7/5/25 Yorktown to Deltaville

Erik slept in till 5:30am but still caught some sunrise pictures upon rising from our last night on the hook.  

We will soon miss these peaceful mornings 😟

Erik took Riva in to shore while Renee started getting ready to head back to Deltaville.  It was very calm this morning but the weather hinted at some conditions that might get yucky, or at the very least bumpy.  Untied from the mooring ball about 7:30am with Chelsea still in bed 😴.  

The last ride for this years trip!
Chelsea did get out of bed eventually 😌

40.8 miles later, after a pretty decent trip (just a little bumpy), we pulled up to the gas dock at Deltaville Yachting Center.  

The 40.8 mile track back up to Deltaville from Yorktown

After topping off the gas tanks we were tucked back into our spot in the service bay where they would pull Happy Destiny out on Monday.  The next couple hours consisted of packing, cleaning, storing, taking down the flybridge  enclosure, folding Biminis up, flushing engines and generator with fresh water, and loading the car.  

Happy Destiny all closed up and ready to be put up on the hard for the year
She did us good again this trip

We were headed home about 2:30pm to bring an end to another amazing adventure trudging the waters of our happy Destiny ❤️.

• 4 new states (New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia) for a total of 19 states thus far on our loop plus The District of Columbia
• 23 travel days out of 35 days total on the water
• About 880 miles traveled this year
• 1227 gallons of gas consumed…ouch 😬

7/4/25 - Independence Day in Yorktown Virginia

After a bouncy night on the mooring ball, lots of boat traffic making wakes, Erik watched the sunrise and finished yesterday’s blog while Renee, Riva, and Chelsea slept in.  We sat on the boat drinking coffee and made our plans for the day. 

Renee relaxing on the aft deck before heading to shore
Patriotic pup awaiting us ashore

We loaded the four of us in the dinghy and headed in to shore to catch the parade that was lining up in the park.  The parade was a good one with Navy, Air Force, Marines, floats, a fife and drum band, and many cars, trucks, and organizations.  

                                                                       A very nice parade

After the parade we walked up the street to the coffee shop where we had a bite to eat, a yummy breakfast wrap, bagel sandwich and a pistachio latte.  Erik left to get an Uber to get some cancer sticks while Renee walked in circles trying to find her glasses she lost somewhere at the coffee shop. We had a picture to confirm she had them on when they got there 🤪. Finally Chelsea found them under the picnic table, YAY!!! Thank you Chelsea🥰.  

We walked up the road to explore the Nelson house, a house built around 1730 and still original floors everywhere but the entry hallway. Beautiful house and gardens but the most interesting thing is the cannonballs embedded in the side of the house.  The story is that the British had taken the house during the battle of Yorktown, Mr Nelson was fighting aboard one of the ships in the York River and he encouraged the launching of cannonballs at the cost of damage to his home in favor of defeating the British 🇺🇸. Which is exactly what happened and we won our independence!  

Some of the many cool historical homes 
If you look closely at the second to last pic above this one you can see a cannonball lodged in the brick wall

There is cave in the river bank that is supposedly where General Cornwallis hid during the seize.  We stopped to check out the candy, ice cream, and coffee shop where Erik and Renee found one of their favorite ice cream flavors found thus far, Rush Hour, a coffee, caramel, and chocolate flavored deliciousness made but Ashbys Ice cream. YUM!  Chelsea enjoyed some Superman ice cream 😋.  We walked some shops, made a few purchases including some special treats for Riva before watching the hotdog eating contest and heading back to the boat for a few hours to rest.  

Riva making herself at home in one of the shops 

We relaxed on the boat for a few hours, Chelsea laid out, Erik and Renee relaxed on the aft deck in a nice breeze, or in the air conditioned boat.  There were many boats anchored by the beach, with many people camped out all day for the festivities and fireworks.  We made sloppy joes for dinner then almost tipped the overloaded dinghy when we headed back to shore 😂.

