May 26, Day 335 – In Norfolk

We woke up early this morning, soooooo excited about the fun day we had in store – yuck – cleaning and straightening out the forward cabin. After a quick breakfast we jumped right in. We threw away a few things but mostly just reorganized and stowed stuff in different places. We’re always amazed at how much storage room there is on the Monk. Unfortunately, not all of it is readily accessible, but we kind of prioritized according to when we thought we might need to access something; e.g., sweaters and warm shirts went in the space behind the head of the bed in the main cabin as we’re sure we won’t need them before we get back home. We were pretty much finished by noon.

After a quick lunch we undid the lines and moved a few hundred feet so we could get a pumpout – another necessity with company coming. Later in the afternoon we walked into town, did a little shopping/browsing at the mall, explored more of town and on the way back to the boat found a little Italian restaurant named Vineyards. Of course, with a name like that, we had to eat there. Sometimes you just luck out – the food at the restaurant was wonderful!!

Around 7:30 we headed out for the airport to pick up the kids. They arrived on time and our son said it was a pretty good flight. Our grandson, however, was not of the same opinion. He thought it was way too long (he’s 11 with a short attention span). Back at the marina, we went with the kids to have dinner; they ate, we drank. Although we thought the weather was very pleasant, our son was already complaining about the heat and humidity. They flew in from Salt Lake City where 2 days ago it snowed. He’ll be in for a real treat tomorrow when it’s supposed to be in the 90’s.

This was what we had to tackle in the forward cabin. After months of not having company we had stuff piled everywhere.

As we moved stuff from one place to another, the main cabin became a staging area.

The main galley area where Gerry (in the bilge) was looking for just the right screw

Forward cabin -- after -- room to sleep

... and the main cabin squared away again. We did have to pile a few things down there, but at least there is a place to sleep.

This is one of the views from our marina -- a ship in dry dock

This is where we had dinner. A most delightful restaurant.