Jamestown and the beginning of Colonial America

Dateline: Jamestown Settlement, Virginia
November 8, 2007 2140 hours

We are amazed to find that we have been on the road for a full month today! We left Carol’s sister’s home yesterday morning after having breakfast and receiving some extremely good advice about the trip up here and what to do from her husband (Thanks Freddie!!!). It was a long drive, even by California standards. We passed through three states. As we approached within 40 miles of the South Carolina border we began seeing all of these HUGE and colorful roadside billboards for this place called “South of the Border.” I mean, one sign every half-mile on each side of the road with some slogan or other (The BIGGEST hat shop in the world!; The BEST miniature golf course in the world! (everything but the infamous 13-foot gator and gator head whirligigs)). So, of course, being dumb touristas, we decided to stop there for lunch. We FINALLY got to the border and the place is out-of-business!! Locked up tighter than a drum. Must have spent too much dinero on road signs, Mate.

Right outside of Charleston we noticed the temperatures began to chill quickly. As we moved through North Carolina “South of the Border” was replaced with “JR’s DISCOUNT EVERYTHING STORE!!” at the North Carolina-Virginia border. However, one of the things they were advertising was deeply discounted high quality cigars, which got Steve’s attention pronto. Okay: Think a cross between K-Mart and the cheesiest flea marker you have ever seen on steroids, and you got the idea (check the photos at our Google Picasa photo album. However, the place WAS open, and Steve said he has never seen so many cigars in a humidor room in his life. He scored very well, according to him. You can also check out some of the other photos we took after driving way too long!!! But it was fun, as always!

We rolled through Virginia, and it is surprising how different all of these states look to the visitor. Florida is FLAT, FLAT, FLAT. Georgia is beautiful in its own way, and the state is undergoing road construction from one end to the other. South Carolina has this very cosmopolitan look about it, even from the freeway. North Carolina, on the other hand, is one trailer park after another for miles and miles. Virginia is a mixture of all of the good parts of California, excluding the mountains. Rolling farmlands, beautiful back country roads (again, thanks Freddie!) and quaint small towns and villages, large acres of hay and other crops, horses and cattle. We rolled into the little Berg of Scotland Virginia just as the sun was setting, and boarded the ferry that would take us across the James River into Colonial Williamsburg. It was just loading as we got to the dock, so we drove right on-board, and in another 15 minutes we completing our 7.5 hour journey from Hanahan. We checked in, did laundry, and treated ourselves to a nice dinner.

It dawned cold and partly cloudy this morning, and we headed out to (where else) Starbucks for breakfast. Colonial Williamsburg, in our humble opinion, is highly overrated. We did enjoy the William and Mary campus, and walked around a bit through the town, but decided to go our to the Jamestown Settlement park and drive the Colonial Highway in search of Fall Colors. It was a GREAT choice! We had been advised to cut our days in Williamsburg a day short and head to Monticello for a full day, which we will do tomorrow. Steve says he apologizes for the many photos he took that look like school projects of the Jamestown Settlement, but our granddaughter Alyssa is a fifth-grader, and of course that means colonial history, so grandpa decided to help her with her homework with a photo essay of England’s first (sort of) successful colony. One comment, though…. If you saw the photos we took at sea of the affects of being in the North and South Atlantic during rough seas on a ship that is 1,000 feet long and weighs 109,000 TONS, consider the dimensions in the photograph of the “Susan Constant,” which is the ship the settlers came over here on. It is 116 feet long and there were 24 crewmen and 50 passengers on that ship, and it took the almost FIVE MONTHS to get from England to America!! The balcony on our stateroom was larger than this ship. What strong and determined people. The museum is quite impressive, and the artifacts from the 1500’s and 1600’s (which we could not photograph) are simply priceless. The quality of the hand-drawn and hand-written script in books that are 400 – 700 pages in length had to take years to publish just one single copy. It just whetted our appetite for Monticello.

Please take a close look at the autumn colors pictures Steve shot today. The colors are simply fabulous! By the way, we have had a number of requests for copies of these photos. Steve has the following message: The photos are taken with his Nikon digital camera, and the originals are shot at 10.2 megapixels, using very high quality lenses that are computerized – he has a 200mm zoom lens that is an f2.5 (whatever the heck that means) – so the bottom line is if you want a photo to make a huge copy of for a wall print or whatever, he says these can be blown up in increments of feet! Seattle Film Works makes all of his and they do a super job on the very large ones. All he asks is that you give him credit for his work. If you have other questions please send them to us via email and he will get back with you.

