UPDATE: The Washington DC boat show has been postponed until 2010 due to the lack of financial strength of many exhibitors!  Huge bummer.

It is boat show season in the Baltimore/Washington DC area.  There are 4 boats shows coming up soon:

Baltimore Boat Show: January 21-25
Fredericksburg Boat Show: January 30-February 2
Washington DC Boat Show: February 19-22
National Capital Boat Show (Dulles): March 13-15

You can find more information about these boat shows in our Special Events calendar.  If you end up attending one of these shows, we would love to post your pics or hear you story!

Do you realize what’s in your own backyard?  This morning I came across impressive Washington DC travel guide, DestinationGuideDC.com, and decided to write a quick review from a local perspective.

According to DestinationGuideDC, the purpose of the site is:

“to provide a complete and informative overview of [Washington DC], enhanced with friendly, helpful commentary from our travel experts. We want you to get the most out your trip, or even discover things and places you never knew about in your hometown.”

The site has an easy-to-navigate layout and clean design patterns. I found the content to be insightful and well written.  The site content is organized by category (i.e. attractions, activities, events, etc). If you want to get a sense of what the site has to offer quickly, check out the information page, which reads like an executive summary.

The DestinationGuideDC travel experts have done an excellent job cataloging all of the museums, monuments, bars and restaurants in DC. There is even a “free in DC” section that I’m sure will be popular, given our current economic environment. I was surprised to see that there is not much opportunity for user participation.  No user comments, reviews, ratings or voting opportunites.

Without a doubt, DestinationGuideDC is wading into a red ocean.  Other already popular, similar sites include CityGuideDC and the non-profit DestinationDC.  On the other hand, as ShopDC demonstrated last year, there is money to be made in this market.

Overall, I found DestinationGuideDC to be a worthwhile site to check out, especially if you are contemplating a day trip into the city.  Remember, Occoquan is only 21 miles south of Washington DC!

I know January is a silly time to write about the world’s largest boat party but I’m sick of winter!  I’m trying to forget about the snow & sleet that is slamming the DC area outside my window right now.  I’m thinking about hopping on my boat with a crew of my friends, sun on face, ice in cooler, firing up the engines and cruising to another awesome Aquapalooza!

Aquapalooza is a nationwide party thrown at over 140 locations each year.  Initiated in 2006, the party is sponsored by Sea Ray boats.  In 2007, the signature event was held on the Potomac River at Tim’s II.  In 2008, over 12,000 boats and 56,000 people attended. Check out the partying on the Potomac in this video:

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=14697591

Sea Ray hasn’t updated the Aquapalooza website yet for 2009 but I did some sleuthing and found out that the party will span the July 25-26 weekend. The signature event will be held on Lake Martin in Alabama. In 2007, Taylor Swift was the headline act. In 2008 it was Everclear. I’m curious to hear who will be headlining this year.

Here is my prediction, Aquapalooza on the Potomac is going to be bigger than ever this year.  The last 2 years were huge and I think we have finally hit the tipping point.  Aquapalooza is a boating tradition that is new to Occoquan but here to stay!  See you in July!

I found an interesting EPA report released in the waning days of Bush 43 shows that many areas around the Chesapeake Bay’s shoreline are already witnessing the effects of sea level rise and that vulnerable tidal marshes may erode more rapidly over the next century because of climate change. This graphic really says it all:

Luckily, it appears that Occoquan is in the green “safe” zone but when I think about the loss of habitat throughout the bay region, I don’t feel so lucky.  The report, Coastal Sensitivity to Sea-Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region, examines the impacts of sea level rise on the human communities and wildlife habitat of the Mid-Atlantic coast, including Chesapeake Bay. According to the EPA, the Mid-Atlantic region is one area of the U.S. that will likely see the greatest impacts of climate change due to rising waters, coastal storms and a high population concentration along the coastline.

Welcome to the new OccoquanWaterfront.com. I’m Lou Mintzer, I live in Occoquan, Virginia and am one of the people who will be contributing to this blog.

Tucked away just 21 miles south of Washington DC, the area along the Occoquan River has been a hidden gem for many years.  The town of Occoquan and the surrounding region is a great place to live, a beautiful place to visit and an affordable place to shop.

The south bank of the Occoquan River, is also home to many marinas, nearly 1000 recreational boats and a thriving boating community.  One of the main goals that we have for this blog is to bridge the gaps between the local boating community and the town of Occoquan.  Also, we want to invite everybody that enjoys living and boating on the Chesapeake Bay to learn more about what makes Occoquan so special.

Over the next few month, as we add more content and information to this site, we welcome you to participate with us.  If you live or work in Occoquan or nearby, we welcome any news or information that you would like to share.  OccoquanWaterfront.com is a platform for everybody that loves Occoquan!