First we climbed the hill to see the Yorktown Victory Monument, erected in 1884. We then walked a short ways to the battlefield where the battle took place and back into town to enjoy the festivities.  Kona Ice and kettle corn in hand we listened to the sounds of The Fife and Drums of York Town then they read the Declaration of Independence(all in full colonial attire).  

                                             Beautiful view from up at the Victory Monument 

Victory monument 
With a beautiful overlook 

Yorktown battlefields

Back at the boat we cooled off with showers before settling in for the firework display.  We could almost reach out and touch the fireworks barge! Ok not really but we were VERY close! After a wonderful fireworks show we rocked and rolled as the boats moved around leaving their anchor spots.  We finally stopped bouncing around enough to settle in and quickly fall asleep.   It was a wonderful 4th of July!

7/3/25 - Deltaville to Yorktown VA

It was nice to be well rested given the almost 3 full days tied to the dock at DYC.  We had another pretty relaxing morning mostly aboard getting a few final things ready for Chelsea’s arrival, walking Riva, and Erik did a little work for a brief time.  Chelsea had texted a little after 4am saying that she had left McConnelsville and was headed our way.  Her ETA was 11:40am and she sent us a real time dropped pin so that we could follow her progress (didn’t know this was possible….who knew 🤷‍♂️).  

Chelsea made good time arriving at 11:30.  We had made the decision to take one last good boat trip to Yorktown to enjoy their extensive festivities and potentially hook up with some of Renee’s kin (Uncle Chris, Aunt Pat, and cousins).  Shortly after Chelseas arrival we threw the lines departing Deltaville at 11:45 am.   It was a warm, but breezy day for the cruise and Chelsea took the helm for a short period,  

Captain Chelsea 

😮 

Cruising to Yorktown for Independence Day

Pulling off of the bay and into the York River we scoped out with the binoculars an open mooring ball.  Yorktown had just this year put in multiple new mooring balls that are essentially huge buoys with a tie off on the top.  These were significantly larger than any mooring balls we’d encountered previously and it was a pretty easy, seamless tie off to one of them located in what we think will be a prime spot for both going ashore as well as for firework viewing tomorrow night.  After getting settled in we dropped the dinghy and headed into the waterfront marina where we tied off the dinghy and walked some of Water St and Main St to see the sites.   Shortly after coming ashore Uncle Chris called back confirming that they would pick us up around 5pm for dinner at a nearby Italian joint.  Erik loaded Riva back into the dinghy to take her back out to the boat while we went to dinner.  The now increased chop on the water coupled with now heading back out to the boat against the incoming tide current made for a rather long, hot, and bumpy ride; they survived it though.  

Mooring ball/buoy we are tied off to 

Many historic sites for us to explore
Most will have to wait until tomorrow when we have more time

Put ‘em up Brits 😝 

No caption necessary

The Good Stuff

It was a pleasant dinner and visit with not only Chris and Pat but fortunately two of their sons (Mike and David) as well as David’s fiancé and her daughter were able to join.  We always enjoy being able to meet up and visit with family and friends on our journey whenever feasible.  Chris and Pat got us back to the waterfront around 7:30pm and shortly after the dinghy ride back out to the boat Erik loaded Riva back in for a quick and shorter dinghy ride to shore at a closer beach access point while Chelsea and Renee got showered up to free their bodies of the sweat and sunblock.  The evening shore excursion was abbreviated when a firework or cannon blast had Riva quickly retreating, with tail down, back to the beach and dinghy to take cover!  

Scheiderer family visit! 
Chelsea either needs to work on her group selfie skills 
Or
Mike needs a smaller head
Sorry David 😂 

We were all exhausted from all of the activities on a hot day, especially Chelsea who had been up since shortly after 3am.   Evening coffee and frappes (yep…they’ve become a daily staple) had us all ready for our heads to be resting on our pillows.  It was a great day on our journey again today particularly with the opportunity to share some of it with our family.   

