This is part II of a report of our vacation to the East Coast. We started out in Richmond VA and spent a little over a week traveling up as far north as the head of the Chesapeake. We left Karen's Brother's place Monday morning May 2nd headed north to visit some friends. Melissa is the daughter of our friends Ron and Beth Boyd. Melissa married Matt Scott a few years ago and they have a daughter and son and one on the way. We had a nice visit and stayed the night at their house near La Plata Maryland.
Cute Kids
And a bit independent. "I can do it myself."
The next morning we headed out for a bit of a drive down the Peninsula between the Potomac and the Chesapeake. We checked out several small little river towns and stopped to look at an old lighthouse.
Then we headed up the west shore of the Chesapeake stopping at a few small towns along the way. In General we were headed for Annapolis that day. Late in the afternoon we stopped for dinner at this small town and had seafood at a local restaurant. But first we spent a few minutes walking along the board walk and out on one of the fishing piers.
Later that evening we ended up at our Friend Beth's home, and spent a couple of days with her.
Ron and Beth Boyd lived about a block from us in Lafayette back in the late 70's. We were in a Bible study with a common friends, about the time that Clarice and Blake were pre-schoolers. They moved to the Annapolis area in late 70's/ early 80's. We have been able to keep in touch for a long time. A few years ago Ron died of brain cancer and the whole family has subsequently gone through some rough times. We were glad to have this time to catch up with Beth and reminisce.
Beth still works so Karen and I did little day trips and got back to Beth's in the evening. The first day we went to down town Annapolis. There is a really nice historic district down by the waterfront. the Naval Academy, State Governmental buildings, shops, marinas, and museums are all within walking distance. The map below highlights some of the areas we walked that day. At the south end of the map is the harbor. The circular roads in the middle of the map are where the government building are located.
As usual I like to head for the harbor to see the boats, and we figured we should have a nice cup of coffee and one of the may coffee shops.
There are a lot of nice old buildings clustered around the harbor inlet.
The Panorama below is a composite of several shots and gives a bit more of an idea of what the area looks like. Sorry about the size. If you click on this image you might be able to see a little more detail.
We noticed several groups of school children being guided through the streets by folks in period costumes.
As you might expect there were several taverns on the water front that have been in business for many years and have developed quite a business serving meals and beverages to the thousands of tourists.
It was kind of interesting to catch one of the period dressed guides buying a latte' and pastry at an up scale coffee shop.
Here in another one sitting near the t-shirt and baseball cap display case.
Along this street we were able to find some ice cream. This tourist business really takes it out of you and you have to pace yourself and get nourishment once in a while. We found a shop selling crepe's that we had to sample as well.
From here we were going to walk up to the area where the government buildings are located. There is a nice ceramics shop that we try to visit every time we are in Annapolis. So not knowing if we would be back to the harbor again I took a couple of more shots.
And of course we found someone to take a "we were here" photo.
There are regular harbor tours that we have done in the past. This one was heading in.
One interesting thing about historic towns is that they developed road systems that might not be the best in terms of traffic and parking, but the resulting buildings that are constructed are usually pretty unique. The one in the photo below is currently a tea shop. When there are 196 options. It takes a while to figure out which tea to buy.
Nice vistas of prominent buildings are common when you have a spoke type road layout
Here is a set of row house in neco colors.
When we got up near the capital building, I took several shots that I put together into a panorama.
Here are a couple of close up shots of some of the older buildings.
We headed down another of the spoke streets filled with nice old shops and restaurants.
As we were heading back toward the car I noticed that a tall ship had tied up at the harbor while we were shopping and site seeing elsewhere, so back down to the harbor we must go.
This time there was a bit more sunlight so I was able to get a better shot of some of the buildings near the harbor.
When we got closer I began to recognize the ship as one that we had seen last summer in Bay City Michigan.
We are able to actually go on board last summer, but not here. There were some nice shots through the rigging of the historic city that turned out pretty nice.
I really like these shots. It's almost like seeing Annapolis from the perspective of the early 1800's.
The Pride of Baltimore is a really nice ship. I was glad to have been able to see it in this setting.
I finished shooting the Pride of Baltimore and we were heading back to the car again and when I turned to take one more shot. Oh look more sailboats!
So, I husseled back to then end of the dock and notice that there were dozens of sailboats out on the Chesapeake. Apparently in the late afternoon/evening "everyone" heads out for a sail.
We stood there for about half an hour and litterly saw 20-25 boats sail by.
Out in the bay there were perhaps three dozen boats.
After a while the whole harbor was full of them.
Eventually the mid-shipmen from the Naval Academy got into the act, dwarfing most of the rest of the fleet.
Ok this time we really need to be heading to the car.
A few more shots of the streetscape.
A cigar store wooden Indian.
The Capital dome
A church steeple.
The sun warming the west face of a couple of nice old buildings.
Stay tuned for part III.
Here in another one sitting near the t-shirt and baseball cap display case.
Along this street we were able to find some ice cream. This tourist business really takes it out of you and you have to pace yourself and get nourishment once in a while. We found a shop selling crepe's that we had to sample as well.
From here we were going to walk up to the area where the government buildings are located. There is a nice ceramics shop that we try to visit every time we are in Annapolis. So not knowing if we would be back to the harbor again I took a couple of more shots.
And of course we found someone to take a "we were here" photo.
There are regular harbor tours that we have done in the past. This one was heading in.
One interesting thing about historic towns is that they developed road systems that might not be the best in terms of traffic and parking, but the resulting buildings that are constructed are usually pretty unique. The one in the photo below is currently a tea shop. When there are 196 options. It takes a while to figure out which tea to buy.
Nice vistas of prominent buildings are common when you have a spoke type road layout
Here is a set of row house in neco colors.
When we got up near the capital building, I took several shots that I put together into a panorama.
Here are a couple of close up shots of some of the older buildings.
We headed down another of the spoke streets filled with nice old shops and restaurants.
As we were heading back toward the car I noticed that a tall ship had tied up at the harbor while we were shopping and site seeing elsewhere, so back down to the harbor we must go.
This time there was a bit more sunlight so I was able to get a better shot of some of the buildings near the harbor.
When we got closer I began to recognize the ship as one that we had seen last summer in Bay City Michigan.
We are able to actually go on board last summer, but not here. There were some nice shots through the rigging of the historic city that turned out pretty nice.
I really like these shots. It's almost like seeing Annapolis from the perspective of the early 1800's.
The Pride of Baltimore is a really nice ship. I was glad to have been able to see it in this setting.
I finished shooting the Pride of Baltimore and we were heading back to the car again and when I turned to take one more shot. Oh look more sailboats!
So, I husseled back to then end of the dock and notice that there were dozens of sailboats out on the Chesapeake. Apparently in the late afternoon/evening "everyone" heads out for a sail.
We stood there for about half an hour and litterly saw 20-25 boats sail by.
Out in the bay there were perhaps three dozen boats.
After a while the whole harbor was full of them.
Eventually the mid-shipmen from the Naval Academy got into the act, dwarfing most of the rest of the fleet.
Ok this time we really need to be heading to the car.
A few more shots of the streetscape.
A cigar store wooden Indian.
The Capital dome
A church steeple.
The sun warming the west face of a couple of nice old buildings.
Stay tuned for part III.