travel tips from real simple

 Last night I was reading the latest issue of Real Simple magazine and enjoyed a travel article titled "10 Things Every Traveler Should Do" by Pico Iyer. I am including a link to the short article because after traveling for over a year I agree that (most of) the ten things are great tips when traveling and wanting to get a true feel for the place you are visiting. Here are a few examples: 

Savor every moment from the first few hours..... I can honestly say that our first day in a new place is my favorite. We always seem to see and do more and are the most excited. It sort of sets the tone for the next few days.  For example, when we went to Savannah, neither Bill nor I had any idea that it would be the absolutely fabulous city that it is. We were so impressed with the beautiful parks, the small city vibe, the energy around the holidays, etc. that we decided to stay an extra day (which isn't unusual for us as you know, but that time we stayed because we wanted to see and do more of the sites instead of staying because we had chores or weather.) 

Embrace the prospect of being a tourist..... Sometimes Bill and I try to fit in and "act like locals." Other times, such as in Key West, everyone is a tourist and we have allowed ourselves to do "touristy" things -- like take an airplane tour of the island and visit Sloppy Joes for expensive drinks just because it is Sloppy Joes. Even after living in Boston for so many years I regret that I never acted like a tourist and always skipped the Duck Tours. Maybe this summer...  

Read the daily newspaper.... Reading the local newspaper really gives us an idea of what the place we are visiting has to offer. It gives us a chance to find out about local events and ideas on what to do while we are visiting. 

 

This week Bill and I broke down and got a new computer. And this time around.... we got a MacBook Pro!! We love it and it is surprisingly easy to work on a Mac after years and years of a PC. The three very cool things about our new computer are: it has an 8 hour battery life (no more cords, no more turning on the inverter to get a charge for the computer), it has an anti glare screen (I can even sit in the sun topside and use it) and lastly, there is this really cool application called Garage Band where Bill can practice and learn the guitar. 

I love this picture of Bill transferring all of our pictures and documents from the other two computers we had to the new MacBook. 

The marina is starting to slowly but steadily empty. Most people either go back to their home states or travel on the boat somewhere other than Florida for the summers -- too hot. The weather here in Lauderdale has been in the high 80s, which is about as hot as it ever gets in Boston and it is only April! 

 

Other cool sites

Here are some sailing blogs that Bill and I sometimes read. Check them out if you get a chance!

http://svthaleia.blogspot.com/ We met sv Thaleia when we were in Daytona Beach. They are currently in the Bahamas.

http://bristolrose.blogspot.com/ Bristol Rose is also in the Bahamas

http://www.splendido57.com/Splendido/Welcome.html Splendido is the beautiful boat of our friends Michael, Daniel, and Jeremy. We first met them last year during the 1500 and caught up with them in Marthas Vineyard and Annapolis this summer and fall.

http://sailmarylee.com/index.php
http://www.tripsailor.com/
http://sailingnightwatch.wordpress.com/

Thanks Katie

Thank you Katie for your hospitality. It made things a lot easier for Bill to be able to stay at your house in DC. You are the best.

Bill came back from DC with several "Alex stories." Alex is Katie's beautiful and amazing 3 1/2 year old son. Here is one of my favorites....

Tuesday morning Alex came into the guest bedroom to see what Uncle Bill was up to. He got really close to Bill's face (who was still asleep) and said, "What are you doing here?" Bill grumpily replied "Trying to sleep." Alex looked all confused and said, "But it's light out!?!" The kid had a point....

I am planning a trip to DC sometime in early March. Katie's due date is March 6th and I can't wait to meet Alex's little brother!

It is another spectacular day in Ft. Lauderdale. It is supposed to remain in the 80s with a nice breeze through the weekend. Yesterday we went to the beach for a few hours in the afternoon, which was just perfect.

Not a whole lot planned for the weekend. Things feel weird when there is no football to watch. Happy Friday (the 13th none the less) everyone.

Favorite sites

I added a new "Favorite Sites" box to the blog. We have received several emails lately asking for advice on cruising and livingaboard. Although extremely flattering, Bill and I are hardly experts. We find Cruiser's Net, Living Aboard Forums, Lats and Atts etc. to be very helpful, informative, and the perfect places to post questions about various things from boat maintence to insurance questions to suggestions on liveaboard-friendly marinas. Anyone have a site you regularly visit that we might be missing?

A year of blogging...

It's been a little over a year since we posted our first entry on "....with the sea as our living room.... And this will be our 206 post. Bill and I have written about our adventures, the people we have met, the places we have visited, living on board, the sites we have explored. And of course we have posted hundreds of pictures!

