The Rappahannock River, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Note: More photos available on my photo main page.

If you read my previously blog, you probably wonder why I was here in Fredericksburg, Virginia, instead of my friend's new vacation home and the Adventure Sport Center near Swallow Falls in Maryland. Well, the trip got canceled at the last minute. My friend had a family issue to deal with. I am so okay with it. A family always comes first. It's tough to be a parent. And somehow it worked out beautifully for me because I had a chance to be at the American Canoe Association's Celebrate the Rapp festival in Federicksburg on Saturday and paddled on the Rappahannock River for the first time. (So no worry, Karen! We'll do it next time.)

The City Dock

So I convinced and nagged my other friend, Christine, to go to the festival with me and I agreed to see Yanni Concert at Wolf Trap with her in return.  Hey that's a spirit of compromise!  (It's an amazing concert by the way.) So here we go. One of the most fun weekend. Just like an old saying, "it's not about destination. it's about whom you travel with". I think it's so true!

A lovely house near the City Dock

We arrived around 10:30 and helped cleaning up the City Dock right away. It's done within about an hour. The parking lot was the worst. We almost screamed when we saw people started smoking when we left. The cigarette company should pay for the clean up, seriously. The area wasn't big but we picked up almost 2,000 cigarette butts according to the volunteer leader whom we ran into later that day. 

Along the road

The back of an art gallery

The pump house and the bridge over the river

I like the fact that you can access the river and see it almost at any point along Sophia Street. I didn't have a chance to explore the real downtown area but I'll try next time.

View of the railroad bridge over the Rappahannock River from the boat

Under the railroad bridge

A sketch I made later while waiting for the movie festival to start
for my 365 Day161

And here is a painting of the bridge for my 365 Day163

Such a lovely sky we had today

So now we're here for the festival.  there were a bunch of vendors, food, craft etc. The highlighted activities were the river clean-up, free 45-min paddling lessons for kayaking, canoeing and stand-up paddle (SUP), the historical river tour and Reel Paddling Film Festival which showcased nine best paddling films of year 2012. (I wrote about the film festival on the previous post. They were great! Don't forget to check it out. It's a must.) 

The festival was a bit smaller than I thought and some volunteers were not quite informed about the activities. I ended up walking around a lot between the city dock and the festival but I got to experience the town along the riverside a bit better (and took a lot of photos so who cares!). 

Based on my experience you don't need to sign up anything online for next year. Maybe with an exception of stand-up paddling class which was very popular and maybe the river tour because they had to have a boat for you. But do it early, not the night before or your name won't make it onto the list. My friend name wasn't on the SUP class.

Our guide who has been here for over 25 years

Our tour group

Paddling time! We had about 12 people at the tour group. Mr. Greg Mertz of US Park Service was our guide. The tour was about visiting the sites during Civil War. I learnt about what happened, where it took place and what the pontoon looked like! Now I want to read more about Civil War. This was a 2-hour-long tour at $5. (Oh my! It's 10 times more expensive here and we're just an hour away! Unfortunately the tour was just for this event.) 

A view during the tour. (Trust me I was listening!)

The reflection and the shadow at the boat ramp

My fav photo!

I am jealous! The boat ramps were pretty busy. 
There were boats in and out all the time.

I was caught taking a photo of their canoe.
They said I should take a photo of them instead
because they were a better view. Ha ha.
(Hope you see my post! :) )

People here were so friendly and relaxed. The pace of the town is much much slower than the city which was very nice. A lot of fishing, paddling, boating and unfortunately smoking.

After a great and relaxing dinner at Brock's Riverside Grill near the railroad bridge we strolled down back to the festival and decided to just relax at the dock while the sun was setting. Not much to say. The views were just simply lovely.

View from a dock at the park

Another favorite shot

Our dangling feet

The movie screen with a perfect auditorium-seating-like sloped area
right in front of the river.

Aww here was the best part, 2-hour-long Reel Paddling Film Festival, you just have to read about it on my previous post. I can't fit it in here! It's too good. I wish there were more people sticking around. They should show this in Reston or DC. There must be a lawn somewhere here. We have thousands of paddlers. They could make a lot more money from us. I definitely go again if they come to the area.

The last shot of the day

So that's the end. We left the town around 11 pm. Driving on I-95 was scary but we drove slowly, kept chatting and sang songs out loud to stay awake. I guess you can tell we had great time. I hope you have a chance to be here in the near future.


Until next paddling~


Note: More photos available on my photo main page.
Note 2: I am so sorry about the typo for the town name!