The Memorial Day Weekend..

Me and my brother Mike on the back of  M/V “Our Pleasure” @ Belmont Bay

The thing I like most about the Memorial Day weekend is that it signifies the start of Summer. This is also one of the best weekends for boating in my opinion. Face it, after a long winter everyone has the itch to hit the water for the long three day weekend… and this year the weather was most cooperative! Here are a few photos from the weekend events on the water at Belmont Bay… Enjoy!
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The 2009 Boating Season…

I’ve taken the time to put together a small collection of photos that Julie and I took during this past summer. Most of these photos never made the normal journal posts because they were on our small camera (the one Julie uses) which doesn’t get downloaded very often. After cleaning out our little camera for the up coming holidays, I realized that I really hadn’t posted a whole lot of photos from the boating season. I normally try to post at least two boating photo stories a month during the summer, but this past summer was so busy I just didn’t have the time. So, as a tribute to this past summer, and the fun and sun that it gave us, here are some pictures to keep us warm over the winter…. Enjoy!!
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The ‘Girls Day’ Boating Excursion…

Julie asked me some time ago, if I could make myself available to take her and some of her girlfriends out on our boat before the end of the summer. So after much planning, we decided to put together a boating day for the girls this past Saturday…. and it turned out to be a fabulous day with nothing but blue skies and sunshine! We started the day with a quick cruise out to the channel between Occoquan and Mattawoman Creek and then back to Occoquan Bay where we stopped long enough to take some pictures of the Rock Island Wreck (a very popular attraction lately!)

Then it was on to Belmont Bay where we found a nice shallow spot just off the beach to drop anchor and spend the rest of the afternoon. I admit I might have gone a little over-board with all the food (grilled shrimp, steak and veggie kabobs) but hey, it was Julies idea and from the looks on their faces I would say her friends totally enjoyed it! Anyway, it was a truly enjoyable day for all and as I said back at the dock, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again in a second… just give me a heads up!

I’ve added some photos from the day to my journal gallery… just click the link below. For those of you who where there, I will send out an email soon with the URL where you can download the full sized image files for making prints. (photos & more »)

July 4th Fireworks in DC!

Well here we are… another year, another July 4Th and yes another boating trip up to Washington DC for the best Independence Day Fireworks show in the country (or so I’ve been told.) This year will mark the second anniversary of our new boat, so we where truly excited to be able to spend the entire weekend out on the water as we did last year. Saturday started out with the usual meeting of friends out at Belmont Bay for the pre-trip festivities and then around 4:30 we pulled the anchor and started the hour long cruise up to DC. Our goal… find a good spot to anchor for dinner and then relax & enjoy the show.

Charlie & Nichole were the first from our little group to make it under the 14Th street bridge and almost right away found an open spot in nearly the same location as we anchored last year. Just up river from the tidal basin with a great view of both the Washington Monument and the Fireworks show… who could ask for more! After getting everyone tied up and settled in for the show (and the evening) we broke out the grills for some shrimp, steak and veggie kabobs and then kicked back for one of most relaxing and pleasant evening on the Potomac River we’ve had in a very long time! (photos & more »)