We got the idea from Cindy who kept a blog chronicling the Caribbean 1500. Paula, a friend I worked with at the State Department, came up with the name ....with the sea as our living room. Our intentions in creating the blog were two-fold. First, we wanted to keep a record of our travels for ourselves. More importantly, however, we found that it is an easy way to keep in touch. Instead of sending email updates we write one post and whoever is interested in keeping up with our travels can simply visit our blog. This was particularly helpful when we were in the Caribbean last year.

We do receive the occasional comment (which we love). And we have received several emails (to our google account) from people we have never met commenting or asking questions about living aboard, etc. Cool.

I discovered Google Analytics in May, 2008, which has allowed us to keep stats on how many people are visiting our site, what city they are from, and how they find us (by typing in the link, doing a google search, referring link from another site, etc.). Since May there have been 6,767 page hits on our blog. 4,430 people have visited from 525 different cities in 60 different countries including Italy, China, Latvia, and Uruguay. The most hits we ever had in one day was 45 on December 20, 2008.

So thanks for reading. We have enjoyed looking back on the past year and remembering all of our adventures. And we hope you have too.

We have a new neighbor....

On Friday morning as we were packing our stuff to meet Dave and Molly a h-u-g-e yacht docked off our stern. So our current view is of the mighty m/y Man of Steel. She is 160 feet long and has three decks. Read more in an article that we found on the internet about m/y Man of Steel.

the art of cruising....

It is funny how we have gotten into a routine here in Lauderdale. Are we still "cruisers" if we have been in the same place for three weeks and don't have any immediate plans on leaving? Our original plan was to travel the ICW south from Annapolis to "somewhere" in Florida and then, after the holidays, take off for the Bahamas. Well it is almost February and we are still here. But nothing is pushing us out the door.... The weather has been great, we have friends in the area, and my father was able to come for a nice visit. Why leave? The marina where we are is perfect for liveaboards. We have a pumpout station at the dock, the marina office has accepted our mail, there are laundry facilities, a parking lot (yes, we still have the rental car), a security gate. We are within walking distance of many restaurants and of course the beach. I have even joined a gym across the street (temporary membership). We are learning the area and the roads in Lauderdale. Yesterday I took the car and did errands. I had my eyes checked and got a pair of prescription sunglasses so I will finally be able to spot the markers in the distance. We have our favorite restaurants, coffee shops, and places to hang out. We have settled in.

But, we do know that we will move on. It might not be this week or next, but Mary Elizabeth is happiest when she is moving. One day we will get up and say, OK we've had enough. Let's go. And we will. Bill and I know that we are truly lucky to have such freedom with our schedule. And we are trying to take advantage of our fortunate situation now while we still have the opportunity. When we are back at work and in the 'real world' we'll look back on this winter and think of how much relaxing fun we had. So in the meantime we are enjoying every moment.

Everyone cruises differently. We have met people who are on the same schedule each year. For example they cruise in Maine for the summers and Florida for the winters, or they stay in Annapolis for the summer and the BVIs for the winter. There are others who cruise part-time. They might sail their boats south and then return home for a few weeks for work and then fly back to the boat whenever they can. There are others who cruise for a year and then take a break. Cruising is very much dictated by the hurricane seasons (and insurance regulations). Many are much more adventurous and cruise across the Atlantic (although we have met fewer and fewer people who are choosing this option since the dollar is so bad). We have our own style of cruising. For example, we stay at marinas more often than some people do. We are somewhat limited by my reluctance to do long passages (although we are very lucky to have great experienced boater friends who have helped Bill get the boat from point A to point B). We love to sit on a mooring or on anchor for days and days. There is little that we need to entertain us; books, games, conversation, an occasional movie (we have no TV when we aren't at the dock). Bill and I enjoy the peace and solitude of being on the hook as much as we love the conveniences at the dock. Mary Elizabeth was built to be self sufficient; we have a water maker and wind generator on board. Bill and I have adapted to "our" style of cruising, and although it wouldn't be for everyone, to say that we are enjoying ourselves would be the understatement of the year!

It does look like we will be in Lauderdale for a bit longer since we found out today that Island Packet does not have the hosing for the propane in stock. They will have to make one and then mail it to us, which could take a bit. Until then we are without a stove or oven, which kind of stinks. If anyone has any good microwave recipes, please share! Until then, we'll enjoy the weather and sites in Ft. Lauderdale. As I am typing, two very playful dolphins just swam by in the marina slapping their tails on the water and swimming on their backs. Truly amazing.

