Worton Creek Anchorage

On Thursday, September 19, Jonny started the day with a long bike ride across the huge bridge that spans the C & O Canal and explored the other half of Chesapeake City.  In the meantime, Lynn engaged in her own more modest exercise routine.  When he returned we walked into town once last time. 

We eventually stopped at an attractive historic building that was once a bank and is now an interesting jewelery store. Lynn found a ring she really liked that Jonny decided would be a great present for her upcoming birthday. Since he didn’t have his wallet with him, we returned to Zendo for lunch. Afterwards, he returned to the store for the gift but held out giving it to her until her actual birthday.

By 1:30 it was time to shove off to take advantage of the ebbing tide and passing a number of cool-looking tugboats.  We had a beautiful cruise on the bay with little boat traffic. 

The day was sunny with temperatures in the 70’s - perfect!   Our destination was an anchorage on the Eastern Shore. We decided to try a new one on Worton Creek just south of Still Pond where we had anchored on a previous voyage. It was a beautiful spot, quiet, peaceful and green with only two other far flung boats in sight.

We celebrated with a drink and nibbles on the aft deck and later ate the ravioli we had purchased at Corlino’s Italian Market near Philly.  Internet reception was poor so we spent a relaxing evening just listening to music. 

Chesapeake City, MD

We left Philadelphia early on Wednesday, September 18 to take advantage of the tides and current.  It was a cool and calm day as we left our wonderful seven day stay in Philly. We were heading out for a six hour cruise to Chesapeake City, MD.  It was a peaceful, uneventful cruise. There was little boat traffic other than some massive freighters.

The current was with us for the first part of the morning and we zipped along at nine knots.  But when the current switched as we entered the C&D Canal we slowed down to a pokey 5 knots.

We arrived at the Chesapeake City Town Dock at 1 pm and tied up in a very pretty setting with only one other boat at the dock, a big catamaran. The price is right, a free dock with only a $15 charge for electricity. The only caveat is a 24 hour limit on docking which was no problem for us. 

We usually stay at nearby Delaware City Marina but Jonny had stayed here on his trip north and thought Lynn would like the little town.  Chesapeake City was originally known as the Village of Bohemia or Bohemia Manor. Its name changed when the C & D Canal was built in 1829. It is tiny, really just a village, with only 693 residents. It was separated into north and south when the canal was built. The two sections were connected by a drawbridge which was destroyed by a freighter in 1942.  A huge bridge was built to replace it, large enough for supertankers to pass underneath. When this happened, it staunched the flow of traffic into town so business declined considerably.

It is now a sleepy little town with some lovely colorful homes, many of which are B & Bs.  We walked around to get a feel for the town but didn’t stop anywhere. 

Back at Zendo, Lynn worked on the blog from Philly  - a rather long one due to the length of our visit.  With the excessive dining over the past week we were happy to settle for a big salad for dinner.  We watched a couple of episodes of Ken Burns’ excellent new series on country music.  As we tumbled into bed, we confirmed that we would definitely stay in this sweet spot again. 

Philadelphia, PA

A pleasant five hour cruise brought us up the Delaware River on Wednesday, September 11 to the Pier 3 Marina in Philadelphia where we had stayed the last time we brought Zendo here.

We would be staying for five days to visit with Stephanie and to see additional friends and family. Stephanie came aboard when she got out of work and we had a casual dinner of leftover curry while discussing the plans for our stay.

The next day, while Stephanie was at work, we walked all over Philly, so historical and interesting with lots of wonderful neighborhoods.

We had lunch at a great falafel restaurant called Goldie’s that she had recommended to us. It had amazing tahini milkshakes. The place is one of several restaurants owned by Michael Solomonov who also owns Zahav (more about that later). There was a line going out the door of this little hole in the wall place. The food was delicious!  We followed lunch with a visit to the Mutter Museaum, a most unique and rather macabre collection of medical artifacts. Founded by a local doctor with an incredible collection of anatomical specimens and medical instruments, it was very interesting but not for the faint of heart.  When we left the museum, we passed a cute little cinema that was playing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a movie we’d been wanting to see.  So beause we are footloose and fancy free, we bought tickets and spent the rest of the afternoon watching a very enjoyable show.  It was sprinkling a little when we left but we were very close to Stephanie’s apartment near Rittenhouse Square so we grabbed some takeout and met her at her apartment where we had an early dinner. Lynn was intent on getting back to Zendo in time to watch the Democratic debates which we did.

On Friday we walked to Reading Terminal Market for lunch and split the great pulled pork sandwich that comes with broccoli raab (one of Lynn’s favorites) at a lunch counter there.  Lynn wanted to get a new jacket so we went to a flagship Macy’s where she found one that was perfect.  Macy’s has an amazing atrium with the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, the largest fully functioning organ in the world! It was breathtaking! Unfortunately we didn’t get to hear it being played.

Later that evening, we met Stephanie and Nicky Brayer at a favorite restaurant of Stephanie’s called Res Ipsa where we shared the tasting menu, a wonderful collection of Italian dishes. It was great seeing Nicky who is working on his MBA at Penn. He lives right around the corner from Stephanie on a charming cobblestoned street or mews on which no cars are allowed. He brought us by to see his comfortable home.

Now that the weekend had arrived, Stephanie was free to spend all day with us and the first thing she did was to take us to see where she is now working. Still with Aramark, she was just promoted to a general manager role in a different line of business. She is now running the entire food service program at  LaSalle University where she has a staff of almost 300 people! She is enjoying her new challenge and we are very proud of her.

