Today we traveled to Hampton to visit Fort Monroe. Fort Monroe is rich with history. The first ship carrying slaves arrived here, then it became a haven for slaves to be freed. Which is way today the fort is nicknamed “Freedoms Fortress”. It was a hospital during the civil war. Even Harriet Tubman worked at the Forts hospital. The Fort was used for several wars. And, countless Presidents visited the Fort including Lincoln. Jefferson Davis even spent some time in a jail cell at the fort. They still have the flag that was hanging in his cell at the time.

There are lots of pictures below, Jen made sure to take a lot of pictures of the information we learned.

Today, it was taken over by the city of Hampton and is used as a park and the buildings are rented as home and apartment living. The beautiful homes tend to be rented by retired high ranking military personnel. There is a waiting list for some of the homes.

We also got to see a pet cemetery for dogs that served in the military, cannons, a lighthouse and the moat around the Fort. The buildings where they fought the wars were mostly in tact and we got to tour those as well. There is so much history there that it is hard to summarize. We’ve loved learning about our early American history and its given us greater admiration and appreciation for those that fought for our freedom and to make our country great.  

Learning about our history has been a huge highlight of our trip.

Afterwards, we had lunch at a marina/restaurant located at the Fort and then stopped a the microbrewery for some beers to bring back to Mike!

The girls then drove back to Portsmouth to get ice cream at Rick’s again. A quick trip to Food Lion and then we dropped the rental car back off at the airport and took an Uber home. Our drive was so very nice! We loved chatting with him, he has 2 kids and we were telling about about all the fun historic places we’ve been and places to take his kids. He was so friendly and was such pleasant way to end the day.

Today, Kelly, Jen and the girls on Silver Linings (Katie, Ruby and Violet) visited Jamestown Settlement today. It was a memorable experience. English settlers came to Jamestown in 1607 (before the Mayflower!). They lived there from 1607 to 1624. It was a tough time for them. The Indians attacked them a few days after their arrival. They didn’t plan on a land attack. Instead, they focused their energy on a potential Spanish attack on the waterway. When they arrived the water was fresh water and in the fall the currents shifted and it became more saltwater and caused people to become ill and die. The English were not interested in doing manual labor to survive. It was said to be the starving years. There is even evidence of cannibalism after the person died. They also stole from the Indians. When they were caught the Indians told them that if they left their camp again, they would kill them. Basically, the Indians starved them. As a result, the settlers eventually left Jamestown. This was the era of John Smith and Pocahantas….and Disney got the story wrong!

In the 90’s, the town of Jamestown took over ownership of the land from a private owner and began archaeological digging.  Until this time, it was thought there was no evidence of the settlement. While we visited, they were still digging. We got a presentation from an actual archaeologist! They were uncovering building foundations, a water well and their kitchen (ditch). It was in the kitchen that they discovered cannibalism.  

We really enjoyed learning about the settlement and the role of an archaeologist. It was a highlight of our trip.

Afterwards, we made a short drive to downtown Williamsburg.  The main street is closed to cars and has cute little shops and restaurants. We had a girls lunch at a cheese shop with a charcutier tray and wine on their outside seating.  

After we got back to the boat, we made good use of having a rental car when to Lowes to get supplies for some future boat projects. While at Lowes we met someone who recommend we go to Rick’s for ice cream after… so obviously we did lol

In the morning, the Silver Linings girls, Jennifer, and Kelly traveled to Chesapeake, VA to get our hair done. Kelly got a contact from her boat neighbor. The stylist, Jenni, worked at a salon but since COVID, she now works from her home. She is a very nice lady and did a good job. Katie, Ruby and Violet all got haircuts. Kelly got a cut and color. We all looked fabulous!

Later that night, Mike, Kelly and Jennifer went to Smokey Bones for dinner. We bought a discounted gift card in Florida and this was possibly our last opportunity to use it. Food was good and it was nice to be back together.

Happy Father’s Day!! Mike you are the best dad and captain, we love you so so much.

Kent from Silver Linings left early in the morning for Seattle for work.The girls spent the day with us at the Norfolk Tides baseball game! It was a perfect day to spend Father’s day – beer, hotdogs, and baseball! It was an exciting, close game and the Tides won.  

Afterwards, we took an Uber to pick up another rental car. The short story is that we didn’t keep the one we had because they wanted to charge us too much. It was cheaper to turn it in and get another one. 