Peaceful night in Yorktown

7/2/25 - Another relaxing, rainy day in Deltaville VA

A new day dawns aboard Happy Destiny 

The weather has generally been dry and hot these last couple of weeks so the storms last night and significant steady rain with temps only reaching about 77 today are a somewhat refreshing change.  It was a very slow moving and easy going morning filled mostly with coffee, breakfast, and some planning for what we would do on our last couple of days aboard.   DYC (Deltaville Yachting Center) has a courtesy car which is a nice feature for us when traveling by boat particularly since there is really not much immediately adjacent the marina.   We had reserved the car for 11:30am and headed out to go to a noon AA meeting that we found on our app supposedly only a little over a mile away.   The location the gps address brought us to was a small park like area on the water owned by a local church.   There was a shelter house there and what appeared to be a nice location for an outside meeting, after waiting for anyone to arrive until 10 minutes or so after the noon hour it was determined that there apparently is not a meeting there any longer 🤨.   While out on the point of the peninsula we did drive by and look at the lighthouse at Stingray Point before heading into the small town of Deltaville where we went to the IGA to pick up a few things (including a small bucket of fried chicken for lunch which we’d been craving since we were told about it by a lady at the pool a couple days ago).  A stop through the local hardware for us a bottle of fuel stabilizer treatment (this means close to time to store the boat 😔) and a bottle of water tank freshener.  As we were driving down the road we noticed that there was a church by the same name as the church that supposedly hosted the AA meeting that no one was at so we pulled in and upon entering were told that the meeting day/time had been changed.   However, there happened to be another local lady from the next town over who also was unaware of this and was sitting in the room by herself with her Big Book and 12/12.  A small but good meeting ensued with just the three of us…”Where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them”.  

Deltaville Deltas old school wood bleacher ball park

Back at the boat we enjoyed our chicken thighs and drumsticks and mostly lounged around for several hours as it was still somewhat rainy.  By about 4pm it had stopped raining and was just cloudy so we loaded Riva into her basket on the bike and headed over to Cross Rip Campground about 1.5 miles away down a small road winding through a heavily wooded area.  Erik had called and spoke with the owner yesterday to inquire if we could bring Riva there to visit their small beach.   The one downside we’ve found this far with Deltaville is the lack of public beach access.  It was a nice hidden gem of a campground with nicely wooded spots and a clean, small beach with clear water.   Riva went swimming on her own before being joined by another dog that showed up who she played with.  

After her beach time Riva got a bath 
She then drug her bed out into the center of the salon to take a nap
Tuckered out pup

The evening was spent doing a few boat chores.  We shuffled some things around and made up the bow birth bed in preparation for Chelsea’s expected arrival tomorrow.  A delicious dinner was prepared on the grill of our last T-bone steak we had brought from home complimented with a baked potato and most importantly 4 ears of freshly picked white sweet corn 🌽 that we picked up at the local farm stand earlier.  The first sweet corn of the season for us was fresh and delightful!   We ended the evening with a few more boat chores and watching a movie on Netflix before retiring to our cabin.  Both of us had a much needed feeling of being well rested  given the 2+ day with no boat movement and necessary relaxation.   Erik and Chelsea are making their best efforts to talk Renee into agreeing to the cruise to Yorktown (41 miles south of here) either tomorrow or Friday to experience a colonial July 4th celebration; report on results of the convincing to come later 😝 

Bow birth bed ready for Chelsea’s arrival tomorrow
This area tends to get used as a storage spot for all kinds of misc things when we’re cruising alone

