WEDNESDAY AUGUST 11TH

It was hot, humid and very hazy as we left Annapolis and headed back across the Chesapeake Bay to Rock Hall, Maryland on the eastern shore. We have been zig zagging our way up the Bay the past few weeks.

These are container ships waiting their turn to head up to Baltimore, huge shipping port. They look rather ghostly in the haze.

We passed under the William P. Lane bridge, known as The Bay Bridge. It’s almost 5 miles long and the clearance for a ship would be 186 feet. That’s 11 feet taller than the Sunshine Bridge in Florida. Big bridges creep me out, along with many others. My cousin, Janice, who lives out here told me there are Highway Patrolmen who will drive you across in your vehicle to the other side.

Rock Hall is a quiet little town, but gets busy on the weekend when people flood over the bridge to get away. We will have left, but this upcoming weekend is Pirate and Wenches Fantasy weekend. It sounds like a hoot! Lots of music, pirate re-enactments, prizes, food and a pirate parade on water. Argggh, may have to come back again some day.

Had to make a stop in the soda fountain. It was like walking back in time. Tin ceilings, malts, memorabilia, home made lemonade and ice cream. Even an old wooden telephone booth.

Spent a little time cooling off in the pool here at the marina and then went for supper at Watermen’s Crab House. It’s only about 100 feet away from the boat so how could we not go there for dinner.

We shared a bucket of crabs, mussels and clams.

TUESDAY AUGUST 10TH

Another hot day, so we thought we’d get our sightseeing done early in the day. First stop was to be the Maryland State House. This is a view of it from our boat.

We walked up the narrow streets and felt like we were back in time. I think I maybe said earlier that Annapolis has more buildings from the 1700’s than any other town in America.

The dome of the State House is spectacular. The statue in front is Baron De Kalb. Not really sure who he is, but I don’t think he’s related to the seed guy. This building was the first peacetime capitol of the United States.

We should have realized we would be required to go through security and Roscoe had his trusty little Swiss Army knife in this pocket so we were given the boot out the door. Not wanting to walk all the way back to the boat we looked for a place to ditch it for a while. Around the corner from the State House is the Maryland Inn. John Adams and Ben Franklin use to stay here. Seemed perfect. No one was in the sitting area where we entered so we put the knife in a drawer of a table.












When we arrived back at the State House, we were told a special visitor was coming and the House was shut down. Turned out it was Mrs. Obama. So back we went to retrieve the knife.

We took a trolley tour of Annapolis, which was interesting and covered much more territory than we could have on foot. We were glad we toured the Naval Academy yesterday as they were closing that down too because of Mrs. Obama.

We stopped for a cold one in the Ram’s Head Pub. It is down the stairs off the street. Located in a basement it is a 250 year old pub. It was cool, dark and had good beer.

Returned to the hotel, ditched the knife and tried to get in to the State House again. Success!!!

This is the dome from the inside. It is constructed completely out of Cypress wood. Which termites don’t eat.  And the wood is all joined with wood pegs, no nails. England taxed nails.

In this room George Washington resigned his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army to the Congress. This is a huge deal because it set the precedent of the authority of the civilian government over the military.















This is a full size mannequin of Washington and is supposedly pretty realistic because it was made from a life mask they took of him. He was about the same size as Roscoe. The average man in those days was 5 feet so Washington seemed like a giant.
















On the very top of the dome is a lighting rod, made by Ben Franklin. The dome had been struck by lighting and burned 3 times. (Not sure on that, but at least a couple of times) So Ben made a lighting rod, which is still doing the job as the dome gets struck with lighting every so often.




The locals were grousing a bit over Mrs. Obama being in town as their city had to pay for the security. One guy was calling it "her $200,000 ice cream cone".

It is good ice cream though!!!

MONDAY AUGUST 9TH

We spent a miserable night on the mooring. The heat we can deal with, a fan. But the waves started to rock us back and forth during the night making it impossible to sleep. Almost felt like we were in a Three Stooges movie rolling back and forth!

So much for saving money! We’re spending the kid’s inheritance and going to the marina. Sorry kids!

We knew our bad mojo was changing as soon as we arrived and saw this sight across from us. Our B.V.I. compadres will understand!

We walked to the Naval Academy for a tour. What an amazing place!! The purpose of the Academy is to develop midshipmen morally, mentally and physically and imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty.

These are Plebes. They are the newest class coming in. Their hats are referred to as “Dixie cups”. The wear them the entire first year. The books they are holding up in front of them they need to memorize by the first year. It is the book of proper responses and procedure.

Cadets have to be between 17 and 24, unmarried with no dependents. The education is free, but they serve a 5 year commitment afterwards. An assignment of their choice in the Navy or Marines.The average number of applications for the Plebe class is 10 to 12,000. This year they had well over 17,000 applications for approximately 1200 spots.  High School grade point average is not what they look at when choosing an Cadet.

Some graduates of the Academy have been football player Roger Staubach, basketball player David Robinson, and President Jimmy Carter. So far 53 graduates have gone on to become astronauts. 

We felt a deep sense of pride seeing these cadets and realizing their strong commitment and dedication to become their best and protect our liberties.

