Summer 2023
Chris and Tami saw several comedians and the Eagles in Baltimore before it got warm. They visited West Virginia on two trips when the summer started, in May and July, where they stayed with Tami's family in Charleston. They went camping at Ricketts Glen in Pennsylvania and Jane's Island in Maryland. Tami had a business trip to Tampa in September, which was converted into the one flying vacation that Chris and Tami took this summer. Chris flew his RC planes throughout the summer, and also went on many hiking and bicycle trips locally.
4 March 2023 –
Jay Pharoah
7 April 2023 –
Lisa Ann
Walter
8 April
2023 –
The Eagles
14 April 2023 –
Tracy Morgan
25 April 2023 - RCMB night flying photos
12 May 2023 - Gunpowder Falls Hike, Sweathouse Branch & Wildlands Loop - South @ AllTrails, Sweathouse Branch & Wildlands Loop - North @ AllTrails
21 May 2023 - RCMB Picnic, first flight of 16' Pink Wing
25–30 May
Sandstone Falls,
Grandview,
Summit Lake,
Monongahela National
Forest Driving & High Rocks DJI Aerial Video, 27 May 2023
Williams River Valley Overlook,
Big Spruce Overlook,
Beartown State Park, WV, 27 May
New River Gorge National Park & Preserve, WV,
27 May 2023, Sandstone Falls
Falling Water, PA, 30 May
Ohiopyle State Park, PA, 30 May 2023
3 June 2023 - RCMB aerial photos, first flight of F4U-4 Corsair
9-11 June 2023 - Ricketts Glen State Park, PA
Chris and Tami went camping at Ricketts Glen State Park in Pennsylvania, where they had their tent right next to Lake Jean. The went canoeing and hiked the waterfall loop. They visited an overlook of the Susquehanna River at Shikellamy State Park on the way home.
Ricketts
Glen Falls Trail Hike @ AllTrails
Ricketts Glen Lake Jean
Shikellamy State Park, PA, 11 June 2023
18 June 2023 - RCMB, first flight of P-51 Mustang
30 June - 9 July 2023 - West Virginia & Kentucky & Ohio
They returned to West Virginia for the long 4th of July weekend and took a few extra days off. They drove through Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland on the way to West Virginia. Chris and Alex hiked in Coonskin Park on July 3, and Chris spent July 4 in the New River Gorge. Chris and Alex visited Carter Caves State Park in Kentucky on July 6, and then Chris went to Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio on July 8.
Charleston Sunset, 30 June 2023, DJI Aerial High Dynamic Range
Coonskin Park, Charleston, WV, 3 July 2023, Alice Knight Memorial Trail to the Grotto @ AllTrails
New River Gorge National Park & Preserve, WV, 4 July 2023
Long Point Views,
Long Point Trail
@ AllTrails
New River Gorge Views
Fayette Station Rafting
Endless Wall Trail,
Endless
Wall Trail @ AllTrails + Cathedral Falls
Endless Wall Trail Gorge View
Carter Caves State Resort Park, KY, 6 July 2023, X-Cave, Natural Bridge, Cascade Cave
Natural Bridge Panorama
Hocking Hills State Park, OH, 8 July 2023
Old Man's Cave,
Old Mans Cave
@ AllTrails
Whispering Cave,
Whispering
Cave @ AllTrails
Conkles Hollow Grotto,
Conkles Hollow
@ AllTrails
Cedar Falls,
Cedar Falls
@ AllTrails
Ash Cave
Ash Cave
14 - 17 July 2023 - New York City
The whole family visited New York City from 14 to 17 July. Chris and Tami drove to New York, parked in New Jersey on the west side of the Hudson River, and took a ferry to Manhattan. Everyone stayed at the Times Square Marriott Marquis Hotel. Chris and Tami had dinner on 14 July at the Spanish Diner at Mercado Little Spain in Hudson Yards.
Chris and Tami went for a long hike though Central Park on 15 July. They walked and rowed on The Lake for a total of 8.6 miles; 7.3 miles was recorded @ AllTrails plus another 1.3 miles before the recording started. Everyone had made it to New York by the middle of the day on 15 July, we all visited The Edge and had dinner at Uncle Jacks Steakhouse.
It rained most of the day on 16 July. We had dinner on 16 July in Little Italy at Casa D'Angelo. We walked around mid-Manhattan on 17 July, going to Rockefeller Center and Bryant Park. Chris and Tami took the ferry back from Manhattan to New Jersey, and then met up with everyone on the way home in Philadelphia, where we all had cheese-steak sandwiches at Joe's Steaks for dinner.
21 July 2023 - Hemlock Gorge @ AllTrails, Gunpowder Falls State Park, MD
22 & 23 July 2023- RCMB flying photos
30 July 2023 - Boordy Vineyards, Wine Tasting & Lunch
4 August 2023 - Pleasantville Loop @ AllTrails : Chris and Tami hiked this loop trail at Gunpowder Falls State Park.
6 August 2023 - Washington D.C. 18 Mile Bike Ride @ AllTrails : Chris drove Tami and a friend to a birthday party in Washington and then biked around the city while they were at the party.
18 - 20 August 2023 - Jane's Island State Park, MD
Chris and Tami camped at Jane's Island State Park on the western shore of Maryland. They canoed from the mainland out to the island, and spent the day relaxing on the beach and swimming. This was the second time they had camped at Janes's Island, having visited back in 2014 also.