Orchids

I took these pictures when we were at Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo with Dave and Molly. The orchids were simply stunning. I have never seen orchids in such beautiful colors.

Lilly pads

Molly, Andre, Bill and I went for a tour of the Ocean Reef Club and stopped at this pond to try to find an alligator. We didn't see any gators, but we did see these beautiful lilly pads.

Bill in Lats and Atts

Bill is featured as one of the Feb 2009 "Boat People" in one of our favorite magazines, Latitudes and Attitudes. Pretty Cool! Lats and Atts is a great magazine about cruising. Here is the link to their site http://www.latsandatts.net/magazine/

Playing with the new camera....

So, Bill and I got a new camera for Christmas. And of course we have been taking a million pictures and having fun. Here are photographs of just a few of the many amazingly huge homes we saw along the ICW between Boca and Ft. Lauderdale. Wow.

(click for larger images)

And here are pictures of some of the lawn ornaments and statues that we saw. I love the statue of the guy taking a picture....

(click for larger images)

Blog of the Day Award

With the Sea as our Livingroom; the Chronicles of life aboard sv Mary Elizabeth has received the blog of the day award! Cool!

The big move is done!!!

Well, we have had a whirlwind of a few days..... After a heartbreaking Redskins loss to the Rams on Sunday, we picked Amy and Allison up at the airport late Sunday night. Monday morning Bill, Amy, Allison and I drove to Alexandria, picked up the Uhaul and got going..... We moved about 30 boxes, a bed, desk, and bedroom furniture. After lunch in Old Town Alexandria, Amy and Allison were on their way. They drove back to Boston Monday afternoon. We were feeling a little nostalgic being at the Alexandria waterfront for one last time (for awhile anyway).

Bill and I stayed in Alexandria both Monday and Tuesday night and spent two days packing up the 10 boxes or so we are keeping in storage (mostly pictures, etc.) cleaning up the condo, painting the walls, etc. We rented a Uhaul today and did the final move. We successfully fit all our stuff in a 5x5x5 unit.

And tonight we are glad to be back on the boat. We have pizza and a movie to look forward to and tomorrow we are meeting Joe and Nancy for the power boat show!!!

We're back!

(Amazing view!)
(Caught in the rain at Busch Gardens)

(All the pics on this post were taken while we were in St. Pete. and all links are to pictures)

We're back!!! Bill and I had a fabulous time in St. Pete. What a great place!! It is truly a city that has just about everything; a beautiful waterfront, amazing museums, perfect beaches, marinas, great restaurants, a cute and very walkable downtown area, and most importantly - Bill's mom! We had a great time.

(View of Vinoy Park, the Pier, and beyond)

So, here is the quick synopsis of our 17 days in St. Pete...We went to Busch Gardens (where we saw amazing animals [see below] and rode 4 of the 5 roller coasters before it started to rain, hence the ponchos [see above]), we went to the beach, we went to the St. Pete Museum of Fine Arts, we watched thousands of people participate in the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Walk in St. Pete from Mary Alice's balcony, I went to the Dali Museum and the Henry Plant Museum at the University of Tampa, Bill played golf, we went to three movies (Eagle Eye, Burn After Reading, and Dark Knight).

(Some of the amazing animals that we saw at Busch Gardens)

We "attended" the Rays rally and went to two Rays playoff games (as incognito Boston fans, of course!), we went to Tampa, we finished watching all of the Lost episodes on DVD, we explored Clearwater and several other towns along the coastline, we watched two debates, we went to the "Pier", we went for walks, we ate at several great restaurants, we enjoyed the beautiful pool at Mary Alice's place. ....We laughed, we cried... kidding.

(Museum of Fine Arts, St. Pete)
(Start of the Susan G Komen walk for the cure )

It really was a great two and a half weeks and it was SO nice to see Mary Alice. Of course we WISH we could have stayed a few more days to see the Red Sox play at Tampa on Friday!
(Crabby Bill's -- Clearwater)

(Bike / walking path, St. Pete)

So... we flew from Tampa into Baltimore yesterday and drove back to Rock Hall, MD. SV Mary Elizabeth had a lot of work done while we were gone -- including the hull. And she looks stunning. Both Bill and I almost didn't recognize her; she looks brand new again.
(The Rays play in an indoor stadium)
(Coaster at Busch Gardens)

