Joel Petrow is an expatriate nuclear engineer visiting Williamsburg who decided to brush up on his sailing skills with an inDSCN3329formal lesson on a bright afternoon along the York River. He and his family live in Friedrichsdorf, Germany, outside Frankfurt. He found one big difference with America to be the walk-ability of German towns and much of Europe, vs. having to drive everywhere here. Some New England towns still have it, and the Petrows are thinking of retiring to Park City, Utah, where he can ski every day and enjoy a sophisticated small town. The family has become so assimilated in Europe that the Swiss Alps are also on the retirement list. (We should be so lucky.) One similarity he found is that American pop culture and media are pervasive in Europe, largely through the Internet.

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Set Sail into History

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Members of Kingsmill Yacht Club are sitting in the catbird seat for two nautical extravaganzas during America’s 250th anniversary this summer. A Parade of Sail in Norfolk on June 19 will feature 60 ships and naval vessels from 20 countries, proceeding along the coast from Virginia Beach into Norfolk in

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Foreign Sails

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A couple from Northern Virginia enjoyed a beautiful day on the water with their two children. Lourdes Garcia-Calderon spent six months on a steam-powered cruise ship outfitted for educational research. “We had 300-400 students and 200 crew, which was less than normal due to a SARS outbreak in China,” she

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