Charming Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

Our stay in Annapolis has been one celebration after another. What a fun capital city this is.
Our arrival on Mother’s Day, began our two weeks of celebrating. A gift had arrived from Julie, and Doug took me out for a nice dinner at Maria’s, one of our favorite restaurants here.

Well, we’ve lucked out again with our accommodations. We’re staying in a wonderful old colonial home right in the heart of downtown Annapolis which means we can walk to restaurants, church, theater, art galleries and shops. This charming old home was gutted and completely renovated and decorated just the way I would have done it. It’s going to be tough leaving here, we’ve become so comfortable. The owners, Genevieve and Bill, live on the top floor and we’ve become fast friends. We have so much in common - they’ve been live-aboard boaters, love traveling to Europe, are artists (they own Annapolis Pottery) and enjoy fine food and wine. When we get together, we never run out of things to talk about. They’re coming for dinner this evening for "our last night ashore."

It didn’t take us long to settle in here and we’ve enjoyed visiting our many favorite restaurants and watering holes: McGarvey’s Pub, Maria’s Italian, Harry Browne’s, Carols Creek Café, Chick & Ruth’s Deli,and some new ones - Ying Yankee and Severn River Inn. There’s also a wonderful book store/coffee shop at Harbor Circle and a nice little breakfast spot near the Academy grounds.

On Wednesday, the 16th, I celebrated my birthday and was shocked and surprised when Julie showed up! She flew in from Phoenix so that we could celebrate our birthdays together (hers is the 17th) and stayed until Saturday. We have a habit of staying up until about 3:00 a.m.the first night we’re together and this time we said "We’re not staying up until 3:00 tonight." Well, we didn’t. We stayed up until 4:00. We did sleep in a bit the next morning and had a relaxing day of shopping. On Friday, Julie’s friend (bridesmaid), Karen, drove over from D.C. and we went out for a feast of hard-shelled crabs at Buddy’s Crabs & Ribs. It was the best birthday surprise I’ve ever had.

We attended a nice service at St. Mary's Episcopal Church and enjoyed a wonderful champagne brunch at Harry Browne's restaurant on Church Circle. Later that afternoon we stopped by Aurora Gallery for a wine reception and show featuring the work of seriographer Jeanne Norton Hammett who very graciously talked us through the process of silkscreen, screenprint and serigraph. We would like to have purchased a piece of hers but at this time we don't have a wall to hang anything on. It's a challenge being nomadic.

Seeing all the boats here in the harbor and out on the Bay brings back many wonderful memories of our boating years. We talked to a boat broker but never quite went so far as to look at any boats to buy. It is sometimes tempting.

We spent one day last week being tourists in D.C. The morning was devoted to the West Wing of the National Gallery of Art and we concentrated on works by European artists Rembrandt, Bellini, Raphael, Jan van Eyck, Rubens and my favorite, Vermeer. I particularly love the painting of the Girl with the Flute. Karen met us at lunch time and gave us a wonderful tour of the area with an eye towards the best places to live based on safety, access to metro line, shops, etc. The International Spy Museum more than took care of the rest of the day. It’s a new museum and very well done. It’s a hands-on tour of the "invisible profession" that has shaped history and continues to impact world events every day. It houses the world’s largest collection of espionage artifacts, weapons, disguises and surveillance and portrays spying from biblical times to the present. It was absolutely fascinating! We stayed three hours and could have easily stayed another hour, but wanted to have an early dinner and get our car out of the lot before it closed at 7:00.

Our stay here happened to coincide with Commissioning Week at the Naval Academy so there are lots of people in town and lots of celebrations going on. Thursday, the Blue Angels put on a fabulous air show, which we watched from the Academy grounds. It’s certainly convenient that we chose to stay downtown because driving and parking this week is all but impossible. Our "landlords" Genevieve & Bill, asked if we’d like to get together for dinner Thursday and said they’d arrange for us to eat somewhere we hadn’t yet been. We met at their house for a drink at 6:00 and learned that dinner would be at their place. The next thing we knew it was after midnight and we were still talking. What fun.

Last evening we enjoyed Doug’s birthday gift to me - two tickets to a production of "Godspell" at the outdoor Annapolis Little Theater. What a great cast - young, talented and very enthusiastic. After the show, we walked to O’Brien’s for a nightcap but were met with a very smoky, loud atmosphere and walked back out. The manager caught up with us on the street and suggested we might like "The Treaty of Paris," a small bar at the Maryland Inn so we made our way there and it was perfect. The bartender, Peanut, took great care of us and it wasn’t long until we’d met everyone at the bar. Allison, from Vero Beach, FL and her brother Peter involved us in their discussion relative to his recent (within minutes) announcement that he was getting married on Tuesday. Allison is strictly opposed to the marriage for a variety of reasons and everyone at the bar, including Peanut had an opportunity to provide advice. The next thing we knew it was 1:00 a.m. (I don’t know what happens with time here). We all exchanged cards and promised to be friends forever and keep in touch. We certainly are meeting interesting people on our travels.
The weather, approaching Memorial Day, is absolutely gorgeous. Warm and sunny - not yet hot and humid. Tomorrow we’re off to Columbus, Ohio (to visit family), then Indianapolis (more family), then Pennsylvania (yet more family) and finally Upstate New York (friends and family), before heading over to the Berkshires where we’ll stay at a B&B and visit with friends, Richard & Pauline.

Stay tuned and we’ll take you along.