The first weekend in October was the annual fall triathlon in Rock Hall. The event was cancelled last year, so this was the first year back since 2019. Sadly I’m still on the long road to recovery so was cheering on the sidelines this time, which was also a lot of fun.
The Morris’ came down for the weekend and Don did the race with Dave.
Just two men in their tight wetsuits
The start was a little different this year, with everyone lining up and jumping in one at a time. This was the first year that Dave wore a wetsuit and it was pretty terrible for him. The suit was too tight and he had trouble breathing. He didn’t swim nearly as fast as he has in past years, but fortunately made it up on the bike ride.
swim to bike transition
out for the bike ride
start of the run
He ended up doing pretty well, coming in 4th in his age group. And Don did really well, placing third in the Clydesdales category.
Don placed 3rd in the Clydesdales category!
Petunia also felt she deserved recognition, although we all know she can’t swim, and really is pretty terrible on a bike too.
Petunia taking 1st place
It was a quick weekend, but we did manage to get in some good Rock Hall time with a walk to the beach for sunset and a sail on Sunday after the race. October is beautiful down there, and the weekend did not disappoint.
We spent a good portion of the summer in Rock Hall and while we were down there we registered the girls for sailing camp. The first week both girls were in the beginner group where they learned on Optis. After the first week Sophie was “promoted” to the intermediate group and did another 2 weeks of camp. Lauren decided she wasn’t that into it and did “grandparent” camp instead.
The intermediate camp was a little more challenging for Sophie, but by the end of it she was really happy and confident. Which is great because she’s definitely the #2 sailor on our boat vacations. (I’m definitely the #4).
Here are a few shots of Soph in her Opti.
At the end of each session the girls got an award. Lauren was “Silent but Deadly” – appropriate in more ways than one. The first session Sophie was the top “Knot Tie-er,” and the second session she was “Fiesty & Fearless.”
This 4th we spent the holiday in our NEW house in Rock Hall! Over Memorial Day weekend we closed on a house of our own on Bayside Avenue, just a few blocks from The Sharps. Dave spent the first few weekends doing some work on it. The room that’s now Sophie’s needed a lot of work, so Dave spent two full weekends fixing it up, and it turned out really nice. He’ll slowly work his way through the rest of the house pulling up carpets, painting, and generally updating.
My family came up from Virginia and stayed until Monday, so it was a good long weekend.
The first night we walked across the street to the Harbor Shack (yes, we’re across the street from our favorite restaurant!), and while we were waiting for our table got some good family pics.
the girls being silly
Dad & Mom
Nana and Pappap with the grandkids
We spent a lot of time at the beach. The weather was really nice all weekend. The first day we had most of the beach to ourselves, but once the weekend got going it was packed. This is definitely the town if you’re looking for a small town 4th!
the cool girls
Maddie & Mom
Rock Hall celebrates the 4th on the 3rd of July, with a parade in the morning and fireworks that evening. The parade goes down Main Street and is mostly fire trucks, local businesses, and people with cool cars driving down the street throwing candy. Very small and very Americana.
The gang waiting for the parade to go by
That afternoon the Sharp’s hosted a BBQ at their house. In addition to my family, Zoe and her daughter Maddie, Ed, Dot, Crystal, John and Bella were there too.
Zoe & Mo
After dinner, everyone walked down the street to our house where we set out chairs at the end of the driveway and watched the fireworks, which they shot off right across the street in the harbor.
Maddie watching with Mommom
Fireworks right across the street
The driveway gang!
There was one unfortunate mishap during the weekend. At the BBQ Becky brought her dog Penny and Zoe brought her dog Mo and we had Petunia. They were happy dogs, running around like happy dogs do. I made the unfortunate and mistimed decision to get a picture of Sophie and Maddie on the swing set at the exact moment that Petunia was shooting across the yard. She nailed me with her head right in the knee and I went down. Hard. I’m writing this several days later, after x-rays and a CT scan have confirmed that I have a tibial plateau fracture that will require surgery to fix. Just a moment later, or an inch to one side and it would be a different outcome. But it’s done and there’s nothing I can do now (except curse the damn dog!).
Insane dogs moments before “the incident”
Before hobbling back to a chair I did manage to snap the picture I wanted to get. May it live in infamy!
THE picture. I’ll remind both of these kids for the rest of their lives the story behind it!
Before my family left on Monday we had a little July birthday celebration for Mom, Becky and me. It was such a great weekend (with one low point), and I hope we can make it a tradition!
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!
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.
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!
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.
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
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!
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!
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.
