie manning her own kayak with Crystal carrying Lauren and Bella.

Lauren at the helm
The last weekend in July Dave and I rode in the Tour de Shore, a 67 mile bike ride from Philly to Atlantic City. A friend wanted us to do it with her to celebrate her 35th birthday, so we did. It was a long, long ride, but we made it (in 5.5 hours!). I was dead tired when it was done and sword I’d never do it again – but now that I’m fully recovered, I might consider it again 😉

The “team:” me, Tom, Robyn, Dave
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