May 26: Memorial Day in Delaware City

Today being Memorial Day, we decided to attend the service at the park this morning before cruising south. As we walked to the to the water front park we heard lyrical humming of bagpipes wafting on the breeze and we walked faster anticipating a special time. And we were not disappointed. This was a wonderful small town event hosted by the American Legion. There were little old men there handing out red poppies and small American flags which brought back strong memories of my dear Granddaddy who spent the last years of his life taking flags to veteran’s funerals. He served the US in WWI. Another reminder of Granddaddy was the arrival of an old Model T Ford convertible with two soldiers dressed in WWI uniforms. The crowd gathered to sing America and to hear a message about Freedom not being Free. The bag pipes played Amazing Grace, the canal militia was also there to fire an old canon, the huge American flag was flying at half mast,and a young lady from the William Penn High School raised her shining purple trumpet and played Taps. We remembered all those who have made deep sacrifices to defend and protect our country. And we remembered how responsible we all are to make our country live up to the values and principals on which we were founded. It was pretty striking to have just spent the time at the Independence National Park just before Memorial Day. We are living in a great experiment of people running their government and it matters that we participate.

This afternoon we made the five hour run down to Cape May, unfortunately headed into a wind from the south. We passed some interesting “aids to navigation” in the middle of the bay and saw a couple of small fishing boats minding their nets. After the first couple of hours we came out into the widest part of Delaware Bay, and it was ocean rough. We were exhausted when we arrived in the narrow calm channel up to Cape May. Tonight feels really good to be tied up snug at the beautiful South Jersey Marina.