Day 120 - New Places and Old Friends

After a leisurely breakfast on board, we walked to the Visitor’s Center to catch a trolley tour through historic Annapolis and Eastport.  Many of the homes and buildings are over 100 years old and some date back to the 1700’s.  The tour also took us to a World War II memorial, overlooking the Severn River with the Naval Academy in the background.  Next we took a tour of the Annapolis Naval Academy.  Our group included a young woman from Florida who had been accepted into the Naval Academy and her family.  There are over 4000 cadets and they all live in one residence hall.  The hall is a massive building whose footprint extends over 33 acres.  Each room houses 2 cadets and has a private bath.  The “Plebes” or freshman class starts in July for 6 weeks of “boot camp” before the fall semester.

All cadets must participate in a team sport and can choose from34 different activities.  The tour includes the field house/gymnasium building – also huge – with an enormous pool and indoor areas for football, soccer, basketball, etc.  We could not go into the chapel as there were wedding rehearsals taking place.  We were allowed underneath to see the crypt of John Paul Jones who became famous during the Revolutionary War for his courage and valor on the seas.  We walked by the townhouses where the military instructors reside and the larger single family homes for the Commandant and the Superintendent.  There are civilian as well as military professors.  Each cadet comes out with a BS degree and a naval or marine commission, and must spend at least 5 years in the Navy or Marine Corps.

We were ready to sit down and have lunch after all of the walking and ended up at McGrarry’s in Market Square.  We had soft shell crab sandwiches that were excellent.  The City Docks, which include Ego Alley, were a block away and we walked along the water before there before returning to our marina. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent on some boat clean-up (Kristin) and relaxing (Captain Randy) .  I was very excited because a good friend of mine was driving over from the Washington, DC area (braving the Friday afternoon traffic) to visit.  Dan Batto and I worked together at Freddie Mac (he in the McLean, VA headquarters and me in the Chicago office) and have known each other for 23 years.  Dan is now at Deloitte & Touche.  It was so great to catch up and spend some time together. 

After Dan left, the Captain and I walked over to Pusser’s Caribbean Grille, a waterfront bar and restaurant that is part of the Marriott, for a late dinner.  Pusser’s is right on Ego Alley and the boats paraded by the whole time we were there.  In addition to the power boats, there were paddle boarders and kayakers with lights on their watercraft.  One of the paddle boarders fell in, but followed that up with a headstand on the board, so I guess the fall didn’t bother him!  The food had a Caribbean flair and I had a spiced red snapper plate although the Captain stayed with the Maryland staple – crab cakes.  A fairly stiff breeze was almost chilly after the heat of the day.  Even the Captain felt it and turned down the A/C in the cabin with no prompting from me when we got back to the boat.