Trip to/from Schenectady

 Because we had paid for transient berthing at Liberty Landing Marina, they allowed us to store the boat and truck in their boatyard for a few days... but the cost of storing there for the duration of our cruise would have been prohibitive...not to mention the fact we'd have to drive back to NYC before proceeding.  So we dedicated the day to "transport", in more ways than one.

We had decided on a marina in Schenectady on the Mohawk River (which connects to the Erie Canal) and which was not too far from a train station and had a launch ramp as a place to store the car and truck for a little while.  Besides being near the train, its not all that far from Vermont... which is one of those states I need to check off.  That way we'll have a car to drive to visit the maple syrup state.

The drive out of the NYC area was hairy.  I don't think my Californian husband will ever get used to toll roads (they have so few in CA).  It's not that they are that difficult, but each section seems to handle the toll collection differently.

Soon, however we were enjoying lovely scenery... along the Hudson, the Catskills.  It is going to be a lovely cruise.  We arrived at the marina and we got a preview of what the Erie will be like.  Very peaceful, wouldn't you agree?

So remember when I said the day would be devoted to transportation?  My dear husband loves trains..as well as boats...oh and he likes planes and cars too.  But trains are his thing.  So off we went to the Amtrak station.

The tracks are next to the Hudson all the way almost to NYC so we enjoyed the river and mountains once again.  We arrived at Penn station and, what did we see when we exited?  The Empire State Building.  Check that off the list!

We walked a few blocks to the PATH station (the subway train to Jersey City).  I was reminded of all those TV shows and movies (Risky Business).  Robbie got to ride 2 trains today!

We shopped at a tiny Chinese market in Jersey City for our provisions and then took a taxi back to the marina.  Ahh!  Its great to be "home".

This evening we giggled as we watched our "neighbors" bathing their 9-month old in a Tupperware container on the dock.  Boy did he enjoy that bath!  Improvision is part of the fun of boat camping.

After dark all of us boaters were thrilled to see a huge fireworks display from Ellis Island, right behind our marina.  We couldn't figure out what was special about a Tuesday evening in July, but apparently NYC has fireworks at random locations throughout the summer.  It was a great show and the whole marina honked their boat horns in appreciation.

Fun in Manhattan

Liberty Landing Marina is right next to the Jersey City ferry which is $7 to get to Manhattan.  We landed right near two monuments which really choke me up.  The first was a monument to the Starving Irish immigrants.  Both of us had Irish immigrant ancestors and it is a sobering thought to realize all they went through.  Then we crossed the street and we were at the 9/11 memorial.  Two big holes in the ground (now made into fountains, with names engraved around them).

Next was a typical fast and furious NY cab ride to Times Square where we had booked two nights (for convenience sake).  We enjoyed 3 plays: Kinky Boots, Bullets over Broadway, and Disney's Newsies.  All were excellent and we wished we could see more shows, but even at the discount ticket booth prices, everyone has a limit.  I'm still hoping to convince Rob to squeeze in Matilda, the musical, before we leave...  there is nothing like a Broadway play...except maybe a London play... maybe we can sail Freedom to London?

Kinky Boots, music by Cindi Lauper... officially voted our "second favorite" musical (Miss Saigon still wins)

Rob loved Bullets over Broadway... I thought Zack Braff (from Scrubs). was great and the singing and dancing talent was marvelous.  Unfortunately, the songs were just OK.... old time songs like "Yes we have no bananas?!"

Newsies (a Disney production) was excellent.  The leads were new to Broadway but had fantastic voices and stage presence.  And the athletic, masculine dancing was amazing!

The hotel was fine, but a bit too close to the action!  I begged my high school BFF Shawn to please take us somewhere pretty for dinner.  We were enchanted with Chelsea and really enjoyed our walk on the Highline (an old raised subway platform converted to a pedestrian park up the West side of Manhattan).  Google the Highline in NYC... its an amazing project.

Walking the Highline

Happy to be back at the boat with our FABULOUS view

Lady Liberty

The drive from West Chester PA to Jersey City NJ was, for the most part, uneventful.  A little nervewracking perhaps... but we arrived at Liberty Landing State Park launch ramp around noon.  Imagine our thrill as we ventured out into NY Harbor.

