..the thread but related. Anyone that hangs out in Oltown Alexandria, the Alex Lighted boat parade is Dec 3rd. If you come down look for me aboard my sailboat Toyot. I have 'retired' from 'active competition'. Won best in Parade a few times. Now I just tie up at the water front in Oldtown with my Xmas light display going and have a little dockside gathering. Its more fun than actually doing the parade. Look for the sailboat with 'sails' made of lights. It's hard to miss :smile:.

Oh, if anyone happens to go the the Scottish Christmas Walk that a.m. in Oldtown, you'll see a certain red convertible MINI in the parade.

 

Not to boot you out of the Annapolis thread, but this is a great idea on its own, and deserves its own thread!

Just didn't want it to get lost in the above thread.

Anyhoo, I'll definitely be there! I didn't even realize that Alexandria had its own show. I'll probably make the day of it too, and have a late lunch / early dinner in Old Town.

Anyone else game?

-Paul!

 

Depending on the weather...I'm up for it. We haven't been to Old Town in ages...this could be fun!

Mark, what time does the parade start?

 

The boat parade starts at 5:30 pm. They've had 50-65 boats the last two years.

That day is also the Scottish Christmas Walk at 10:30 a.m. There's going to be a red MINI convertible in the parade by the way.

You can see the previous version of my display at Sailboat 'Toyot' with large Xmas display. It had 7000 miniture lights in the two sails the last 4 years. They were not very sturdy however and I was forever repairing things. So I'm just finishing up replacing them with fewer of the much larger C7 bulbs. I'm not crazy about fewer larger lights, but it was becomeing a real problem keeping the others going, and not much fun.

I used to do the Alexandria boat parade, the D.C. boat parade (later the same night), and the contest at my marina two weeks later. I'm happy to brag that I've won first place in almost every event I've entered.

But the parade's are a long, cold night. It's hard to tell from the boat if anyone shoreside is enjoying things. To top things off they added a Sunday night Georgetown parade to the Alex -DC combo. You have to do all three parades to win any prizes, and alas the bridges 'tween Georgetown and the rest of the Potomac are only 18 feet of clearance. Effectively eliminating all sailboats.

...So, I started a new tradition last year of swooping into a dock space just when all the boats head out for the Alexandria parade. (Slips are in short supply that night till they head out) I fired up the light diplay and the stove and had hot chocolate, cookies and the like and served to dockside friends, family, and cute strangers.:smile:

I encourage all my MINI and regular sized friends to stop by. I'll be the really really bright sailboat at the dock front somewhere. Basically somewhere between the Torpedo factory and the two docks just beyond the Chart House. Conditions will dictate exactly where so just stroll around and find me.

Hope to see some of you there!
Mark

 

Am I the only one who's going visit Mark this Saturday???? C'mon people...let's party!

 

Hey! I'm still goin'!!

-Paul!

 

cool..what time you getting there? Let's have a late lunch at the Union Grill...that place is YUMMY!

 

I'm not going to be able to make this one. I've been working 10 hour days recently (+2hours of driving) to get some software ready to ship (which it probably won't). So saturday will either be me recovering from the week or working more from home to figure out WTF is wrong.

Have fun though.

 

the forecast is sounding iffy

 

damn...rain? I haven't seen the weather today...

 

AccuWeather is claiming partly cloudy and cold. As long as it doesn't rain, it'll be fine!

Umm, dunno what time. Probably whenever I drag my sorry butt out of bed and head up there! Most likely noonish at the latest. We can meet for lunch at whatever time suits you.

Slightly confused about the place though. I don't think that there's a Union Grill in Old Town? Do you mean the Union St. Pub House?

There's another place that I want to for lunch a month or two ago that was excellent. I don't remember the name, but I remember that it was on the South end of Union St...

-Paul!

 

Depends on who you watch. Looking like most are saying it'll be OK now. Or at least later that night.

I'm having 8 family members in for the weekend, so I'll miss lunch.

If anyone's around for the Christmas walk during the morning shout as I drive by!

 

Union St. Pub, maybe. Anyhoo, wanna meet at say 3?

 

Sweet Sail. I have a friend in the show this year. Sorry he is a powerboater. Boat Muddy Waters. Great video Love it.