Delaware City Sojourn

Since we spent a full four weeks in Delaware City, I thought I would capture some of the additional adventures we had while there. Due to Ryan’s generosity in loaning us his car we were able to explore the surrounding area more fully in between boat repairs. Some of the highlights of our visit included a couple of visits to nearby New Castle, a charming small town that is filled with historic homes and a lovely waterfront. On our second visit there we were joined by our boating friends, Liz and Steve, and we had dinner at an old tavern named Jessup’s that featured an endless list of beers and a menu with old-fashioned recipe selections. 

On another day we explored Wilmington where we strolled along its waterfront.  We also spent time touring the Nemours Estate, former home of Alfred DuPont. It’s a fabulous property with formal gardens reminiscent of Versailles.  The DuPont family owns so many properties in Delaware, it is quite amazing. Many of them are open to the public and it would take at least a couple of weeks to explore all of them.

We also spent a day visiting Longwood Gardens, another former DuPont property, with its stunning gardens. Ryan’s mother works there and she kindly gave us complimentary tickets. 

On the 4th of July we drove down to Havre de Grace, a charming little town that was hosting an old-fashioned Independence Day parade. The streets were lined with local residents and we had a lot of fun watching and joining in the festivities.

In the meantime, various repairs were being done on Zendo by Jonny and the staff at Delaware City Marina.  The injection pump was rebuilt and reinstalled, solar panels were installed (a long, labor intensive process), the rub rail paint was stripped, and new batteries were installed. In addition,  Zendo was hauled out for the bottom to be painted and a new depth gauge installed.  All in all, a lot of work and quite an expensive month!!

The people at Delaware City Marina are great and we feel very comfortable there.  The weather was beastly hot at times and we yearned for a swimming pool to cool off. But thankfully our AC managed to function well (fingers crossed).  

Archie got a much needed haircut and benefitted from the lovely shaded park next door as well as the miles long walking trail that ran all all along the C&D Canal.

Stephanie and Ryan met us for dinner on the last night of our stay so they could pick up Ryan’s car as we would be cruising up to Philly for a week’s visit.