Jack and Pia's Next Great Adventure: We are back on the water...Annapolis to Cape May, NJ

As planned, we flew from Baltimore to Charlotte on Thursday to take care of some personal business and regain our "land legs". Overall, a very successful tr

ip home - the house was meticulous thanks to Jessica. On Friday evening, we traveled to south Charlotte for dinner at Pia's mom with her brothers and family. Great homecoming. On Saturday, we attended Jack's grandson, Jackson, baseball game and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. He is really growing! Here is the lefty as he prepares to hit during the game.

On Saturday afternoon, we met the "crew" (the same crew in the earlier picture that traveled to Charleston to see us off) at Big Al's for wings and beer - a chance to share some of our memories so far. After Big Al's, we went to the dock for more beer - great afternoon!

Sunday was cool in Charlotte so family - including Jackie and Jackson - met at our house for a cookout. We so much enjoyed seeing family and friends and home but we both are looking forward to getting back on the water to continue the trip. We flew back to Baltimore on Tuesday and arrived in Annapolis just in time to see The Blue Angels practice for their upcoming show at the Naval Academy graduation later this week. Although we won't be there for the actual flyover, the practice was awesome. Here are a few pictures taken from the bow of our boat as the Angels flew over the m

arina.

Our last dinner in Annapolis was followed by watching The Idol and Dancing With the Stars before leaving early Wednesday for the C&D Canal that joins the Chesapeake to the Delaware River.

We left Annapolis on Wednesday around 7 AM headed for the C&D canal . "Just Relax" and "Happy Clamz" were two days ahead of us and we needed to make good time to catch them in Cape May. We left the Chesapeake for the last time and traveled half of the C&D before stopping at a marina for the night - about 60 miles on the water. We arrived at the marina mid afternoon. A very pleasant weather evening - no winds, comfortable temps, no humidity. This is a picture of the Summit North Marina as we settled in for the evening with cable hook up to watch the Idol final and we were both surprised and pleased that Kris won.

We again left early on Thursday (although we don't like getting up at 6 AM, we do enjoy the water in the early morning - crisp, calm, smooth). We traveled the last 5 miles of the C&D into the Delaware River into New Jersey. Here is our first sight of NJ (no kidding) as we left the C&D with Delaware on our starboard and NJ on our port. The trip down the Delaware could not have been any better as we ventured outside the shipping channel to avoid the commercial traffic but maintained a comfortable depth. The "crew" from Charlotte gave us a couple of stuffed miniature monkeys when we departed Charleston and asked us to post pictures as we traveled. As they reminded us this week - we have been remiss so we have now "strategically" placed the monkeys on the bow rail above the Looper flag so all pictures from the bridge will show the monkeys. So - here is the first of many more to come - Monkeys on the Loop in the Delaware Bay.

We arrived at the entrance of the Cape May canal late morning after another 60 miles on the water and were fortunate to follow another motor yacht into the inlet (notice the monkeys). Our depth sounder was reading 1 - 2 feet as we passed the ferry boat pier at the entrance and we feared running aground - it was low tide. Following another boat did provide some comfort, if he hit bottom we knew where to avoid. We made it to the marina to join our travel companions and spent the afternoon in Cape May - a very charming resort town in southern NJ that is the nation's oldest seashore resort that dates back to 1812. The entire town of Cape May has been proclaimed and national historic landmark and has the largest collection of Victorian houses in the country. Very colorful!