big cities and bigger cities

Back to the big cities

On a rainy, but not cold, Tuesday we left Delmarva for Annapolis, a big city with small town feel. Even the rain didn’t dampen our touring – a trip to Home Depot. A perk of bigger cities is the availability of big box stores for essential parts – we needed a new thermal expansion tank and they are not stocked in just any store – go figure? The gloomy weather gave us a chance to catch up on chores without feeling like we were missing the fun. Our stop here included a tour of the Naval Academy, and it more than lived up to the billing.  Even on a partly cloudy day, the buildings and grounds of this campus were impressive. The beaux arts style dorms, chapel and armory were spectacular both outside and inside. While the midshipmen attending here work long hours with a rigorous study plan, they are surrounded by beauty and inspiration in the heritage of naval heroes.  

We also toured the historic district which sports attractive shoppes and restaurants – we enjoyed lunch in one of the taverns which was founded in 1754. Steve graciously toured  the Paca estate with its restored gardens and the state house where we joined hordes of school kids admiring the restored historic rooms and the elaborate chambers added in the early 1900s. Just wandering the streets here is delightful – they call this city the museum without walls for a good reason.

about 100 sailboats raced out on Wednesday evening and then.....

they returned even faster about an hour later - we felt under attack but only one glanced off our dink. 

Peace at last

From Annapolis we cruised north to Baltimore and the real world of big harbors and tall buildings.  We docked in the inner harbor which is a restored public area full of life by day and night. This city has managed to modernize and keep its residents, history, and nightlife in the heart of things. While we had a great view of the aquarium buildings and the science center, we took advantage of lovely weather to enjoy more outdoor activities like a bike ride to Fort McHenry national monument – where the flag was raised after the battle in 1814 with the British that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner. Their new visitor center includes state of the art digital displays and a patriotic film retelling the battle of Sept 1814.  At the end, the screen rolls up to reveal the fort and flag through the window – while the audience rises to the singing of the national anthem. The national park service got it very right on this one. Although there are four ships to visit in the harbor as well as the oldest screw type lighthouse, we opted to limit ourselves to only two. The largest was the Constellation – the last sail-powered ship built for the U.S. Navy. It has a long and varied history including many years as a training vessel for midshipmen in Annapolis. The size of this frigate first built in 1855 to carry 24 cannon was awesome.  Imagining even this commodious space packed with the crew needed to man all the fire-power was discomforting.  Each of the main cannon required 14 men and boys to operate it – the head/toilette was on the bow sprit and showers were fewer than on Erben Renewal – ugh!

The lightship we visited was more modern with roomy bunks for the crew – a spacious commons room and mess hall, plus several heads. Her crew was also much smaller and she was active until 1970. Lightships were used until 1983 by the Coast Guard to warn mariners of dangerous shoals. Men lived aboard these anchored floating lighthouses as a more economical solution than building a structure over the water. From our journey up the Chesapeake we have seen several of the new lights which are out in the water where formerly screw type light houses or floating light ships were used. Cute as they are, they are not as charming as the screw type structures or the lightships. However, I suspect they are much cheaper to operate unmanned and on solar power.

We also were fortunate to time our Baltimore visit so that we could join the celebration of Emily Miller and Tom McCabe’s marriage in her family’s lovely backyard the day after the wedding. It is a pleasure to see Andrea’s friends move through the milestones of marriage and family – but at the same time always a little bitter sweet.  Their wedding so close to Mother’s day reminded us that we actually forgot to celebrate our own wedding anniversary.  Now that is a sign of something for sure. We made up for it with a special Mother’s day dinner.

Happy Mother’s day to all you mothers and single fathers. Cheers