Pic of deliciousness (before)
Damage done (after) 
😋 

7/1/25 - chillin in Deltaville VA

After a month of traveling and being on the move it was somewhat refreshing to have reached what will be our final destination for this years journey so we took today as a very relaxed one.  Much of our usual routine remained in the morning, just a little slower and with a slightly different attitude.   Erik was up even earlier than his norm and sat on the aft enjoying a couple hours of pre dawn calm while Renee and Riva slept in a bit.   Scrambled eggs, sausage patties, and toast were cooked to both feed our tummies as well as start emptying out the fridge and freezer.   Erik logged onto a work meeting from 9-10:30am after which we headed out on our bikes to the Deltaville Maritime Museum which was just about a mile up the road.  The museum was smaller than some we have visited but still nicely done and informative about the area.   Deltaville has a long history of boat building as do many of the small towns along the waterfronts.   One very cool thing that this museum does is to hold an annual family boat building week where 8 families get the opportunity to build a handmade 14’ wooden skiff together over a 5 day period.  What a neat way to give kids an educational and fun experience while spending quality time with their parents!   We visited the boat shop located toward the rear of the property and chatted with several volunteers who were there working on a larger boat that they’ve been working on throughout the year.   One of the gentlemen was the guy in the YouTube video below on the family boat building week.   

https://www.deltavillemuseum.com/family-boat-building-week

F.D Crockett 
100 year old skiff on display at the waterfront portion of the Deltaville Maritime Museum

Another old skiff on display outside at one of their growing shelters
They are in process of expansion 

Back at the marina we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon aboard.  We even watched a movie on TV, which is something we do almost none of while on our trips because there is always too many other things to see and do.  We talked about what we might do on the couple of days that Chelsea will be here later in the week; she will be arriving Thursday afternoon to spend a couple days aboard and then transport us home.  There are multiple options for July 4th activities, the most intriguing would be to make our way to Yorktown VA where they really go all out on their celebrations.   However, it would be an ~90 mile round trip to go down there and back…not a cheap outing for us.  Additionally, we are certain that the area will be crazy busy and marinas would likely all be booked solid.   Renee touched base with her Uncle Chris and Aunt Pat who live in that area to inquire with them whether they know of a good option for us to just drive (since Chelsea will be bringing our car) but they said they haven’t been to that event in many years because last time they went it was so busy and crowded.  Hmmmm…..we will have to continue to consider our options.   Deltaville has their July 4th celebrations on Saturday the 5th held primarily at their semi pro baseball stadium which interestingly is the oldest all wood baseball stadium in Virginia and has been hosting games since 1948 (  https://deltavilleballpark.com/ ).  Saturdays semi pro, wood bat game will be the Deltaville Deltas (pretty original name 😂) taking on the Chesapeake Sharks and will conclude with a fireworks display.  We had planned to be heading home Saturday morning, but, could consider staying for the local activities and then head home Sunday.  

Late in the afternoon/early evening we spent a couple of hours in the nicely shaded pool chatting with others and relaxing.  We enjoyed a late 8pm dinner of burgers 🍔 and broccoli 🥦 (more trying to use up the food we have) and then watched a second movie aboard while listening to the thunder as storms rolled in before heading off to bed.   

Smoke on the water 
(bahm bahm bahm, bahm bahm bahm bahm) every boys first guitar solo reenacted…if ya know, ya know 😝 

6/30/25 - Point Lookout MD to Deltaville VA

A good nights sleep was had last night even with a brief period of thunderstorms; or at least says Renee…Erik had no problem sleeping through them apparently.  Upon awakening we sat on the aft drinking our cups of joe in the muggy, still air waiting for Deltaville Yachting Center to open at 8am to be able to get confirmation that they would have a spot for us if we headed there today.   

Dawn at Point Lookout
Promises of another blessed day!

