September 6-7, 2023

September 6-7, 2023

This morning we made the ninety-minute drive to Phoenix to catch our noon flight to the East Coast. It took most of the day to reach Baltimore. We arrived at our hotel just after midnight. Fortunately we found a good Brewpub restaurant to have dinner during our Minneapolis layover.

The next morning we returned to the airport to pick up a rental car. The whole process took more than two hours giving us a late start on our day. We drove thirty miles southeast to Annapolis, the capital of Maryland. It is an historic seaport and home of the US Naval Academy. We signed up for a noon tour of this military school. It was excellent. Our docent gave us a humorous look into the life of these midshipmen and their full-time training schedule.

Along the way we got a big dose of history. This institution was started in 1845 but has grown considerably since then. They now graduate around 1100 Navy and Marine officers every year. The campus also has grown physically with landfill into Annapolis harbor. Physical development and sports is a big part of the training so we started with tours of the athletic facilities. Not surprisingly the swimming pool is massive. The sports rivalry with Army came up repeatedly.

Our next stop was “Captains Row” with its street of historic mansions, that are the homes of the academy bigwigs. Annapolis is hot and humid, so Aimee and I are happy that the tour pops in and out of well air-conditioned buildings. One stop inside the historic Armory has a replica of the 1911 Wright Brothers B-1 Navy plane hanging from its rafters.

We moved on to the huge, impressive dorm building. We got to see a sample room. It doesn't look much different than my old dorm room minus a lot of military uniforms.

Our last stop was the domed Chapel. Below it is a large crypt containing an enormous granite sarcophagus of John Paul Jones. He is considered the father of the US Navy. Interestingly his body had to be recovered from under a modern apartment building in Paris more than a hundred years after he died.

After this almost three-hour walking tour, I am tired and hungry, so we don't wander too far before finding a good lunch spot at an historic tavern. I washed down a Fish and Chips with a Natty Bo, supposedly the unofficial state beer of Maryland. A meal of Maryland Blue Crabs will have to wait till another trip.

Since it is getting late we do a quick walking tour of this historic seaport and capital. We walk by the old City Dock with its Memorial to Alex Haley, Roots, and his forefather Kunta Kinte who arrived here around 1822 on a slave ship.

We followed Main Street uphill window shopping along the way. At the hilltop we visit the Maryland State House, the oldest capitol in continual use. It has some interesting displays. It was temporarily also the home of the US Congress. The Treaty of Paris was ratified here officially ending the Revolutionary War. George Washington gave his famous resignation speech here. At the time most Europeans were astonished with this peaceful transfer of power. They expected that Washington would turn his war victory into a kingship.

We drove back to Baltimore in heavy traffic. That is something we don’t miss living in Tucson. The thousands of cars is another reminder that fossil fuel use will not end without radical change.