So, until the next blog update, we remain…..

Steve, Carol, Charleston and Alligators

Dateline: Charleston, South Carolina
November 5-7, 2007

After lunch with Dee and Doug we left Savannah and headed towards South Carolina, Charleston and Fred and Soni’s house. We followed the GPS and after two and a half hours we found we had taken the “scenic route” and finally found ourselves in Hanahan, South Carolina, which is a suburb of Charleston.

Hanahan is a small town within the Charleston area and it was so very wonderful to see Soni and Fred. Soni is as beautiful as ever and Fred is just as I remembered him, funny, good natured and good looking (what a combination!). We were joined by Soni and Fred’s sons Randy and Rodney and their families. We got to talking and realized we had not seen each other in almost 30 years. Randy surprised me by telling me he is almost 40 years old! I remember when he was just a little boy and I still remember the story about Rodney taking his clothes off in church! We had a huge family BBQ and shared stories late into the night. Even stories about 13-foot alligators in the lake outside Soni’s backyard; Steve was pretty excited after being bummed about the alligators in Florida!

Soni and Fred are truly amazing people; they moved to Charleston with nothing and have created this wonderful community within their church. Their church has grown from a very small church with 25 people in the congregation to a church that has a congregation of over 2,000, a school complete with programs for children from infant to high school. They have created a community which is a testament to the two of them. The church recently burned down and the amount of work that has been done since then is phenomenal. If you want to see people who are the salt of the earth and see how to make a difference in your world, you need only look at the people of Northwood Assembly Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

I am very fortunate to have such wonderful people in my life. Soni and Fred have talked the talk and they have walked the walk. Their family, Randy, Rodney and their families have spent time in third world countries ministering to people in prisons, working in orphanages with children who don’t deserve the treatment they are receiving. Rodney and his wife Tracy and their daughter Sarah told us stories of helping babies who are covered with sores and crying, taking people to stores with their last few dollars to buy them rice and beans and ministering to the youth of Charleston to help them find a better life. We all talk about what needs to be done to help the poor and less fortunate, Soni, Fred and their family are actually doing something about it and Steve and I are honored to call them family. We will always remember the courage, faith and fortitude Soni and Fred have shown us.

We finally had to leave but have promised to stay in touch and are looking forward to our next visit. Fred and Steve mapped out the best route to Williamsburg,Virginia, we packed up the bus and headed out.

Savannah Georgia and our Southern Family

Dateline Savannah, GA
November 4, 2007

Part One: On the Road

Life was good to the Steinbrechers and we were amongst the first 50 people off the S.S. Scurvy November 3rd after she tied up in port at 0730. We traveled over 4,000 miles on our sea voyage, experienced a close shave with a hurricane and saw some amazing parts of Canada and the United States. Our total trip distance to date is 8,639 miles, give-or-take a foot. Steve, of course, had to make a last visit to Jimmy where we porked out at breakfast, as we knew it was going to be a long day. We snagged our luggage, cleared customs (Steve wrote on the custom’s form he had brought in one “bottle of Jack,” and the custom’s agent laughed and told us, “If you guys brought in Jack and that’s how you declared it, I know I can trust you two. Welcome back to the States)…” This was a good thing because Steve did not want to declare the illegal Cuban cigars in his bag… We boarded the shuttle bus to the Fort Lauderdale Airport and were in our rental car blowing north through the State of Florida by 0950.

Florida is an interesting state. They have freeways that are better maintained than California’s, more outlet malls and golf courses than any other state in the union, and their rest stops along the highways are the best we have ever experienced (along with Idaho’s). They were clean, patrolled by ARMED security people, frequent and had vending machines that actually work. We do not believe there is ONE hill in the entire state. It is FLAT! The woman who ran the gas station we stopped at ($3.09.9 for regular) was missing half her teeth, so we felt right at home being from Pollock Pines.