As the sun rose the charter captain of ‘Fin Finder II’ greeted a group of 13 Amish boys and men and loaded them all tightly aboard to go out and fish for cobia 

This would be our last main leg of the journey with it being the place we have made arrangements for storage although we will likely plan a couple of small day trips once there over the next 5 days or so.  While waiting Erik spent time down in the engine room cleaning things up, checking fluids, and investigating whether we had any type of fuel leak.  Yesterday afternoon Craig and another boater (other Marinette owner) had insisted that when they boarded our boat and went below that they smelled fuel (not a good thing on a gasoline powered boat).  After a thorough check of the bilge, gas lines, filters, carbs etc he did not find any leak or evidence of fuel.  We will keep a close eye (and nose) on it and be particularly diligent to run our bilge blowers prior to startups.   We got hold of the yard and slip managers, Laura and Tammy, at Deltaville and were able to confirm that they had room for us to come in today; they would place us on the service bay wall near the travel lift where we would be lifted out the beginning of next week anyhow.  In checking the bay conditions on the Windy app we did see where there was a significant, and building throughout the day, south wind predicted which with the fetch coming up the bay would have waves building to the point of issuing a small craft advisory starting at 5pm.  We thus prepared the boat for what could be a bumpy ride and fate waiting for the fuel dock to become available moved over to fill up (205 gallons at 4.29…..ouch!) before departing Point Lookout a little before 10am.  

The first 10-12 miles or so coming down the Potomac was pretty smooth cruising but as we exited the mouth of the river out onto The Chesapeake the waves increased to a steady chop with small whitecaps, but still very manageable since we were headed almost due south and directly into the waves.  We kept up a pretty good pace (about averaging just under 14mph).  

Day marker with many cormorants perched 
Still fairly smooth seas as we were coming off of the Potomac

For the last 6 miles or so our course had us turning west to head toward the mouth of the Rappahannock River and Deltaville.   By this point the waves had increased and were now a beam sea (coming at us and hitting on the side of the boat) making it rather uncomfortable and challenging to steer.  Erik picked up the speed to about 22 mph in order to plane out and get the boat on top of the waves which both helped slightly as well as got us in quicker.   Deltaville Yachting Center is located at the rear of a winding channel back off the river and bay about 1 mile making for a nicely protected area.   By 1:15pm we had arrived and were tucked snuggly in along the wall near the travel lift/service bay.  

Bouncy cruise on the Chesapeake for our entry into Deltaville

Our 45.3 mile track from today’s voyage
Including a brief top speed of 22.4 mph!
Erik insists we must blow the carbon out of the engines occasionally 😝 

We took some time to cool off in the AC with Riva before heading up to the offices to check in.  The staff was very helpful and friendly giving us all the information and directions we requested.   The marina and boat yard is very clean and well organized including a nice, well stocked ships store.  They gave us codes for the bath house and pool access and informed us that we were welcome to use the marina courtesy car (always a nice added bonus when traveling).   After walking Riva for a bit she was more than ready to retreat back to the now cool cabin of Happy Destiny while Renee and Erik suited up to head to the pool for the late afternoon.  The pool, although warmer than we ideally like, was refreshing and even had a decent amount of shade covering a good portion of it.  An added bonus is that this pool, unlike a couple others we had been at earlier in the trip that closed at 4-5pm (WTH is that all about?!), is technically open until 10pm but Tammy in the office had informed us that even that is not enforced as long as no one is being rowdy or noisy 🤗.   At the pool we met and chatted for a while with a couple (Roger and Krysten) and their friend (Jenny) who had just gotten to Deltaville recently after spending 3 months in the Bahamas.  They had lots of good information about the Bahamas (the good and the bad) that was nice to receive and will be useful to us if we decide to make that side trip/run after closing our Loop…hmmm we’ll see if that’s where we are lead in a couple of years.   

Pool time!  
Maybe if you zoom close you’ll see how well the special toenail polish job Chelsea did for Renee before departing has held up 🤣 

Leftover chicken tacos for a late dinner satisfied our appetites followed by showers and a nighttime finale of some bomb ass frappes had us prepared for a much needed slumber.  It’s always nice to be at what is essentially our final destination for the year knowing that Happy Destiny again carried us to so many great towns and stops, but, at the same time this means that the end of our vacation and journey is drawing nearer 😔.   Having about 5 days remaining 

6/29/25- Leonardtown MD to Point Lookout MD

Our new found friends Craig and Roxanne in front of T&J’s Cove which served quite delicious fare

Craig is a retired Navy guy who served 20 years as an airplane mechanic…thanks for your service Craig!