Almost everything was fixed on our long punch list -- and Island Packet was again great. The only problem is the generator, which we have been having problems with for several months. No one can figure out what is wrong. There was hope it could be fixed on Thursday with some parts that were ordered.... So we made the decision to take care of the cars on Thursday (which involved driving from Rock Hall to Annapolis to drop off Bill's car and then BACK to Rock Hall in my car to drop off Bill who stayed with the boat. I then continued on to Alexandria to take care of some "house stuff" so the place is ready for our renter in a few days.... It was a long day [5 hours total] in the car to say the least! We did find gas for $2.89 which was a plus. And thankfully we didn't hit too much traffic.) Unfortunately the new parts didn't help and even the specialized mechanic is stumped. So, even though the generator still is not 100%, Bill is going to solo the boat from Rock Hall to Annapolis tomorrow so Mary Elizabeth will be back at Port Annapolis this weekend.

(Henry B. Plant Museum, Tampa -- thanks Cynthia for the great tour and Sara for arranging!)

We are looking forward to having friends over on Saturday for a BBQ. And Sunday we are excited for a Redskins home game and then Amy and Allison fly in later that night. The "big move" happens on Monday.

Plans still stand to head south the last week of October. We wish all our friends safe travels as everyone starts the winter boating season. Dave and Molly have already gone (we miss you guys!) Andrea will be here for a last visit next week, which we are looking forward to!!!
(The Pier, St. Pete)

So, hope everyone is doing well. And thanks for continuing to keep in touch / read.



(sunrise, St. Pete)

Taking a break....

We are going to take a break from writing on the blog for a few weeks. We'll start up again when we are back in Annapolis the first week in October. Hope everyone is well, and thanks for reading.

What do we do about mail?

When I left Alexandria for good in February, I filled out a change of address form at the post office and we signed up for a mail forwarding service. Basically all of our mail is sent to Green Cove Springs, FL to a company called Mail Forwarding Services at St. Brendan’s Isle. They collect our mail, toss the junk, and keep it until we are somewhere where we know we will be. I then go online and fill out a mail shipment request; they package everything up, and then send it overnight via FedEx or UPS. For example, we are going to be in Port Jefferson, NY this weekend. We are going to have our mail shipped to Linda Sanders’s house (Bill’s friend from high school) and she’ll bring it when we go for dinner with her and her family (Thank you Linda and Mike!) And last week we had a shipment sent to us in Nantucket since the marina agreed to accept the package for us. It has worked well so far and we are able to keep in touch and get our magazines, etc. We do all of our bills online.

We feel popular....

Since May when we got access to the statistics on the blog, we have had 1,414 page views from 101 unique visitors in 5 countries. Thanks for reading.

Wakeup calls and good reads

Bill and I were unpleasantly awoken last night around 2:15 am. The wind had shifted 180 degrees and was howling. Unfortunately, the mooring ball (that was now) directly behind Mary Elizabeth was empty and was banging - with a lot of force - into our stern. For those of you who have seen our boat you will remember that we sleep in the aft cabin. The noise literally sounding like a wrecking ball was coming through the hull at our heads. We got up and, after figuring out what was happening, tried to put out fenders, moved the dinghy and even tried to tighten the lines to our mooring to shorten the boat. Nothing worked - the wind was too strong and it kept shifting so the ball was right off our port then starboard side hitting the boat the whole time. After about three hours the wind shifted enough that sv ME was out of the path of the mooring ball, but we did not get the best nights sleep to say the least. The worse part is, the mooring balls are white with red stripes. Our boat is blue. We are still assessing the damage..... Quote of the day - "Never again will we have a blue hulled boat!" -- Bill McClendon, 3:19 am.

On another note, Bill and I have both been reading. I finished In the Heart of the Sea: The Story of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. I bought this book at the gift shop of the Whaling Museum. It is an incredible story, and a fabulous read. It is about the whaleship Essex out of Nantucket. In 1819 at the height of the whaling industry, 20 crew left for the Pacific. After about a year of being at sea, their ship was rammed by a whale and sunk. The 20 crew got into three whaleboats in search of land. In the Heart of the Sea is their story of survival. The book won the 2000 National Book Award (Nonfiction). If anyone is interested in reading it, I would be more than happy to put it in the mail. More information can be found on the author's website: http://www.nathanielphilbrick.com/heartofthesea/index.html

Bill and I both also read You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Letham (one of our favorite authors). It was an OK book (not my favorite, Bill like it a little more) about the LA art / rock scene, a struggling band, and a kangaroo. We passed it along to Keith to read on the ferry yesterday. Here is a book review from the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/15/AR2007031502626.html