Other than that, Florida has to be known for two things – football stadiums and the infamous “13-Foot Gator!” Every larger city we passed through has VERY explicit directions on how to get to the local college football stadium (especially along “Bowden Drive”) and they have this product called “Indian River Fruit.” Every single place we passed through from about the middle of the state north to the Georgia border advertised, “Indian River Fruit, Gator Head Whirligigs, and See the 13-Foot Gator” in attendance. Either that Gator is darned fast, or that puppy be stuffed and mounted on the wall of each of these places. Steve was extremely distraught with Carol, because he was suffering from Jimmy withdrawal, and she refused to stop at even ONE of these wonderful tourist attractions to see the 13-foot gator, and Steve was really Pining for a Gator Head Whirligig.

We hit Savannah right on schedule per the GPS at 4:40 p.m. and began searching for our hotel. We drove around and around Bay Street on the Riverfront looking for 199 East Bay Street, and the place did not exist. Come to find out that Holiday Inn Express (our preferred hotel for road trips) will not be completed until December of this year or January of 2008. No worries, though, we called the Holiday Inn people and they put us up at a very nice “Old Savannah” establishment called the Mulberry Inn, gave us a handful of drink tickets and free breakfast and parking for our stay in Savannah. Steve and Carol recommend becoming a “Priority Club Member.” Holiday Inn treats its customer’s right!

We hit town for some Red Beans and Rice and cold beer, and life was good. We woke up several times during the night to find our king sized bed rolling at sea still….

Part Two: Savannah

Unless you have read the book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” Savannah probably has nothing much of interest for you. For us it has what we have read in the book, plus it was Carol’s first chance this trip to meet her relatives on this trip that she has not seen in many years.

Savannah is a place of amazing American history, dating back to Colonial times when James Oglethorpe founded the Colony of Georgia, through the American Revolution, the Civil War to present day. When you check out the photos we have taken out at our Savannah Google Picasa Album, we have spent a lot of time documenting the architecture of the city, the monuments contained in the city’s 21 squares, Forsyth Park and the Colonial Cemetery, and of course, Paula Dean’s “A Mother and Her Son’s” restaurant.

Steve was here in 1997, and was really surprised to see how much the city had succumbed to tourist-oriented growth. There are tons of new hotels along the waterfront, across the water at the port, and around the city itself. Saturday night was the Savannah Seafood Festival, and there were hordes of drunken college students crawling through the streets raising hell, which made us feel right at home. The city still has a quiet southern charm about it which we realized Sunday evening, when every business in town (including Paula Dean’s restaurant) closed their doors at 5 p.m. Imagine that in California!!

During the American Revolution (as shown in a lot of the photos) Savannah was held by British troops from December of 1778 through July of 1782. The French and Colonial troops, some 3,500 strong, won a fierce battle that spelled the beginning of the end for the Brits, over 22 days of fierce fighting in what is now downtown Savannah, in October of 1779. Many of the monuments in the city squares, as well as the graves in the Colonial Cemetery here, are testaments to the bravery of the men who fought for America’s breakaway freedom from Britain.

The homes range in date of construction from the late 1600’s to the Victorian era, and are just magnificently restored to their original grandeur. We could have photographed every home in the historical district and still would not do justice to them.

Our last day in Savannah was a TOTAL shut-out. We went out to Bonaventure Cemetery to film the famous “Bird Girl” (on the cover of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and she has been moved downtown to the art museum. So, off to Wormsloe Plantation to film the mile-long driveway of oak trees and the buildings which were made in 1733. Oh, sorry. The exhibit is closed on Mondays! So, off to downtown to the art museum to get a shot of the Bird Girl, even in captivity. Oops, sorry… the museum is closed to\day for a special function. Steve was ready to hit the road right now!

As most of you know, Carol has been finding out about her roots and one of the highlights of this trip was the opportunity to see my sister Soni and my cousin Dee. I haven’t seen Dee since we were both 15 years old. We saw each other in the lobby of the hotel and immediately knew we were related. It was like going back in time. We started talking and it was as if we had never been apart. Dee’s husband Doug and their son Brock joined us for lunch and we had a wonderful afternoon. My only complaint was that it was not nearly enough time. We traded family stories, including ones that involved my uncle Hubert (Dee’s father) driving in the mountains of Denver and a severe case of car sickness, shopping for groceries with my family (three shopping baskets full for the month), the fact that I wanted to be a lawyer when I was young and stories about growing up, having kids and now grandchildren.. My how time goes by. What was interesting was to find out how much our lives are the same!! We plan to stay in touch and Dee and her family have been added to the ever-growing travel blog! I am looking forward to tomorrow as I will get to see Dee and Doug, get on the road and visit with my sister Soni and her family when we get to Charleston