It was extremely "bumpy" out there thanks to the multiple ferries crossing from NYC to/from all the other islands and burroughs.  I tried to get some great shots of the Statue of Liberty, but most ended up blurry or, at best, crooked!  It was so exciting to be there on our own boat!

Never fear, Miss Liberty... Freedom the Cape(d) Cruiser is here!

At the dock at Liberty Landing Marina

After docking the boat we had to figure out how to get back to the state park launch ramp to retrieve the car and trailer... its about 3 miles away.  Our fun e-bikes were a blast to ride, along a lovely paved boardwalk overlooking the NYC skyline.  Fantastic!

The view at night from our boat!  The tall building is the new World Finance Center

That evening a high school friend of mine who settled in NJ met us for a fun dinner of Cuban food.  It was great catching up with her, meeting her grown daughter.  We still can complete each other's sentences even after 40 years separation.

Philadelphia and West Chester PA

We completed our drive up the DelMarVa peninsula so I could officially cross off Delaware from my list of states I haven't been.  Delaware is a mystery to me... why is it a separate state?  No major cities, a lot of farms.  I will need to do some research on this.  Many of the first McClains (McLean, McClean, MacLane, McLane, MacLaine, McLaine..sigh) first landed in Wilmington, New Castle and Baltimore...before they moved west to conquer the wilderness.  One man and his brother did actually end up in Jessamine Kentucky... where we first find Rob's ancestor Isaac McClain.  So, I've been curious about this area for awhile.

We wanted to see Philadelphia and thought about boating from the upper Chesapeake, across the Chesapeake/Delaware canal and up the Delaware River to Penns' Landing... but we didn't think we wanted to spend our time doing that.  Ultimately we want to launch in Jersey City (across from Manhattan) on a weekday.  So we decided to trailer up to Philly.  Parking in our first capitol city is a nightmare, in fact, I couldn't find RV parking anywhere near the historic center... so staying downtown was impossible.  I did find 2... ONLY 2... campgrounds in the area.  I chose the KOA in West Chester because they also did a Philly tour from there.  It is about 40 minutes to Philly.  Also because West Chester had a clue about an Isaac McClain that I wanted to research.

Rob describes the drive to this KOA as a nightmare but I loved it.  Once off the freeway we entered the Brandwine River Valley (Brandywine was one of the first battles of the Rev. War... and one of the biggest).  We went over hill and dale and through quaint village mainstreets.  We passed some old mills (now homes).   Crossed narrow bridges (I was hoping to see a covered bridge... but didn't until the next day).  At any rate, we arrived at this truely lovely campground with lots of facilities: pool, mini-golf, rental bikes and canoes, etc.   We got our usual comments about our unconventional camper.  The internet and phone reception was nearly non existant, so today I am at Starbucks in West Chester to catch up the blog.

The first night rained like crazy but the weather since has been absolutely gorgeous... almost fall-like.  Perfect for our tour of Philly.   We were really surprised at how many French Canadians we found, both at the campground, and being tourists in Philadelphia.  I'm not sure what that says about Americans... I guess we go to Quebec and Montreal when we are on vacation and they come here?

We went to all the main tourist spots in historic Philadelphia.    Here are pictures of a few of them

Independence Hall (Originally the state house of the colony of PA)... where the Declaration of Independence was signed.  The Liberty Bell was hung in this bell tower.

Room where the Declaration of Independence was signed

Stopped for lunch... cheesesteak, of course

Christ Church (originally Church of England, changed to Episcopal after the revolution).  Saw the pews reserved subscribed to by Washington, Ben Franklin, and other early revolutionaries and lawmakers)

 Then the tour van took us to Valley Forge... on the Schuykill River.  I know, this was an awful place for Washington's troops to spend the winter, morale and sickness as well as cold weather.... but boy is it a beautiful park now.

Typical huts for up to 12 soldiers (and their families if they joined them)

Washington's headquarters... the house was actually not very big. Martha joined him here.

Washington's headquarters... rank has privileges

Washington's dining/living room

 We drove home through the town of West Chester which was great as we were planning to visit there the next day (so we got a preview/lay of the land).  This is an absolutely charming town except that a huge amount of traffic is routed through the main street (where all the little restaurants have sidewalk tables).  We visited the West Chester Historical Society to look through family history documents.  I successfully ruled out (is that a success) the clue for Isaac McClain but we did find some McClain families in the area... seems like most moved away by 1777.

