Mid-Atlantic Trip Part 8: Chesapeake Bay

After the Historic Triangle went down to Virginia Beach for a view of the Atlantic, my first.

Went through Norfolk but came back to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

I was incredibly impressed. This is an engineering marvel every bit as deserving as the Hoover Dam, in my opinion. The Lake Washington floating bridge must feel mighty inadequate. The ships in the distance were the largest I’ve seen anywhere save San Diego, and I must say I felt palpable pity for the motorist whose car was broken down on one of the intermittent shoulders in the middle of the expanse.

Drove up the Delmarva Peninsula and through the Eastern Shore. It was very pastoral and quite pretty. It dispelled all my childhood prejudices concerning a dense, overpopulated east coast. After hundreds of years of European settlement, some faith was restored in humankind that even such a historic region should be left relatively unspoiled – though undoubtedly helped in part by geography as it was. It was also, as I found out from a rest stop where Harriet Tubman came from, had divided sympathies during the Civil War and was in the latter part of the war where many escaped slaves found refuge in a region which was protected by such ships as the USS Constellation from Confederate encroachment.

For a quiet lunch, stopped by on a chilly spring day to a harbor front seafood restaurant in St. Michaels, where both Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld keep residences. Nevertheless, though one might expect such a place to look like Mordor, it was very charming. Here was the view.

After alighting for lunch, got back in the car up to Annapolis. Annapolis was everything Baltimore was not. Has to be one of my favorite cities I’ve ever been to, although had I stayed more than one night, it might have been difficult to find things to do. In any case, it and St. Michaels must be wonderful weekend getaways for people in the region.

After parking the trusty steed across the street from the capitol (many spaces being reserved for government offices), and taking in the view from the hotel room, I hoofed it, to take in the harbor and get a bite to eat.

Somehow the charm of even the side streets doesn’t exactly translate well here.

I loved the houses.

Suck it, beige! Should we ever get this housing mess cleaned up in America, next target: home owners associations, I say. Live out loud!

The evening light was conspiring against my shots. Here’s the capitol in the background.

Okay, so I was taken by the capitol. The Maryland State House was the capitol of the United States from November 26, 1783 to August 13, 1784. General Washington resigned his commission here, the Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War was ratified here (thank God Senator Kyl wasn’t around in those days) and on September 14, 1786 the Annapolis Convention held here called for a Constitutional Convention. I’m sure every kid who grows up in Maryland knows this, but I must admit I was ignorant to these facts, or at least had never registered them.

Justice Thurgood Marshall.

If you scroll up a couple you might be able to spy the glint of pinwheels in the courtyard.

From pinwheels to pinheads, John McCain’s old haunt. Nearby was a cozy bookshop with coffee and desserts with many naval titles, but a decidedly alternative staff. Quite the juxtaposition with all the uniformed men and women traipsing the streets from the academy just a stone’s throw away. Private admission, I should have enlisted in the Navy. I do regret not thinking about going next door after turning down the Army (this was a couple years before 9/11 – remember what peace time was like?).

In spite of the poor light, not too horrible. The ever-present dome of the capitol in the background.

Again, photo doesn’t do it justice, but the bay is in the background here.

This might as well be a postcard, all in Maryland colors.

Governor’s Mansion May Day basket contest invitation.

And with that concludes the main excursion from DC. I will be returning there before I (finally) wrap this series up.