Hurricane Noel, Steve and Carol

Dateline: Saragossa Sea, 51 Miles east of Florida
300 Miles West of Hurricane Noel’s Eye, 1305 hours

This will be our last blog from sea. We were going to wait on this until we got back to land, but Hurricane Noel has changed our plans. Take a look at the Picasa photos and the Video link at the seas we are passing through to see what we mean.

The Captain has the con, and has given two updates already today, as a lot of people are seasick, and some are freaked out. As we suspected yesterday, he reported we are 300 miles due west of the eye of the storm, some 50 miles off the east coast of Florida. We awoke this morning to a corkscrewing ship that has been moving up and down some 30-feet in each direction. We are getting hit with 20-foot seas and winds of up to 35 knots from right behind the ship (which is the worst place to get high winds from), and this is 300 MILES away from the hurricane’s most-destructive power! However, it sounds like the people to the north and northwest of the storm’s center are getting pounded the worst. As usual for us, we got out of Dodge just in the nick of time. All of the places we have visited since Monday are in for quite a beating tonight and tomorrow, and they have been issuing alerts for a lot of the East Coast airports on the ship. Quite an experience for a couple of land lubbers like us. Anyway, because it is most difficult to walk along the decks and impossible to jog on them at this point, we decided to get a couple of lattes and hit the Internet lounge and finish the at sea portion of our stories. We will then adjourn to the inside Sun deck for some reading time.

Here is a video of the force of the sea:


As it was rough last night after dinner, we stayed in the room and enjoyed the seas from the balcony. It was a nice night for a glass of Jack (or wine for Carol) and one of Steve’s Cuban cigars. With the patches and two weeks acclimation, the seas are not bothering us at all.

We got dressed and headed out for Jimmy (NOTHING keeps Steve away from Jimmy!), and Squeaky Deck (see earlier blog) BE JAMMIN’ BIG TIME. In fact, it is interesting to lay in bed at night and just listen to the ship flex. Steel, artwork, furniture, stairways, everything moves and groans, squeaks, pops or in some other way let’s us know the stresses hitting this big object. We cannot imagine what it was like for those people coming across the Atlantic in 100-foot ships. In fact, while we were eating breakfast, we were talking with a crew dog who came across with this ship from England about a month and a half ago, and was in that same storm we wrote about the other day. He said at that time all of the deck chairs and tables were being thrown all across the decks, and that he was actually scared. Nothing close to that here.

Well, until we hit land this is the last update for us. Please enjoy all of the photos and movies. It has been a wonderful 16 days and we are sort of sad to leave the ship, but we have a lot of adventures to come along, so stay with us!

Charleston, South Carolina - A Walk through History

Dateline: Charleston, South Carolina and at Sea
November 1, 2007 2155 hours

The ship docked in Charleston at 7:00 a.m. we heard the overhead announcement and went back to sleep. We were awakened by someone scratching in the stateroom next to us and decided the gods were trying to tell us something. So we pulled some clothes on and headed out to explore Charleston, South Carolina…

As we mentioned before, last night was formal night and we had dinner with our friends Tim and Cindy and Steve took some pictures of us all dressed up with no place to go! You can check out the pictures at our Google Picassa Photo album! Don’t we make a cute couple?

As most of you know, Steve and I walk everywhere and we come up with our own tours but today was going to be different. We had found a tour about slavery in Charleston on the Internet before we left for this trip; we booked the tour and were really excited about walking through Charleston and hearing the history of the slave trade. In preparation for our trip to the South Steve recently re-read the “Classic Slave Narratives,” as many of the great heroes of that book were brought ashore, lived in or around, and escaped to freedom from Charleston. As we got off the ship there was a vendor signing up people for a horse drawn carriage tour of historic downtown. We decided to try that and quickly signed up. Our tour was set for 12:00 noon, we knew it would be cutting it close as the other tour was set for 1:30 but we figured we could make it work. We had an hour to go before the carriage tour was set so we thought we would walk through town. Charleston has a five block “Market” otherwise known as a TUPAS (totally useless piece a __it) factory and we walked through looking at all of the souvenirs available. Steve was taking pictures and he happened upon a woman weaving a basket, he took her picture just in time for her to start yelling expletives at him and telling him to take his camera and get the heck out of dodge. Pretty interesting…I just walked along and waited for him and the lady to work things out!