A yummy lunch at a sidewalk cafe in West Chester.

Tonight is laundry night back at the campground... and then on to NYC!

DelMarVa

Our captain recommended we leave Rivers Rest at 5:30 AM to get us back to Portsmouth at a reasonable time.  UGH!  Actually, I slept through most of the preparation and the beginning part of the cruise.  Then we hit rough water (waves, current, wind) and it stopped being much fun.  But, that's part of cruising.

We sadly said goodbye to the group and hope we'll see them again.  At least they know to look us up in Las Vegas (everyone goes to Las Vegas sometime don't they?)

And then we began our solo trek: destination Philadelphia.  We are driving up the DelMarVa peninsula... an interesting place.  For some reason, our forefathers decided to divide this narrow peninsula and parcel it out to three different states: Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.  It really makes no sense...

It's a lovely rural, farm area, with pretty beaches and coast lines.  Seems like a great vacation spot.  I can't understand why it is not more populated considering how close it is to DC, Baltimore, Anapolis etc.  Just this little thing called the Chesapeake Bay to cross to get to DelMarVa!

We are in Pocomoke MD, about 3 hours south of Philadelphia...enjoying central air, TV and internet.

The Chickahominy

 We sadly didn't take any interesting pictures along the Chickahominy but perhaps someone else will send us ones that they took.  The river takes lots of twists and turns and most of it is a nature preserve, so no homes along the way.  We did, however, spot at least two bald eagles.

The Chiclahominy River is named for a tribe of Indians from this area.  The name means ground corn from which, I'm guessing, we get the term hominy grits.  John Smith sailed up the Chicahominy in search of corn for the settlers at Jamestown.  He stopped several times to trade with the Indians but it is said that he didn't always make a trade as he didn't want to appear needy.  If you are familiar with the Jamestown Settlement story, they were indeed very very needy.  I'm not sure his logic fooled the Indians who I'm sure could very easily know that the Jamestown Settlement was in dire straits.

C-Brats preparing to raft up

C-Brats rafted and eating once again:

We had a bit of a bet going today.  Yesterday several of us had spotted a derelect sailboat sunken in a swampy part of the river (its anyone's guess how it even got there).  We swore we could see the mast and the spreaders.  David, though, swore he had checked it out and that it definitely was a telephone pole.  Today he was on a mission to prove to us  wrong and bet us each a nickel.  At dinner, David paid up his 20 cents. Here's a picture of our nickel, appropriately with Thomas Jefferson's picture on it.

Jamestown and River's Rest Marina

Our Fearless Leader, Steve on Osprey (C-Dory 22) led us out of Smithfield station and then we passed the Jamestown Settlement. 

Then, off in the distance we saw a tall ship.  From our visit to Jamestown awhile back, we think this is one of the replicas of John Smith's three ships.  Here we see Osprey approaching the tall ship.

This tall ship looks huge, (especially compared to a C-Dory!) but Rob can attest to how very small and tight the quarters were as he took of tour of this boat.  Unbelieveable to think that people crossed the Atlantic and spent so many days aboard these ships.

Then we stopped for lunch where we rafted up and shared a few treats.

6 C-Dorys rafted for lunch

And then there were 4 (we took this after we had left the rafting formation)

We arrived a River's Rest Marina and resort in Charles City, Virginia on the Chickahominy River.  River's Rest has an old style motel, a very nice pool and a restaurant.  We spent two nights there and really enjoyed ourselves.

 Immediately after docking we took to the pool to cool off!  No, I take that back.  Immediately upon docking, we all installed our air conditioners!  Then a few of us went to the pool.

Each evening before dinner, we would have an informal cocktail hour.  At Rivers Rest Marina the shadiest spot, with the greenest lawn and beautiful flowers happened to be next to the pump out... Huh..

 We spoiled our dinner with all the goodies from the cocktail hour!

That night we were treated to a full moon that was bright orange (our camera didn't quite catch the orange).  And of course there was after dinner cocktail time at the end of the dock.