Roxanne is a school bus driver…thanks for your service to the yutes of America Roxanne!

It was a very nice and peaceful morning sitting at the Leonardwood wharf dock watching the sunrise and the animals wake for their morning activities.  We made another leg burning ride up the hill from the wharf to town right at 7am to visit ‘Flour Bakery’ where we indulged in a couple of made to order doughnuts.  They were quite yummy, but pricey.  The sun was getting hot quick which we knew would make for a hot day quickly.  We waited until Point Lookout State Park Marina opened to call and that they had a slip for us and that it would be OK for us to arrive early; they confirmed.   We chose it for our next stop for two reasons; they have the most reasonably priced ethanol free gas around (we will be taking on the better part of 200 gallons tomorrow!) and they also have a swimming pool which sounded quite enticing given the expected 95 degree temps.   

Osprey hunting off the back of our boat early this morning

Majestic animals

Not nearly as majestic as the osprey….or quiet

But pretty cool low fly by of this small plane 

The 27 mile cruise was calm and smooth as we cruised at an average of 15mph to arrive at our destination about 11:30am.  

As we were leaving Breton Bay about to go back out onto the Potomac this small sea plane landed in front of us….

Who has right of way? Us or the plane?

And just like that it took back off

We no longer had to be concerned with who had right of way 😂 

Sand? gravel? Corn?

Our usual routine of getting Riva off the boat and out for a walk revealed several other Marinette boats at the marina, a couple in slips and a couple up on land in hard storage.   There actually was a Marinette dealer in MD back in the 70’s and 80’s and in fact our first Big M ‘Aquaholic’ was purchased new in Maryland.   After settling in we gathered dirty laundry and put on swimsuits to head over to the pool and adjacent laundry facility.  The pool was a very refreshing treat where we hung out for the next couple hours chatting with other marina folks.  We struck up a conversation with Craig who had overheard us mention we were aboard a Marinette.   Turns out that he has been a longtime owner of a couple of our aluminum passions himself!  The one he currently owns is a 1971 28 ft Express very similar to ‘Easy Does It’ our 1973 Express that we had for some years before going to the pontoon dark side a couple years ago.   Craigs has been stored on the hard there for almost 5 years now.  After some conversations about our adventures on ours he said that we had sparked him into thoughts of how and when to get his back to ready for cruising.   Before heading out from the refreshing dip Craig and Roxanne invited us to join them for dinner this evening at their local favorite joint.   Turns out that it happened to be an establishment that is at the top of the hill coming up out of the wharf in Leonardwood…lol.    We agreed and made arrangements that they would pick us up at the marina at around 6pm.   

We rested and relaxed aboard in the AC for a few hours before getting cleaned up for dinner.   As proposed Craig and Roxanne picked us up and on the way back toward Leonardwood (about a 20 mile drive) they drove us around the area giving us a good land tour of things.   They took us through the state park and out to the Point Lookout Lighthouse, to their home, through St Mary’s, and then to the restaurant in Leonardwood.   

We had wanted to go from the marina to the lighthouse but it would have been an ~18 mile round trip 
Too hot for that long of a pedal
Thanks again to Craig and Roxanne 
We got a relaxing air conditioned ride out to the point
The history of the lighthouses is always neat to read about

With full stomachs and happy hearts we spent the evening back at the marina chatting with folks, looking at a nice sunset,  and making plans for tomorrow before heading off to bed.  Good cruising…good food…and most importantly good people made for yet another fabulous day of Looping aboard Happy Destiny!