After that encounter, we wandered away from the market and found some really beautiful examples of southern architecture and no screaming people and Steve took pictures to his hearts delight. We finally meandered back to where we were supposed to catch the horse carriage and after about 20 minutes, we realized we weren’t going to be able to make that tour and still be on time for the slavery tour so we went back to the vendor and got our money back. Our day was not going as well as we thought but we decided to persevere and we were rewarded for our efforts.

We met Mike our tour director he proceeded to explain the “real” version of the slave trade in South Carolina. It was certainly an eye-opener, you could tell he has done his research and having been born and raised in Charleston he really did know what he was talking about. Some of the facts that you are not told about in history class were fascinating. We were given the opportunity to see where the slaves were kept while waiting for the auction block, many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were heavily involved in the slave trade in Charleston, while we all were taught that cotton was king during the 1800’s the fact is that rice is what really fueled the slave market, we also learned that of the 19 million slaves brought from Africa, 7 million died and only 500,000 were brought to America. The rest of the slaves were in Brazil and scattered in Haiti and Barbados. We also learned that because of some of the “back-room” politics that went on while the Constitution was being written, Virginia and South Carolina controlled the office of the President for 24 years, gives one something to think about when you think about the current resident of the White House and some of those who are looking to be President next November. We also learned that Eli Whitney watched his wife clean her hairbrush with a comb and invented the Cotton Gin which made it possible for people to produce cotton more efficiently. Charleston was the largest and most active slave port in North America for well over one hundred years and the City had one of the larges free black populations of any southern city prior to the Civil War. Another big surprise was that of the 3,000 “free” Blacks in Charleston, more than 400 adopted the horror of their white counterparts and owned slaves of their own! This tour really enlightened both of us about the horrific life suffered by the slave population and really put into perspective the idea of the “good old boy’s network” that began LONG before we were here.

Finally after the tour we found the Charleston City Hall building and had an opportunity to go through the Council Chambers. What a wonderful place. Built in 1801, we found a docent who explained all of the paintings and artifacts found in the room. There were half dozen signed and dated ORIGINAL oils of our early Presidents. We wish the photos we took of these priceless paintings had come out better, but there was a strict rule about no flash photography in the room. Enjoy the pictures on our Google Photo Album. Included in this room was what remained of a picture of Queen Victoria touching her crown, the rest of the painting was destroyed during the 1866 earthquake. I didn’t realize they have earthquakes here but they do, usually a dozen a year. But the big natural disaster they endure is fires, followed by hurricanes. Speaking of, we are watching carefully Tropical Storm Noel. Although it appears it will miss us, it looks like it is going towards the Bahamas and then heading north to New Brunswick. Maybe everyone will get a real life perspective of a hurricane from a couple of Californians but we hope not!!

We managed to get back to the boat in time for the “sailing party” and Steve got some great pictures of Fort Sumter, and the cityscape of Charleston and we called it a day. We put away the camera and headed up to Jimmy (otherwise known as the Horizon Court Buffet). We have decided that Princess should build a shrine to honor Steve as he has become a glutton! With so many choices you can pretty much have a 15 course dinner without really trying! We are open to ideas of what the shrine should look like, if you are creative and would like to help us with the design send us an email. We’ll post your design idea in a future blog. If you can draw the design, that would be even better. Steve is thinking of a large white cross with “RIP Steve” and a perpetual candlelight vigil at our favorite table, with a large bowl of cinnamon ice cream and some peanut butter cookies.

Steve has also been working on the beginnings of a new mystery book. It begins with a gang of old people riding Rascals…the rest is history. When we go to dinner there are hordes of Rascals parked all over the 14th deck by Jimmy. If I were you, don’t take a cruise for a while. Last I heard he was talking about “Hell’s Rascals” taking over a cruise ship and making plans to take on George and Dick! More when he finishes his Cuban cigar!!