The Plebes first year is tough with many tests to stress them. The Academy is training them to think on their feet, especially under stress. This type of testing ends with a tradition at the end of the first year. But even this isn't easy. The cadets build a human pyramid to retrieve a "Dixie cup" from the peak of this statue. Once the hat is retrieved, they no longer are required to wear them. But like their school year, this seems easier than it is. The statue is greased with lard!!

This is a statue of Tecumsah. He is a mascot of sorts for the cadets. Often he is painted with various colors of water-soluble paint. During the football season he is wearing war paint, sometimes he’s painted like the flag. He’s also been painted like Batman, Superman and Shrek. The scaffolding around him is in preparation of his painting for the start of the school year.

And legend has it, if you toss a penny into the quiver with his arrows, you will pass your next exam!

This is the entrance to Bancroft Hall. Beautiful isn’t it?

This building covers 33 acres, houses 4,000 midshipmen, has almost 5 miles of hallway and can feed all the students at one time in their 25 minute allotted meal time!! The building is so large it has its own zip code! It is like an aircraft carrier in that it is like a small city.

The Chapel dome.




















The inside of the Chapel.

This candle always has fresh flowers around it, and the pew is never sat in. The candle burns during worship and it is to remind worshipers to pray for the soldiers lost in the Viet Nam War.

The crypt of John Paul Jones is under the Chapel. He spent too much money entertaining and throwing lavish parties. He died in Paris, broke. His friends had him placed in a lead coffin filled with straw. The lead cover was sealed, and a hole drilled in the top. The coffin was then filled with alcohol and the hole plugged. They were going to ship him back to America. Jones had been born in Scotland so had no family in the U.S. They buried him in Paris. Although outside of the city as he was a Protestant. Years later the lead coffin was exhumed and he was sent to the U.S. We were told the coffin was opened and he was perfectly preserved other than some skin gone on the tip of his nose. He was a great naval commander and never lost a battle.

After the museum we wandered around a bit before walking back to the boat.

An entire yard of hosta! Annapolis is Zone 7 for my gardening friends.

Ice cream beats the heat!

SUNDAY AUGUST 8TH

The day starting with having to say good-bye to Deone and Mark when their cab came to the marina in St. Michael to pick them up.

Lots of crazy boat traffic since it was a weekend. Which also meant lots of folks on the radio crabbing at one another. Some people drive their boats way too fast when passing other boats. Either they are oblivious to the wake they are creating, or just don’t care. Several times during the day this happened to us. Ross did his best to cross through their wake and lessen the impact on the Oddysea. We still had lamps and other objects inside knocked over.

We traveled from St. Michaels across the Chesapeake Bay to Annapolis, Maryland. It was a day with good wind so there were sailboats everywhere. Some had colorful spinnakers.

We passed the Thomas Point Shoal lighthouse just outside of Annapolis. It is the last screwpile lighthouse in its original location. Supposedly it’s still in good condition and they operate tours out to it several times during the summer.

We are hoping to spend several days at Annapolis. The city operates a mooring field in harbor. The white buoys are all mooring balls. You drive up to one and snag the rope that’s attached to it with your boat hook. They are anchored to the bottom so you are very secure.

Hooking the rope is my job. What I wasn’t prepared for was how slimy the rope was when I had to grab it with my hands and hook it over our boat cleat! It costs only $30 bucks a night. You call a phone number and put it on a credit card. Much easier on the pocketbook than the $4 per foot we had to pay at the marina in St. Michael.

We are in site of the chapel dome at the Naval Academy. Our plan is to tour the Academy first thing in the morning.

KRISTA’S BIRTHDAY!!!!

SATURDAY AUGUST 7TH

Happy birthday to our daughter, Krista!!

Today we explored St. Michaels. The homes can only be described as very  picturesque. Even the shops are.







St. Michaels is known as “the town that fooled that British”. During the War of 1812 a predawn attack by the British was planned. The locals caught wind of the plan. So the night before this was to happen, they hung lanterns in the tree tops and on the masts of ships. The British thinking they were firing on the town, overshot the town. Pretty clever!

We stopped at a fun, little bar called Carpenter Street Bar.








The bartender/comedian was a hoot. He had something to say to everyone who came in. Including us.

We did more wandering around and stopped  for some lunch.




















Got dimples??

Then your water is served in a nice glass with an ice cube.

Don’t got dimples??

Your water comes in a jar!

After lunch we walked down to the St. Michaels Winery. The winery is located in an old flourmill. In the lower portion where it was nice and cool is their tasting room.















The white room divider hanging behind us is an old sail.

As we left the winery, there was a party going on in the alley. A fun band, complete with harmonica and sax, was playing the Blues. 

















Check out this Roscoe sized chair!

Walking back to the boat we bought some fresh crab. We had picked up sweet corn earlier in the day at the Farmers Market. Mark cooked up some crab cakes and Deone fixed the corn.

It’s been a wonderful week and this was our last meal together.

We have heard it said that making good crab cakes is an art. Well Mark earned the title “crab man” on his first try with these cakes.


So, so good!!