A fine Navy day

I got to drive a boat, y'all! But more on that later...We've been having wonderful fall-like weather lately, but not too cold. On Sunday my coworker Kirsten invited the office over for a cookout. She lives in Annapolis, Maryland, sailing capital of America and home of the US Naval Academy. She rents a room from a large house on the water, and the setting was perfect for a late summer/early fall outing. Her landlords have their own private dock for their boats. Yes, boats. Plural.

They had a nice deck (a.k.a. "crow's nest") overlooking the water, and behind that was a grassy alcove where we ate dinner.

Now, on to the boat rides! Our original plan was to go on this water taxi thing:

Actually, it reminds me of the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. Anywho, the boat is completely electric. We all climbed in, ready to go....

And then...nothing. The battery was dead. So we all climbed off in disappointment, and took turns riding in the speedboat. (See, this is why they have multiple boats.)

The exhaust fumes were making me nauseous.

Heading towards the Chesapeake Bay....

Then once we were out on the open water, we each got a chance to take the wheel. (If you squint, you can see the Bay Bridge off in the distance.) So I got to drive for a bit! The owner even said I did a pretty good job. :)

Some of the houses we saw were ridiculous. Could you imagine living right on the bay? Amazing.

It was a lovely day to be on the water.

After we got back to shore, we saw a really neat antique wooden boat cruise by.

And we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset.

Me and Kirsten.

A good time was had by all.

Special thanks to my coworker Charo for providing me with additional images.