We dropped our pilot at the Atlantic and are heading south again into the Saragossa Sea. The wind is negligible, but we have some pretty big swells rocking the ship tonight.

At Sea in the South Atlantic

Dateline: At Sea, South Atlantic Ocean Steaming into the
Saragossa Sea

Part One
October 31, 2007, 1400 hours

Bonjour Halloween!!

Today is our next-to-last “sea day” in which we are completely out of sight of land. What a difference 12 hours makes! We awoke this morning to 75 degree sea and air temperatures, much higher humidity, and gently rolling swells (which have been increasing all day, but more on that later). We are sitting out on our private balcony enjoying the warm sun while reading and drinking sodas. We have now covered some 3,000 miles on this voyage, and it seems like we just left Quebec City yesterday. We have seen sea and air temperatures go from right at 39 degrees F to the mid-70’s, with the 80’s promised by the time we leave the ship.

Tonight is the last “formal night” on the ship, so we will be primping later for dinner with our good friends Tim and Cindy Stockman. Other than that it is laundry day, kick back day, and of course, a four-mile run day. We (well, I can only speak for myself) have been spending WAY too much time with Jimmy (buffet), whom we introduced you all to earlier in the voyage. Jimmy just has a way of tempting bad Stevie with WAY too much in the way of porking out. So, as sort of a whining defense, whenever we are not walking on the beach, we have a rule of a “must” four mile run, which is 12 laps around the ship on the promenade deck. It was special today because of the warm sun and gentle breezes blowing across the decks. Last sea day we were running in parkas and long johns.

One of the magicians on the ship (who is an excellent entertainer by-the-way) is a HUGE Harry Houdini historian and fan, so the four of us went to listen to his special Halloween Tribute to Houdini. Being a huge Houdini fan myself, I was really stoked when Tim told us about this presentation the other night. We found out a lot of amazing stuff about Houdini, including the fact that he is the first person to ever achieve manned flight in Australia (write that one down Matt Knowles!!) and is so honored by the Aussie government and people for that feat; he did die on Halloween, and although it has never been proven, highly suspect of poisoning him were a group of “Mediums” (read the fake Séance people), who Houdini waged war with and ridiculed for a number of years before his death, and although he was the most famous person on Earth at the time (150,000 people showed up in Providence, RI to see him escape from a straight jacket once – how the Hell they could all see in that crowd without T.V. and Jumbotrons beats the shit out of me) he lost his entire fortune trying to establish a motion picture company. This magician has the best Houdini artifact collection in the world, and it was really cool to hear him speak with such passion, knowing that he is a professional illusionist himself.

Big talk on the ship right now is some sort of nasty-assed hurricane that is parked off the east coast of Florida and coming out of the Caribbean, and it is supposed to be moving up this way over the next few days. We dock in Charleston tomorrow and will be inside the Bay all day, but then we are back out at sea all day Friday before we disembark in Ft. Lauderdale Saturday morning. It just may be a coincidence, but the seas have been increasing all day, and even though the wind is only Force Six, the seas are now running 12 feet. There is a squeaky handrail going down the stairs on the 8th deck (three below us), that we have nicknamed “Squeaky Rail,” and any time the seas get over about eight feet it begins squeaking as the ship moves through the swells. Squeaky be getting’ it on right now as Steve went down to load the washing machine, so we know it is getting rougher. Time for Mr. Patch to visit once again.

Part Two: November 1, 2007 (0000 hours)

We have just seen Halloween out with a superior “Broadway-type” musical as the finale from the ship’s acting company, called “Do You Wanna’ Dance.” We have seen a lot of Broadway shows in our time, and the costumes, lighting, choreography of this group is second to none. The entertainment on this cruise has been excellent every night.

Following the show we enjoyed the “champagne waterfall” (with free booze for all of course) to finish the day, so it’s off to bed. Sea is very active but there is NOT ONE single breath of wind out there. It has turned hot and humid under the cloudy skies, and it is so still that the ship’s exhaust just hangs around the ship as it moves through the water. What a change from a week ago!

Finally, Kathy Young, we received your message but are out of wireless contact with the world until we dock in Charleston tomorrow. We fixed the password problem yesterday, but it is apparently back. We’ll do our best to fix it as soon as possible.

