What a crazy but fun time last night...and I know it's going to get better today! I slept like a baby even though Chuck said it blew like stink starting at 3 am. I never heard or felt a thing! If we were anchored, I would have heard every creak, slap, wind, etc.
I called Rita to see if they were up to another busy and crazy day? Why not? I took charge for most of the day's plans. To start, we're going to the laundromat on Maryland Street. So we gathered up our dirty and wet clothes. David had already lowered his dinghy and motor...I think he doesn't want to chance getting stuck at the dock again. In fact when the lock wouldn't open last night, he started beating it on the dock cleat and then the dock. I think he was wishing he had a rock to use! LOL It was funny to watch him! It's going to be better in separate dinks today with our extra baggage that we'll be toting. We're heading over to the dock at 9 am but while I'm waiting for Chuck, the pump-out boat goes motoring past. I got on the VHF and hailed him to come over to mooring ball #65. We needed him bad!! It's so much easier to have the pump out machine to come to our boat and it's only $5 for this service...and a tip of course. We caught up to Whisper at the dinghy dock. From there we walked to the laundromat. The suns out and it's about 70 degrees already. We haven't seen much of those temps since we got north of Titusville! So while our clothes are doing their thing, we all decide to sit outside and enjoy the weather...and people watch. This is a great out of the way street in Annapolis with little shops and the City Dock Coffee Shop....great coffee, tea, bagels, and pastries!
Soon, we were heading back to our dinghies around 11:00 am.
Next on my agenda was to catch the public transit to the Bay Ridge Area once our clothes were stowed. We all wanted to get our hair cut, shop at Fawcett's and West Marine, and then grocery shop. First, Chuck wanted to tie up across the river and go to Maritime Solutions to buy a zinc for our outboard. They handle parts for Nissan motors. Chuck has been looking everywhere on our trip back to no avail, but Maritime Solutions has the part! We told David and Rita that we'd call them once we got back to Happy Hours....and it didn't take long at all.
When I called Rita, she was very excited and told me she has some great news to tell us. Of course, she was going to keep us in suspense until we got to shore. She also wanted us to pack sandwiches to eat on the bench while waiting for the bus....good idea because no one was quite ready to eat. They picked us up in their dinghy and we tied up to the dock close to the Catholic Church. From there, it was an easy walk through the church's parking lot, down Duke of Gloucester Street over to the corner of St Mary's Street and Compromise Street...the bus stop. Okay so what's the surprise? Well, a very good friend of hers from the Cape wanted her to call her brother, Joe. Joe and his wife, Cynthia, live on the Severn River. They are taking the four of us to the Annapolis Yacht Club for dinner. Wow! How nice! None of us have ever met this couple, including Rita!!! In the mean time, we're still waiting for the bus. He was suppose to be here at 1:15...so I called the city transit company. How accommodating. They are sending a green shuttle bus just for us! The lady bus driver even took us right to the Bay Ridge Plaza. Normally we would have taken that green bus to the Eastport Plaza to transfer to the brown bus.
Once the bus dropped us off, we went into Great Clips and the 3 gals had no customers. Boy are we lucky that we don't have to wait. We have little time to do what we want because of our delayed bus ride. After our cuts, Chuck and I high-tailed it over to Fawcett's and West Marine while Rita and David grocery shopped at the Giant. We actually made it back to the plaza in time to hustle through the Giant before our 4 pm bus ride back to Eastport to pick up the transfer bus to Annapolis. We convinced the bus driver to drop us off right after the Spa Creek Bridge, at Duke of Gloucester Street....back to our boats to grab our shower gear and then off to the showers.
We want to shower to make ourselves presentable at the Yacht Club when we meet Joe and Cynthia at 6 pm. To make an even longer story short, Joe called to say that he just found out we couldn't eat at the club because the Commodore's Ball was being held tonight. He suggested we now meet at Carol's Creek. I assured Rita that I knew where that restaurant was. So as soon as we were ready, we dinghied across Spa Creek to Carol's Creek only to find out that it was closed to the general public tonight. Someone had reserved the entire restaurant for a wedding reception. In the meantime, Joe called the Boatyard and there was a 3 hour wait....forget that. I suggested Adam's Rib in the Eastport Plaza which is about 4 blocks away....too far for Rita to walk so the 4 of us squeezed into the back of Joe's silver Mercedes. Hot, Hot, Hot!!! It was like trying to see how many people can squeeze into a Volkswagen but better! LOL
We all had such a great time! Joe and Cynthia are a lovely couple, both with great sense of humors. You would have thought we all knew each other for years instead of just a few hours! In fact, they wished we had called them before we grabbed our mooring balls because he has 3 docks that we could have used. They are both so gracious and generous! During our visit, we found out that Joe is part owner of the 'American Tug' company. The night flew by too quickly and before we knew it they delivered us right to our dinghies and we said our 'goodbyes' and 'thanks'.
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