Washington, DC – Beaufort, NC – Richmond VA

• We started our trip in Washington, DC. We rented bikes in Alexandria, VA and biked 10 miles to Mt. Vernon, George Washington’s house. One direction was enough – we Ubered back. We went to dinner at Pinstripes were we could play bocce as we ate dinner.
• We drove south to the Crystal Coast and stayed in Beaufort, NC.
• We rented kayaks
• Some of us were interested in a hike (Mary, Alex, Ben, Marie) and some wanted to relax on a beach (Mike, Laura) so we took the island ferry (small motor boat) over to Horse Island. The hikers started out on the trail and immediately encountered crabs(?) blocking the path. We succeeded past them and tried to follow the trail, which was not well marked. The path lead us into knee deep water. Apparently this was a hike to be done at low tide, and it was not low tide now. Horse Island is so named for the wild horses that frequent it. We did not see them on the island, but they left many reminders of their presence which had us wading through poopy water such that we affectionately named the island “Horse Poop Island”. As we slogged through the watery trail, our feet were sucked into the muddy/poopy bottom. It was disgusting, but we were good sports which made it hilarious. We eventually made it to a nice beach with a view of some wild horses on a nearby island. Meanwhile the beachgoers were not having an easy time of it. They tried to get to the nice beach, which I supposed would have been accessible at low tide, but only Laura had a bathing suit on and as they tried to make it, the water was too high so they doubled back and sat on the thin strip of sand where the ferry had let us off. Poor Mike lost his sandal to the clutches of the muddy bottom they tried walking through.
• Worst dining experience ever – we went to a seafood place which had almost none of the things on their menu. Even when we finally got our orders in , they came back to inform us that they didn’t have one of the meals
• Richmond, VA area was our next stop. We visited Nanny & Grandpa Medoff’s grave and King’s Dominion Amusement Park. We also rafted (it was called white water rafting, but that photo you see is as wild as it got) the James River right by downtown Richmond. Mike asks the guide a controversial political question about the Civil War museum. Our guide recommended a restaurant for us and amazingly we all really liked what we had – a rare occurrence.
• Last stop on the way home was the Udvar-Hazy Center, part of the Smithsonian Air & Space museum. Chris joined us there. We had 2 cars at this point so one car stopped at Chris’s parents house on the way home which was Mary’s first time to meet Cindy & Dave Desrochers.