Hey yall! Whew, we are back from a whirlwind weekend feeling a little hoarse but with memories that make it worth it. David and I took off in the early morning on Friday, headed for Annapolis, MD. It’s about a 7 hour drive, but this time of year it is beautiful. Driving through the rolling hills of Virginia with the leaves changing and no kids in the car was quite serene, until we hit DC traffic- yikes!
Luckily we just caught a little at the tail end of our journey and made it to our AirBNB rental by 4:00.
A little side note, this was our first time using AirBNB to book just a room, not an entire house. So yes, basically upstairs this cute home about a mile from the boat show, we rented a bedroom and bathroom that I was pleasantly surprised to find in impeccably clean conditions. For a situation that sounds quite odd on the surface, it worked out brilliantly and I highly recommend it!
We said hello to Tom, the owner’s brother who was meeting us, then dropped our stuff to take off for the show.
David and I are somewhat sailboat show junkies. This is our third show, after previous taking Hailey in 2012 and 2013. What can I say, we love us some catamarans!
We bounced between boats until the storm clouds rolled in and they booted us off the docks.
The squall came in quick and fierce, but lightened up soon enough for us to make a run for it to dinner at McGarvey’s in downtown Annapolis.
There we proceeded to eat everything in sight, as I was on a personal mission to eat all the seafood I could while we were there for the weekend.
The mussels were large and definitely the hit of this dinner. We finished up and then picked on ourselves a little bit. We were both feeling a little worn down from the hectic week, so we ended up heading home by 9:00. It wasn’t exactly living it up, but we wanted to make sure we had a good night’s sleep before the next day.
It worked! And we both felt ready to go Saturday morning.
We checked out the highly recommended Iron Rooster for breakfast and it did not disappoint.
I fell in love with the freshly squeezed orange juice as I devoured my shrimp and grits with poached eggs. All the seafood remember? 😉
By 8:30 we were at the rec center as scheduled. We were stoked for the weekend because we signed up for a full day experience called Take the Wheel. The entire morning was spent in the classroom, where we heard a presentation from Ralph Naranjo. Calling him an experienced sailor would be severely under-crediting him, and we thoroughly enjoyed soaking up as much knowledge from him as possible.
We were dismissed around noon to grab lunch.
Legit crab soup, amiright?!
We then had a couple hours to explore before the next part of our course, getting out on some boats!
We felt a bit mislead, as we thought we were going to be on the newer versions of the Fountain Pajots, but it didn’t put a damper on our fun. With about 6 aboard the boat, we literally got to take the wheel and sail out into the Chesapeake Bay.
I wish we could have stayed out for hours, but we had a blast spending time on a 44′ and a 40′ catamaran. We got to take control at the helm, practice tacking and handled the lines (which without using the wench made me mentally recommit to bootcamp). Oh yes, and I relaxed a little too.
It was a fabulous afternoon. We were left with about a couple hours of boat show time, so we snagged a couple signature pain killers and returned to a few of our favorites to ask some questions before the sun set.
Once the show closed, we took the water taxi over to The Chart House, a nice restaurant on the water. We snagged seats in the lounge area and sipped drinks while I continued my seafood eating mission.
After dinner we wandered the docks, talked to some new boat owners and ended up accidentally making our way into a private club on the water where we chatted until midnight with some locals about raising kids and our love for the water.
The next morning we squeezed in one more indulgent meal, back at the Iron Rooster.
That would be a brisket Benedict over a cornbread and jalapeno waffle. Insert wide-eyed emoji here because WOW.
Then we listened to podcasts for the majority of the ride home where I couldn’t wait to squeeze these three (four)!
I am so SO appreciative of my mom and dad for coming up to stay with the girls. The girls had an absolute blast and Hailey told me all about the pumpkin patch, parks and crafts they did over the weekend. Thank you so much Mom and Dad!!
The weekend was wonderful and exciting and I am feeling refreshed to get back at the grind today.
If you could have a weekend adventure- where would you go?
Karen says
I have always wanted to give a B&B a whirl but have not gotten my husband to agree to give this a try quite yet. They have so many in the Door County area near us and we always end up at a resort or hotel.
Did you have privacy for the most part, were there other guests on the same floor with you, did you all share a bathroom…..I would love to here more if you have time?
