Annapolis, Maryland

This weekend we took another footprint towards our 50 states goal with a day trip with friends to Annapolis, capital of the state of Maryland, pronounced with a drawl like 'Marilan'. It's not Mary-land as we aussies would quickly think. It's about 40 min drive from DC. Before I give you the trip review, let me first explain how DC fits in with Maryland and Virginia states. 

DC is not a state. There is a state called Washington over the west coast but DC is known as DC = District of Columbia. It is NOT a state. DC is a square section of land that overlaps Maryland and Virginia. If you live inside the square, you live in DC. If you live outside the square, you will be in either Maryland of Virginia. So DC folks are not in a state and have no rep in Congress which they are shitty about because they pay taxes but have no representation - fair enough I think. While they vote for President, they don't vote for a Congress rep. Their number plates firmly state 'Taxation without Representation'. So, I'm telling you this because we have travelled around Maryland (and Virgina) as part of normal life here in DC but I thought it was cheating to consider that a footprint. Now that we have visited Annapolis, I consider this is a footprint. Later we will go to Baltimore which is nearby and a larger city in Maryland (with an airport if you fly into there). So back to Annapolis.

We wanted to visit the Dutch Farmers Markets first which is also known as the Amish Markets. Other friends said the food was fresh and lovely and they had fantastic donuts !  Sadly, my research the night before revealed the markets are closed on Sunday. NOT HAPPY JAN - all of us had been hanging out for a donut !! So we drove direct to Annapolis, saw the street markets were starting up. We parked the car and found a coffee shop as first stop of the day.

Annapolis, used to named Providence back in the 1600's, has a population around 38,000 and is located on Chesapeake Bay. It's had a few names over the centuries including Anne Arundle's town. There was a significant Catholic versus Christian period and when the Catholics were overthrown, the governor moved the capital of the royal colony to Anne Arundel's Towne and renamed the town Annapolis after Princess Anne of Denmark and Norway, soon to be Queen of Great Britain. Annapolis was incorporated as a city in 1708.

 



We took a walking tour which was fabulous and helped explain the history of Maryland who claims pride in having 4 (of the 56) signatories to the Declaration of Independence. The building on the right is State House which is their legislative house with an Upper (Senate) and Lower House. It is the oldest legislative house in the US. It's well kept and had a lot of historical info and artefacts in there. The Treaty of Paris (cause it was signed in Paris) was the end of the American Revolutionary War which recognised the US to be a sovereign state. After this was signed, Annapolis became the first peacetime capital of the US.
There is also a room that has been restored to look like the room that George Washington famously resigned his commission in 1793. They even have his paper speech framed in special glass.  

One of the Dec of Ind signers was a dude called Samuel Chase. His nickname was 'bacon face'. Pretty unfortunate really. I goggled at home as to why he got the name...I found 'No doubt because of his florid complexion that suggested he imbibed excessively'. In short, he drank too much and had a red face !  Probably just an ugly bugger I guess.

Annapolis was a lovely little city. Very pretty and full of restaurants near the water. We were able to walk to most things as it was not a large area to navigate. 

Deb not impressed at my naval?

 

Of great interest was the famous and prestigious US Naval Academy = equivalent of ADFA for only Navy cadets. They have separate academy's for Air Force and Army (West Point). At the USNA, midshipmen do four years of training to achieve their degree and commission. They commission Navy and Marine officers. Our tour guide told us about life as a midshipman and the first year cadets only arrived 4 days ago. There was a lot of yelling, yes sir, no sir, yes ma'am  no ma'am   going on around the base and Deb and I watched with relief that it wasn't us. Our days back in Air Force recruit training  are not fond and we both cringed a bit watching these poor little buggers marching around still trying to get into step. The academy features much history and like most navies, it is deeply rooted in tradition. The museum was full of extraordinary model ships, naval history and academy history. There was a special exhibition celebrating 40 years of women in the academy. It's refreshing to see that women made 28% of this years intake of about 1200 recruits. 

Check out the Fallout Shelter sign - this was on the old post office. Scary to think of what times used to be like. We enjoyed Annapolis and being so close, I think we might be visiting there again for a day trip to a nice place near the water.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful aside from watching the election results live on ABC streaming. Like you at home, we are pretty disappointed with the likely hung parliament outcome. 

It's 4th July Independence Day tmrw and everyone is quite happy and excited being their national day. They tend to say "Happy 4th" everywhere and there are flags up on houses and lots of fireworks for the past few nights. We are going to the baseball tmrw but the forecast is rain so it might not be a great day. There is talk the big fireworks in DC might get cancelled. 

Funny story...driving home tonight we use Connecticut Ave - a major 6 lane road like Northbourne Ave at home but the outside lanes often have parked cars so it's 4 lanes until the double parkers with hazard lights stuff your drive home. Anyway, it's a busy road all the time....this girl is pushing her bike across the ride, no sense of urgency to the cars approaching (like me), loses her soft shoe, stops, puts the bike stand down, picks up her shoe slowly, slips shoe on, kicks up bike stand and casually finishes the walk across the ride. Meanwhile, we all stop, wait and watch. She waves to say thanks. Deb and I burst out laughing - seeing her kick that stand down on her bike and leave it standing there on the road. Had to see it I guess.

We did our Saturday brekky run again but no-one else joined us give it's a long weekend here. Our brekky stop was a bagel place. We took note of the sign outside the bagelry.









And one last pic to show a beef slider. I don't know how we managed to eat this thing but it was messy I can tell you.