Travel blogging — Annapolis

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After spending several hours in the Air and Space Museum, we hit the road, headed for Annapolis. (If you’re Navy League, I have a strong feeling that visiting Annapolis is a moral obligation.)

Visiting Annapolis was a good idea. To begin with, the drive was just beautiful. Marin is a lovely place, so I’m not complaining, but the sheer lushness of the countryside down here takes my breath away. And while the verdant countryside in places such as Colombia has a menacing quality, as if humans have completely given up trying to control the aggressive greenery around them, in the area around DC and heading down to Annapolis, Southeasterners have cheerfully accepted the task of imposing their will on Nature. It may be incredibly lush, but it’s also groomed and inviting.

The picture at the head of this post is the view from the restaurant at which we ate dinner. It was right on the water, with about 30% of the diners stepping right off their boats:

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After dinner, we headed to Annapolis, which is undoubtedly one of the most charming towns I’ve ever seen. The State House is gorgeous, sits on beautifully groomed grounds, and is steeped in early American history. Wow! Just wow!

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We ended the evening at the United States Naval Academy, where we were fortunate enough to run into an alumnus from the early 1970s who lived in the region and volunteers with the USNA mentoring applicants through the process. He was delightful, so we effectively got a short, private tour. Oh, and I saw my first fireflies ever on the campus. Talk about magical.

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More tomorrow….