Afterwards we drove through an absolutely charming area called Chestnut Hill where we had lunch at a lovely restaurant called Cake.  We had to get back to Zendo by mid afternoon because Lynn’s cousin Taylor Lynn and her family were coming for a visit.  Taylor and Stu are the parents of Evie, an adorable toddler and a new baby boy named Otto (after Taylor’s grandfather and Lynn’s favorite uncle) who was born in May.  We had a wonderful visit with them. Taylor and Stu are delightful and their kids are a joy.

But Saturday wasn’t over yet because later that evening our little threesome met a bunch of Jonny’s cousins at yet another Italian restaurant for dinner. After a little mix-up with locations (the restaurant had two locations across the street from each other), we finally connected and had a lively dinner outside. Steve Katzen and his wife, Ann, Steve’s sister Abby and her husband Rich, and their nephew Jeremy who lives in Philly were all there.  Steven and Abby live in Connecticut but were in Philly to pick up Abby’s daughter’s dog for whom they are pet sitting while she is on vacation.  So we had a 

totally fun-filled evening. They were staying very close to Zendo so we visited their “digs “ afterwards and had some local ice cream. It was a late night!

Sunday was another big day. We took six of Stephanie’s friends out on Zendo for the afternoon.  They had a blast and so did we as we cruised up the Delaware River.  We dropped anchor at one point and the kids went swimming and paddle boarding. It was a beautiful day and everyone really enjoyed themselves.  This looks like it’s going to be a tradition as we did the same thing last year which is absolutely fine with us!

But wait, the day wasn’t over. After we returned to dock, we got a ride with Stephanie back to Rittenhouse Square where we met another of Jonny’s cousins, this time it was Emma Bergman who also  lives in Philly. We saw her last time we were in town and she rode her bike to meet us at a cute restaurant near Stephanie where we had a drink and a light bite and caught up on each other’s lives.

We spent Monday in a much more relaxed mode.  Stephanie was back at work and so we took it easy, our daytime outing was to walk to beautiful  Rittenhouse Square to pick up some prescriptions and to get our annual flu shots.

The evening activity was a very special one as Stephanie’s boss had scored us reservations at Zahav, winner of the 2019 James Beard Award for Best Restaurant!  It takes months to get a reservation but we had one for 5:00. What a fantastic meal it was, an amazing combination of Israeli tapas-style items, each one more flavorful than the last. We chose the special chef’s tasting menu with an incredible roast lamb as the crowning touch.  It was quite an experience - very special, indeed!

Tuesday was our last day in Philly and we spent most of it outdoors.  Jonny got up early to drive Stephanie to work so we could have her car for the day.  We took it, along with a picnic lunch, to the lovely Bartram Gardens, an historic garden in Philly.  The garden was the home of John Bartram and his son William who were instrumental in the study of botany in America.  In fact, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and others like them were frequent guests at the beautiful stone homestead there. We strolled the riverfront property on a perfect weather day.

Later we stopped at an Italian market that Emma had recommended. We bought some goodies for that evening and some for Zendo’s pantry. We picked up Stephanie from work and brought her home where we ate leftovers from our various dinners. It was our last night with our little girl with whom we had such a wonderful week.  Lucky Lynn will see her in just a few weeks when they are going to Phoenix together - story to follow!

Delaware City, DE

Sunday, September 8 proved to be a very calm day for cruising.  We left Utsch’s Marina in Cape May at 8:45 right after we said goodbye to Puffin, our good-looking dockmate.

The Delaware Bay was beautiful with very little boat traffic. It was quiet uneventful cruise on a beautiful day as we headed up to Delaware City.

 Lynn made a lot of progress on the afghan she is knitting for her niece, Samantha.

We arrived at the familiar Delaware City Marina at 4:45 and docked in front of a huge Great Harbor trawler, a boat with so much windage it’s practically a sailboat! We are sure it has more square footage than our new condo.

We planned to stay three nights at the marina so Jonny could do an oil change and so we could  time our trip up the Delaware River to visit 

Stephanie in Philadelphia.  Each night we had dinner on board since our favorite local restaurant, Lewinsky on Clinton, had closed!  We had so much seafood from our fish market purchases that we were in good shape!  We had shrimp salad for lunch and Jonny cooked the flounder in a brown butter sauce for dinner and it was delicious!

The next day we went for a long walk on a beautiful trail past a pre-Civil War African American cemetery and towards the “new” C&D Canal. It was lovely!

Lynn did three big loads of laundry while Jonny tried to replace the water pump with an old one that he thought still worked.  No such luck - so he ordered a new one which would arrive the next day. He then went on to change the oil but his extracting pump failed so he borrowed a hand pump from the marina and spent the next 90 minutes hand pumping the old oil out. No fun! His arm was noticeably sore for the next two days!

That night Lynn made a very good vegetable curry for dinner and we had a lazy evening reading and watching a little TV.

The final day in Delaware City began with another long walk along the canal trail. Last time we saw a ground hog and this time a bunny!

Afterwards Jonny walked into town to mail some letters. Delaware City is small but historic and has a degree of charm with a dash of funk.

He returned to invite Lynn to go for lunch at the local waterfront seafood restaurant that had crab cakes as their Tuesday lunch special.  Because we are crab cake snobs, we didn’t expect much, but we were very pleasantly surprised at how delicious they were. Quite a treat and a great bargain at $10!

The new water pump arrived and Jonny got to work installing it while Lynn did some cleaning.  And yes, our roles are pretty stereotyped while cruising which is mostly OK by us!  Now that all our repairs and maintenance have been completed we are ready to leave for Philly.  We’re looking forward to spending a week there. We’ll stay on Zendo but spend lots of time with Stephanie and we plan to see lots of other relatives as well!