Joe & Rosa's Page

We are now retired and continue to live in the Washington DC Region. Our four children have completed college, are married and live close by.  Our nine (9) grandchildren are a blessing.  Three are in college with two expected to graduate soon.  They have dreams of grad school which we hope they will pursue.  The others range between high school and nursery school.    

With everyone on their own, we are thus "empty nesters" and are beginning to travel more, both by land, air, and our small boat named 'SURPRISE'.  We've prepared for retirement by upgrading our home to support a wide range of hobbies.  Joe likes to design and build wooden furniture along with experimenting with electronics, computer programming and boating.  Rosa loves to paint and sew.  The garage is now arranged so it's easily converted into a woodworking shop.  A bedroom is arranged with shelves and tables to become a sewing room.  A second bedroom is arranged into an office with several computers.

We love being near the water.  Joe purchased our first boat in 2000, a small Crownline bow rider which we kept on a trailer and hauled mostly to the Potomac.  Our second boat was a SeaRay express cruiser which we kept at Podickory Point Marina and used on the weekends to travel overnight to various Chesapeake Bay locations.  We purchased our current boat - 'SURPRISE' - in 2006.  She's a 1981 36' classic Grand Banks trawler, a perfect boat for two people to live aboard for longer periods.  Before we retired we cruised her to various towns nearby in the Chesapeake Bay.  We've enjoyed many wonderful weekends or slightly longer cruises with friends from Podickory Point Marina or our Rockville Sail and Power Squadron groups.  Pictures or descriptions of many of those outings are posted on this site. 

In 2003 we become active with the Rockville Sail and Power Squadron (RSPS), a unit of the United States Power Squadrons (USPS).  Together we have taken boating classes to improve our seamanship and piloting skills.  Joe has become an avid supporter of boating safety issues, and participates in teaching the basic boating safety classes RSPS conducts in several Montgomery County Maryland locations. 

In retirement we hope to spend more time cruising to port cities.  This year we have begun a cruise from our home port in the Chesapeake Bay to Key West Florida.  We will be updating this site to keep our friends informed of this journey.  We look forward to meeting you somewhere soon.