April 30 – Alexandria, VA

Old Dominion Boat Club

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” ―Tim Cahill

One of our main reasons for visiting Alexandria was to visit friends we met in 2014 when we took the Texas Pearl home from Florida. A casual meeting at a marina in Panama City gave us a chance to make some very special friends...it's one of the best parts of cursing. Larry and Gail were on the home stretch of their Great Loop adventure that year and we've been lucky enough to see them every year since. 

We've enjoyed being docked at their boat club at the foot of King Street, meeting some of their boating friends and spending Saturday night at the clubs annual pig roast and sock burning party, where we got to meet some of their children and grandchildren. Thank you for letting us join the fun...we had a great time. 

The view of the Old Dominion Boat Club from the Torpedo Factory

Part of the delicious dinner we had at the boat club Saturday night

Part of Larry and Gail's family

The purpose of the sock burning is to shed your winter socks and celebrate the upcoming spring equinox (which has already passed) and the beginning of the boating season.   

Sunday Gail and Larry took us on a tour of the area. They drove us around Alexandria giving us a little history lesson, down the George Washington Parkway to Mount Vernon and then over the Arlington Memorial Bridge into Washington DC to see some of the monuments. It was a great tour but the best part of the day was spending the evening at their townhouse catching up and enjoying a great meal. They've been wonderful hosts and we're so glad we had a chance to come visit.

The original entry to Mount Vernon..the way George Washington would have come into his estate. We're hoping to stop and visit Mount Vernon on our way down the Potomac later in the week.

The Martin Luther King Memorial wasn't complete when we were in DC the last time, so it was nice to get to see it today.

"Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope"

The Jefferson Memorial...across the tidal basin from the MLK memorial