Days from Heaven - At the Vinroots

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's) 

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

 DAYS 42-45 – May 12, 2017 through May 15, 2017

Chez Vinroot

If Day 41, Mqy 11, was the Day from Hell, days 42-45 were the Days from Heaven! We spent five nights and four days with our friends Charlie and Sally Vinroot, who pampered us. We had a nice soft bed and private bathroom upstairs, and lots of good food and conversation downstairs!  The Vinroots live in a nice house right on the water on Cod Creek about 7 miles up the Potomac. The postal address is Heathsville, Virginia, but it is actually out in the country in a very rural setting surrounded by fields of corn and winter wheat. Heathsville is in Northumberland County, which has two stop lights and a population of about 12,000 in the entire county! 

Daydream and Captain's Choice II

Charlie has been a long time C-Brat friend. I had previously met him in person when he came out for the Seattle Boat Show one year and he was one of the group that came out to our brewery in Snoqualmie for the C-Brat buffet and one of Sam Landsman's great slide presentations of his boating adventures. Charlie has owned a C-Dory 22 Cruiser, two Tomcat TC 255s, and now again has a 22 Cruiser. Captain's Choice II, on the lift on his pier.

Loom

We had not previously met Sally, who is an artist and carder, spinner and weaver. There were many spinning wheels and looms in the house, and rooms full of shelves of weaving yarns, baskets of knitting yarns, and drawers of beads and all kinds of other craft materials.  Patty left with a gift of a bag of knitting yarn and knitting needles for our cruise!

Cayden

The Vinroots's 20 year old grandson, Cayden, lives in an apartment above the garage, and is studying to become a physician's assistant. 

Daydream at Vinroot Pier

On Thursday the 11th, the Day from Hell, we arrived at the Vinroot's home about 5 p.m, feeling battered and exhausted. Charlie met us at his pier and helped us get tied up. They had a sumptuous dinner of steak, shrimp, scallops, crab cakes, asparagus and potatoes, with cake and ice cream for dessert, ready for us when we arrived. I won't describe the menu day by day, but it was all good! We were ready for rest, relaxation and recuperation, which we got in spades!

Friday  the 12th, Sally took Patty to Walmart to replace the dishpan and the two pairs of thongs and kitty dish that had been in the dishpan, which got tossed overboard on the Day from Hell, The rest of the day was rest, relaxation and recuperation!

Sally and Patty

Pat and Charlie

Saturday the 13th, Sally had a class all day.  Charlie  took me to the public library to post the Davis Creek blog entry because his phone was fine for text but couldn't handle the photos. Saturday evening we went out for dinner to the Crazy Crab. We were originally headed for the Horn Harbor House, but when we got there, it was closed and shuttered with a “For Sale” sign, so we headed for the Crazy Crab, which was a good second choice! Cayden joined us for our night out, and we all had a very pleasant time!

Up until Sunday the 14th, the weather had been rainy and windy, but Sunday the weather on the Creek turned sunny, although it was still very very windy with high waves out on the Chesapeake. I took the Sea Eagle kayak down and went for a long paddle to near the end of one arm of Cod Creek to a point where it was too narrow and shallow to go much farther. The Vinroots have a lovely covered screened porch, where we were able to relax and read our Kindles and continue our conversations! We had a late lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs, so nobody felt much like a big dinner, but Charlie still cooked up two different kinds of shrimp for an evening “snack”!

On Monday the 15th, we had a special treat! We visited Stratford Hall, the former plantation of the Lee family of Virginia. This was the birthplace of Robert E. Lee, but he only lived there until he was three.  Our very knowledgeable guide, Martha, led us on our tour of one of the outbuildings, a workshop, and then the Great House. She had stories for every room and for all the many inhabitants from Thomas Lee, the patriarch, through his eight sons, two of whom signed the Declaration of Independence, and finally through Robert E. Lee's birth. Every story was told with wry humor that had us smiling most of the time! After the tour, we had a pretty good lunch at Wilkerson's Sea Food Restaurant in Colonial Beach on the Potomac. It was a late lunch and a big one! Once again, nobody felt like a big dinner, but we hd a scrumptious dessert of toasted pound cake, blueberries and ice cream! 

We had been checking the marine weather forecast each day, and the forecast was that Tuesday the 16th the wind and waves would subside and be our day to depart. After coffee and coffee cake on Tuesday morning the 16th, we all went down to the pier, said our goodbyes and thank-yous, and we cast off our lines for the short hop across the Bay to Smith Island!