3 September 2023 - Canoe trip on Gunpowder Falls,
margarita's for dinner
9 - 19 September 2023 - Florida
Tami had a one-day business trip to Tampa, and we extended that to a 10 day vacation to Florida. We flew into Tampa, rented a car, and drove around the south end of the state, going all the way to Key West. We started by driving from home to Washington D.C. Reagan Airport, where we caught our flight to Tampa. We were supposed to pick up our convertible in Tampa (which we had reserved and paid extra for), but they were out of convertibles, so we had to spend extra time driving to Sarasota Airport, where we went through 3 convertibles (that were all broken in some manner) before finally getting one that actually ran well. We continued on to Miami and checked into our hotel for two nights on Miami Beach. We went for a walk and and had dinner on South Beach Ocean Drive across from the main beach park.
Driving Route: Tampa to Miami Beach to Key West to Miami Beach Cruise to Tampa
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Timelapse Compilation taken with GoPro 10 Miami Beach Sunset, 10 Sep
2023 - 316 photos, 158 minutes
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10 September 2023 – We spent all day on the beach at South Beach, and had dinner in South Beach at a Greek Michelin-starred restaurant.
DJI Aerial Video @ Miami Beach,
watching cruise ship leave Port Miami
11 September 2023 – We drove from Miami to Everglades National Park (south side) on to Marathon Key. We stopped at Robert Is Here Fruit Stand for milkshakes in the Everglades, Everglades National Park, Mrs. Mac’s Kitchen II for a late lunch in Key Largo, Blonde Giraffe for Keylime Pie on a stick in Key Largo, and Robbie’s Marina to feed the tarpons on Islamorada. You feed the tarpons (50+ pound fish) by hand at Robbie's, and sometimes the fish will come out of the water to grab the bait fish out of your hand. The photos below show a large tarpon coming out of the water and grabbing Chris' arm almost up to the elbow. They do not have teeth, but do have 'scrapers' inside their mouths that are used to strip away fish scales from their food. This acts like sandpaper on a person's arm as the tarpon falls back into the water. Chris was bleeding profusely from the tarpon feeding. We had dinner at our hotel restaurant, Mahina, at the south end of Marathon Key.
Everglades National Park,
Royal Palms Visitor Center
12 September 2023 – We spent the day on Marathon Key, Pigeon Key, and Bahia Honda Key, We started with breakfast at the hotel, then picked up two bicycles from our hotel and pedaled across the old 7-mile bridge to Pigeon Key, where we swam and snorkeled with fish. We returned back to our hotel, and then drove south across the new 7-mile bridge to Bahia Honda Key and spent several hours swimming and snorkeling at Bahia Honda State Park. We drove back to our hotel on the south end of Marathon Key, for sunset dinner at our hotel restaurant, Mahina.
New 7-Mile Bridge from old 7-Mile Bridge
Pigeon Key
Old 7-Mile Bridge crossing Pigeon Key
Pigeon Key
Bahia Honda Key from old Bahia Honda Bridge
13 September 2023 – We drove from Marathon Key to Key West and checked into our hotel on Eaton & Duvall. After relaxing for a little bit, we walked down Duvall Street for happy hour, with drinks ad small bites in several bars. Tami had some work friends that happened to be in town, so we met up with them for drinks at a bar called First Flight.
DJI Aerial Video,
south-west end of 7-Mile Bridge
14 September 2023 – We checked out two bicycles for a trip around Key West that lasted 6.3 miles @ AllTrails. We visited the Southernmost Point Marker, Hemingway Home & Museum, Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park beach and fort. We had sunset at Mallory Square, enjoyed music and dinner at Sloppy Joe’s, and them more music and drinks at Garbo's Grill and our hotel roof-top bar at the Saint Hotel. The photos below show some of the six-toed cats at the Hemingway Home.
15 September 2023 – We had three days unscheduled for the last part of the trip, but had decided to try a cruise as we were watching cruise ships depart Port Miami a few days earlier. There was a 3-day cruise to the Bahamas which fit perfectly into our schedule. We left Key West and drove north, back to Miami. We made to our cruise ship, the Freedom of the Seas, with a couple hours to spare before it set sail for the Bahamas. We had dinner on the boat, with lots of drinks and food and pizza. Our cabin was a very short distance from the pizza restaurant, which was open around the clock handing out pizza slices. This was our first cruise.
16 September 2023 – The boat arrived at Coco Cay in Bahamas, which is a cruise line-owned private island. We spent all day in the pool (with a bar in it) and at the beach, swimming, drinking, eating, and snorkeling. Coco Cay also has a water park and zip line for visitors, but the fees are extra and ridiculous: zip line = $104, water park = $136. After paying for the cruise, these extras should be included. We relaxed in the pool on the boat after departure from the island, and then had a great dinner, again with lots of drinks and food and pizza.
17 September 2023 – The boat arrived in Nassau, Bahamas. We booked an excursion to the Blue Lagoon Island, with swimming, food, bottomless Bahama Mama’s, and dolphins. The bay through the island acts like a natural wave pool, which we enjoyed for many hours with Bahama Mama's in our hands while splashing in the water. We returned to our boat at the end of the day and tried to relax in the pool onboard, but it was too busy and there were too many very drunk people to make it enjoyable. We again had a great dinner, with lots of drinks and food and pizza.
18 September 2023 – Our boat arrived back to Miami. We drove from Miami to Everglades National Park, Shark Valley, and on to Rotonda West and Englewood, which had been Chris’ childhood home. After having lunch in Englewood, we continued on to Tampa. We checked into our hotel on the Tampa waterfront, and received an incredible room with a large deck on the 20th floor. Tami went to her banquet and dinner, and Chris walked along the Tampa Riverwalk for several miles and took sunset photos.
19 September 2023 – We drove to the Tampa Airport and flew to Washington D.C. We had dinner in D.C. and drove home to Baltimore.
| 1 October 2023 - RCMB flying photos | 13 October 2023 - Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail, MD + Heritage Rail Trail, PA 50 mile bike ride @ AllTrails |