Then Jen and Mike made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. The Katie, Ruby, and Violet joined us for dinner. Teddy gave us a special opera singing preformance after we ate. He’s so cultured.

Today, we took the ferry from Portsmouth across the river to Norfolk to spend the day in Norfolk. When the ferry pulled into port, we could see the girls on Silver Linings waving to us. Every time we get to see them it feels so good, it reminds us how far we’ve come in our journey and that we are not alone.

The silver Linings crew had a big breakfast and wanted to take some naps and relax so we agreed to meet up later for a movie and dinner.

So in the meantime we found a s’mores station, they make everything homemade. Per usual Jen made sure to capture pictures 🙂

Afterwards we walked over to Grain, its a rooftop bar. They have over 25 beers on draft. It was fun to hangout there and enjoy all being together again.

Next was movie time! We walked over to the mall, which was the the first time we had been to a mall since we left. We went to see the new Top Gun movie. It was amazing!! We all loved it.

Then we ate at Blue Moon with Silver Linings, the food was good but the portions were very small.

Welcome home Jennifer and Mike!!

Kelly spent the day cleaning, so the boat looked nice for Jennifer and Mike’s arrival. Their flights came in about an hour apart so picking them up was uneventful. While at the airport, Kelly also turned in the rental car. So the crew took an Uber home.

The dogs were so excited to see them. They practically knocked Jen over!

Today, the Silver Linings girls and Kelly ran errands – Hobby Lobby, Ross and Grocery Store. And, we enjoyed lunch at Chick-Fil-A! We’ve eaten at a fast food restaurant only a few times since we’ve been traveling so it was a big treat!

Kelly filled the fresh water tanks for the first time by herself….mainly due to our leak!  

That evening, Kelly adjusted the fenders again for the change in tide!

At the Tidewater Marina, we are on a fixed dock. It’s been a bit tricky because the tide can swing as much as 4 feet. Each day, Kelly kept changing the fenders to make sure the boat didn’t rub against the posts. Today, she thinks she got it right!

In the evening, Kelly had dinner with “Silver Linings”, their Aunt and Uncle and Sam from “Tidbit” at a local German restaurant. It was a great time. We enjoyed meeting Katie’s aunt and uncle. They were loud and funny! Her aunt gave Kelly and Sam a hot chocolate ball (just add warm milk) and a dollar to buy a lottery ticket. She didn’t want us left out from getting a gift.  

Throughout our journey, we have seen the effects of labor shortages and tonight was no different.  Our food took a long time and it arrived cold. As a result, we got many of our meals for free and the cold meals to take home which made for a great leftover. Once they fixed the problems, the food was good ….and so were the drinks!

Afterwards, Kelly came back to the boat and adjusted the fenders again!!

Happy Birthday Jennifer!! This is probable the first time one of us had a birthday and we were all in different locations. Jennifer is in Austin, Michael in Lubbock, Mike in Chicago and Kelly in Portsmouth. I guess this might happen more often as the kids get older.  

Today was a fun day!! The girls on “Silver Linings” and Kelly took all 3 dogs to the groomer – Groomingdales in the Ghent district. We loaded them up in the wagon, crossed the river via tunnel to a new groomer. Our biggest challenge on the loop is finding a groomer. Fortunately, it worked out this time. The dogs look great.  In fact, Bonnie and Teddy got the best hair cut they have ever had!

While they were getting groomed, we all went to Chrysler Museum of Art. It is a free museum with over 30,000 objects spanning 5,000 years.One of the more memorable objects were the “Yad Torah Pointers”. Yad is Hubrew for “hand” which is a jewish ritual pointer used to follow text during Torah reading from parchment Torah scrolls. The extensive collection looked like fashion statements and were fun to look at. Most didn’t look very ergonomically correct.  Ha

Another boat issue is a water line leak from the fresh water tanks.  If we leave the pump on, we lose about ¼ of water from the tank each day.  That’s a lot of water considering our tank holds 275 gallons.  So the new problem means we have to turn the pump on at the helm every time we want to use the water from the sinks.  If we forget to turn it off when done, we lose water.

Mike showed Kelly how to fill the tanks before he left….and it looks like it is her official job going forward!  Kelly is glad to do it because it is one less job for Mike to do.

Today was Ruby on “Silver Linings” 13^th birthday!  They invited Kelly to dinner to celebrate at a local Mexican Restaurant.  Food was good and so was the company!