Annapolis - A Week's Vacation in 29 Hours

We just returned from a week in Annapolis. By some strange warping of the fabric of space/time we actually were only gone for 29 hours. We left at 9 AM yesterday and got home at 2 PM today. Annapolis is the kind of place that seems a thousand miles from home and time seems to stand still once you arrive. I expected to see the grass overgrown in our yard, the pool a deep shade of green with lower life forms beginning to emerge and mountains of unopened mail when we arrived home. Strange how nothing really changed while we were gone. I'm sure we were gone a week.

Our whirlwind overnight trip to Annapolis was an early celebration of our anniversary. The weather was so perfect that it was hard to believe we were only 50 minutes from home. We arrived early and fed the parking meters at the city dock and began our visit at the Historic Annapolis Museum store. It is fun to be a tourist in a town you know well, you really learn how little you know about it. They pointed us to the History Quest free museum where we browsed around for a while. We got some tips from the helpful costumed tour guide. Then we hiked up a tiny cobblestone alley named Pinkney St, which was lined with little, beautiful townhouses, and then cut over to Prince Georges Street to the William Paca House. Our parking meter wouldn't let us do the house tour, so we opted to tour the beautiful gardens. It is a remarkable little eden in the middle of the city.

We headed down to the Annapolis Marriott and were able to check in early. We didn't expect much of the room because we made reservations with the Government worker discount. We ended up with a beautiful room with a direct view of ego alley, the Naval Academy chapel dome, the capital dome and most of the city dock area. It was really a remarkable view.



We had lunch at the restaurant in the hotel which turned out to be a very nice surprise. Pussers Restaurant is the only downtown Annapolis restaurant directly on the water (there are quite a few in Eastport and surrounding area, but nothing right at the city dock) and I never knew it was there. The food was good and not overly expensive (for Annapolis) and we had a great view (again).

I really wanted to walk across the Spa Creek bridge, having driven over it for years and boated under it a few times. Spa Creek Bridge crosses from Annapolis to the Maritime Republic of Eastport and is the reason for the declaration of independence - of Eastport from Annapolis. In the late 1990's Annapolis closed down the bridge for repairs and so the whimsical town of Eastport declared independence and created the Maritime Republic of Eastport. The bridge is also the site for the annual 0.05K race. After the bridge, we headed up Main Street to hit the various shops and discovered our favorite shop (Treasures of the British Isles) out of business. We also wanted to check out Chick and Ruth's Deli which is a rather famous diner right on main street. We were pondering a trip there for breakfast.

In the evening we met the returning Schooner Woodwind (which docks at the Annapolis Marriott) and asked the captain if we could see below to decide if we would like to do their "Boat and Breakfast". He seemed a little taken aback, but was gracious and gave Diane a quick tour. I was most concerned about how she would handle the cramped quarters down below. Although she thought it would be fine for the night, I thought she really wouldn't enjoy it and that we should consider an alternative. We ran up and changed for dinner and then decided to simply eat at Pussers again. It was our (early) anniversary dinner so we did it up with me having crab cakes and she fillet mignon.

The evening had been what I had been most looking forward to. With the weather mild and clear, an evening walking around the city dock seemed a perfect end of the day. It was. We walked along the dock as the sun set and watched the lights come on in the various yachts in the harbor. We worked our way up from a park bench in the middle of the dock area to a park bench right on the water's edge as couples moved on and freed up the primo sitting spots. We sat until almost 10 PM watching the boats come and go in the harbor and then wandered over to Aromi D' Italia right at the city dock to get gelato. Annapolis doesn't seem to sleep, and as we walked back to the hotel, the city dock area was still jumping.

Today we intended to go to Chick and Ruth's, but ended back at Aromi D' Italia for breakfast. Both of us were still full from dinner and we knew we would end up ordering a full blown breakfast at Chick and Ruths. We got bagels and cream cheese. I asked for an onion bagel and got a bagel with a slice of onion. I was surprised, but after my first bite, delighted. We spent more time walking around the city dock area and then back to the hotel to pack up. We checked out and went to Quiet Waters Park and rented a tandem kayak for an hour and explored Harness Creek all the way to the marshy end.

One of the delights of the trip was getting so close to some ducks. The mother was leading a couple of ducklings across the water in front of us. As we came by, the ducklings headed over to pay us a visit. The mother did not seem happy with the idea. In one of the coves we came upon a Great Blue Heron who eyed us warily, but never took flight like I expected it would. It was very warm in the sun and we were baked by the time we came back. Lesson learned - save kayaking for the end of the day.

We concluded our trip by having some exceptional pizza at Mangia's pizza on Main Street. You really don't expect to have pizza this good in Maryland (the quality of pizza is a direct inverse of the distance from NYC), but we both agreed it was one of the best pizza's we've ever had in a long time.

And so we headed home from a long week in Annapolis all crammed into 29 hours. It was an amazing time away and only possible because of our daughters being willing to hold down the fort while we were gone and my mom who sat with Reid between nursing shifts and did much helpful driving while we were gone. Thank you - we had a wonderful week.






Home

All Material On This Website Copyright 2021 by Andrew Jones