Brittany Dixon says
So if you go online and check out Airbnb you will see there are a ton of options! We’ve rented a house through them (our beach trip) which was similar to VRBO. For this trip we filtered options that had private rooms and bathrooms. So we were in a nice house (we were the only guests which is quite common from what I hear since most places only have 1 extra room). We stayed upstairs in a guest room that had a private bath. They gave us a key to the house and had coffee in the morning. It was great!!
Brynn says
What an amazing (and delicious) weekend! I drive through Virginia in the fall four years ago and it was one of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever seen.
John J. says
Glad you had such a wonderful adventure. Your gals are a joy to be with – and a bit exhausting with all their exuberant energy!
Cassie says
I’d love to visit Chattanooga for the weekend or maybe Atlanta.
Heather says
Looks like a fabulous time! We’ve only done something similar to AirBNB once before, but it’s something we’re definitely going to continue doing in the future. As far as weekend getaways go – I’d love to drive north towards Canada and maybe do some camping (without kiddos).
Parita @ myinnershakti says
So fun! Glad you and David were able to get away and experience something special!
If I could anywhere right now, it’d be to a remote island with powdery sand and clear blue water!
Kate says
What a great weekend!
All those seafood pictures left me hungry – and I had lasagna for lunch! 😉
If I could go on a weekend trip right now, I would go to a small Tuscan town like Montalcino to soak up some sun and wine…
Brittany Dixon says
Oh man, I’d totally join you for a trip like that!! 🙂
Hilary says
Boating and seafood sounds like such a wonderful, fun and exciting weekend! I have never really thought about boating and sail boating and all that goes into but it sounds so interesting!
Elizabeth says
Looks like a good time! I love seafood, I love catamarans & I love painkillers. All of that reminds me of St. John, USVI.
Alyssa @ Renaissancerunnergirl says
I love seafood as well, especially wild sockeye salmon, swordfish, grouper, and tuna – but also shellfish like shrimp, mussels and clams! Oh and octopus. Basically all of it! Looks like a delicious weekend 🙂
Brittany Dixon says
I love all of it too! Whenever I get near the ocean I go a little seafood crazy 😉
Ellen says
Hey Brittany,
Looks like an amazing trip! Have you seen any of Sailing La Vagabonde episodes on youtube? It about a young couple that sails around the world without much prior experience. They make short episodes about their travels and I think you may like it.
(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZdQjaSoLjIzFnWsDQOv4ww)
Love your blog bye the way 🙂
Brittany Dixon says
Hi Ellen, YES! We love watching Vagabonde. They’re such fun hippies 🙂 We also like watching SV Delos and most recently Out Chasing Stars. Then there are more sailing blogs I read too… I think I have a problem 😉
Lauren @ Oh Hey, I Like That! says
OMG you were so close to me this weekend! Isn’t Annapolis just the BEST?! Let me know the next time you’re up this way!
Erin @ Her Heartland Soul says
How fun! I’ve never been to a boat show before!
Maria says
I miss Virginia in the fall so much! Palm trees, while pretty, do not change leaves here in California. 😉
What a fun weekend! We enjoy staying in Air BnBs over hotels anymore. It’s a great way to feel at home, while away from home and I do tend to find them a lot cleaner than most, even nice, hotels.
I enjoyed your Periscope on the boat and especially the inside tour. I love seeing how people make tiny spaces work and how they organize them. Is that strange?
Sarah says
This was so fun to read. I worked in the recreational yacht industry for years and lived the boat show circuit. My husband used to tag along for all of them when we were dating and we actually fell in love at the Annapolis show walking the docks, with him telling me after one of those incredible Chart House dinners. I grew up dinghy racing in New England on a lake, and fell into professional boating as a career after college. So much of who I am came from spending time on boats throughout my childhood. I love to hear when young families are learning about sailing. Even though my husband is a power boater and I’m the sailor, he wants our kids to learn sailing because it teaches so many great life lessons that powerboats don’t. Keep doing it!!!
Brittany Dixon says
I loved reading this Sarah, thank you so much for taking the time to comment. David and I really look forward to introducing the girls to sailing (as soon as Kaitlyn is a little older). We follow so many family sailing blogs and I am always impressed at the life skills the kids seem to get from it. Maybe one day we’ll be able to give the girls the same. I loved hearing how it made such an impact on you!
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