Baltimore and the Atlantic Ocean

Dateline: Heading out of Baltimore to the Atlantic Ocean
October 30, 2007 2005 hours

After departing Norfolk VA last night we made a left turn in Chesapeake Bay and headed northwest about 20 miles to the Patapsco River and into Baltimore Harbor. We tooled into town from the Cruise ship Terminal (which is in BFE) via shuttle to an area called Inner Harbor. Our shuttle driver showed everyone how he could get between three school buses and a walking path. We thought we were going to take out some kids for a few minutes but the bus driver just backed up and boom…we were in. We got off of the shuttle and were in downtown Baltimore. Baltimore is probably most-famous for being the site of Fort McHenry, where the American National Anthem was written during the War of 1812, for being the home town of Babe Ruth and Edgar Allen Poe. The Inner Harbor area also sports a collection of real cool historical ships including the USS Constitution from the 1800’s and the USCC Taney, which is the last surviving ship from the Pearl harbor attack, according to the sign posted along her rails.

Carol and I have to say this city really took us by surprise! The Inner Harbor area of Baltimore has to be one of the very best examples of what the public and private sector can do together. The Inner Harbor area was an industrial park and a slum in the late 1960’s. Today it is home to upscale stores, Camden Yard baseball stadium, and some seriously toney condos and homes. Everywhere we walked today smelled of money and success. We did our usual gig of hitting the streets with the camera and computer equipment, in order to update the blog and get a lot of photos. We traveled through Little Italy, Fell’s Point, East Harbor and other areas of the city. We were looking for an Internet café recommended by the locals, called the “Daily Grind,” and unfortunately we found it. GREAT little place full of college students and just laid back people who were very friendly, but this place has to rate as the WORST hot spot for wireless Internet on the East Coast. A simple 20-minute blog update took almost two hours because the wireless was up-and-down like a yo yo. So, we apologize if some of the photo captions are not spelled correctly or there are punctuation errors. We just ran out of time and patience. Also, as mentioned before, this will be our last blog update from the ship unless we have some extra minutes left on our Internet account on the Scurvy.

We finally finished with the blog and went walking around. We saw so many really cool places, including some really great Italian restaurants. It would have been nice to spend an evening here and sample some of the wonderful restaurants and local specials Baltimore has. Baltimore has a world trade center and unfortunately it was closed today but we got some great pictures of the building as well as the mirrors on top of the building (Steve almost stepped into the bay trying to get the picture of the mirrors). We also got some great pictures of the row houses in Little Italy (we have always seen these types of homes on “This Old House” and now we know what they really look like! Look for all of the pictures on the Google Picasa Photo Album. The most impressive building in the city is the Bank of America building. Steve took numerous photos of different parts of this building, which appeared to have been built about the same time as New York City’s Empire State and Chrysler Buildings. Unfortunately, for such a grand piece of architecture and masonry sculpting, we could find absolutely NO information on the building anywhere, so this will become an Internet research project for Steve. Finally it was time to get back to the ship so we boarded the shuttle, closed our eyes and prepared for the kamikaze drive back to the port.

This port was the most security conscious port we have been in, it included having a police dog sniff the perimeter of the boat, all of the buses and taxis coming into the area, mirrors under all vehicles, having a police officer board the bus and look at each person’s cruise ship card and a government issue photo ID and being escorted back to the terminal and the ship by our very own security guard. Finally we made it back on the boat and were shoving off we were escorted by two of Baltimore’s finest in helicopters. Not sure what the police budget is in Baltimore but if they do this for all of the cruise ships, someone is making some money! You ain’t in California anymore, Toto…

Here is a short video of our escorts:

Tonight we are once again outward bound down Chesapeake Bay, out of the Hampton Roads, and on into the Atlantic Ocean, where we will spend the day at sea tomorrow before reaching Charleston, SC, which is 527 nautical miles from Baltimore. We passed under the impressive Francis Scott Key Bridge and the Chesapeake Bay Bridges, but it was too dark to get any photos or videos. We are spending a quiet night in our “Stateroom” updating our blog, downloading pictures and generally taking it easy. We did hear about a tropical storm Noel that is off the Atlantic coast in the Caribbean. If any of you hear any news about the storm, let us know!

Until later, good-night from somewhere in the Chesapeake Bay.