Sun up and now sun down
It was another wonderful trip around

6/28/25 - Colonial Bech VA to Leonardtown MD

A ‘flight’ of ice cream
INSANITY
😋 
More on this treat later

Erik had his usual early start to the day getting up at 4:30am and took the golf cart out to the post office to drop a couple post cards in the mailbox and swung by the beach to sit on a bench for some pre dawn relaxation.   The decision was made to move today about 20 miles across to the other side of the Potomac and down a bit to Leonardtown MD in Breton Bay.  We had heard good things about the small town and thought we’d add it to the list of towns visited.  Additionally our AA app indicated that there was a meeting there at 11am that would be just over a mile bike ride to get to.   After showering we untied the lines and headed out.  We needed to get some fuel and Renee had researched where would be the best place (we always price around also look for only ethanol free gas) to determine that it would be at a marina right at the mouth of the bay as we left Colonial Beach.  We were only planning to get about 30 gallons because it was 5.69 per gallon and we knew that further down the Potomac at the mouth of the Chesapeake we can fill up with fuel for 4.29 per gallon.  The docking at the fuel dock proved to be the most challenging so far in the trip due to the tide going out creating a very strong current on the side of the boat at approach.  It took 3 attempts to get successfully onto the dock and a similar number of colorful explicative words rolling off Erik’s frustrated tongue!  😜   After the fueling fiasco we were on our way out of the bay and headed across and down the wide river.   

It was a fairly short 21 mile jaunt that had us docking at the free town docks (including electric!) in Leonardtown at 10:35am.  We quickly got tied up and AC on and took the bikes down from the bow of the boat to head off into town to the 11am meeting.   The google biking directions said mostly flat….they lie!  The first several hundred yards out of the parking lot were up a very steep hill that we gave up pedaling on and walked our bikes up the second half of.   We quickly rolled our way into the church parking lot arriving at exactly 11am.   It was another good meeting that a young man shared his story at.   The story and subsequent sharing by other members was just what we both needed.  

Leonardtown is nestled on the banks of the very calm and beautiful Breton Bay 

We rode back to the boat to check on Riva and ensure that the electric breaker on the dock hadn’t tripped; it was pretty hot and humid by point in the day.    Sandwiches and chips for lunch while cooling off for a few minutes and we headed back into town.  We toured the historic town jail and a couple of other notable sites and then went into a few of the towns shops.  All of that walking in the heat had our minds set on one of the local ice cream shops (farm to cone) we were told about back in DC by our fellow loopers aboard ‘Y-Not’.    

Worth another few photos!
‘The Salted Scoop’
Our kind of joint!
A ‘farm to cone’ ice cream shop boasting 45 creamy, delicious flavors to choose from 
Our flight included:
Biscoff Cookie Butter (favorite)
Coffee Crunch, Java Cookie, Salty Carmel Crunch, Chocoholic, and Rocky Mtn Road

Some sites from around the town

Local lore
Legend of Moll Dyer 
And the Moll Stone

Erik wants to build a set of these double Adirondack chairs with table
He also agrees with the coffee cup slogan 🤣  

We visited a couple other cute shops before heading back to the boat for a late afternoon siesta, relaxing, and dinner aboard.   A fair number of people were milling around the town wharf and park  enjoying the summer evening.  

We love the great outdoors and exploring all of the nice places we visit
BUT
We do appreciate our recliners and cold AC on these hot afternoons!

We debated on riding the bikes a little over 2 miles to go to the ‘Freedom Fest’ that was being held at the St Mary’s County fairgrounds and included a dog stunt show followed by fireworks but decided to stay put and relax more.   Folks at the meeting earlier had told us that in addition to the hill coming up out of the wharf there would be several big hills on the ride to the fairgrounds and this didn’t sound any to appealing to us given that it was still pretty hot and humid.  

As it turned out, from our slip at the free dock we had a pretty decent view of the display from the 2 mile vantage point across Breton Bay.  

Not a bad seat on the aft deck from the bay of the towns Freedom Fest fireworks

And part of the finale

🎆 

Leonardtown proved to be yet another charming small town that we were happy to have visited along our journey.  We had spied a bakery in town earlier that opens at 7am and makes doughnuts fresh to order; hmmmm best get off to bed to rest up for another trip up the hill in the morning!