Day Tripping

Yesterday DH and I went on a bus trip to Annapolis with our friends, Bernie & Ray. This was Gene's first chartered bus trip! Needless to say, it is his last!

Annapolis is a beautiful place but not so much when you're on a walking tour during pouring rain! I do mean, pouring! Everyone was soaked to the gills. The saving grace was that it wasn't cold outside.

This woman was our guide. At this point, it wasn't raining but shortly afterwards it started.

We started out by being dropped off near the Maryland State House. It looked like it would have been a nice place to tour, but because they were having a problem with a leaking roof, it was closed to visitors. We then walked to St. John's College.

I didn't get to take too many pictures because of the rain and then the batteries died on my camera! I had extra batteries but they didn't work and realized later that the reason they didn't work was because they were the original batteries I had in the camera from awhile ago that had died and been replaced but never removed from the case! Oy vey!!

From St. John's we walked over to the U.S. Naval Academy, still raining! Because of a wedding that was taking place we were not able to visit the Chapel. I did get a picture of it from the outside while we were all standing under a huge gazebo across the street.

I bought a postcard which shows part of the inside and it looks absolutely beautiful!!

I felt so sorry for the bride. Though they say rain on your wedding day means good luck, but I can't imagine how she got in and out of the church without getting wet even with umbrellas and covering. We didn't get to see the bride but a couple of the stretch limos must have been a block long!!!

After exiting the gazebo, we walked to John Paul Jones' crypt.

From here we walked over to Bancroft Hall, which is the world's largest college dormitory, housing the entire brigade of 4,500 midshipmen. It was a beautiful building, also. Because it was raining so hard, I couldn't get a picture from the outside but, again, I bought a postcard. We did get to go inside and I was able to take a picture of the ceiling before my camera died! Of course, the picture doesn't do it any kind of justice at all.

I never realized that this college is paid for by taxpayers and all the students go to school for free. They do have to pay $2500 when they enter which buys them a computer that they get to keep when they leave. However, after they have graduated, they are required to serve their country for five years.

In one of the hallways, they have pictures of some "famous" graduates - Jimmy Carter, Ross Perot, John McCain, Alan Sheperd and Roger Staubach, just to name a few.

After leaving the dormitory, our guide took us to the dock area where our tour ended. The dock area is known as "Ego Alley" because so many of the rich people dock their boats there just for show, though there were only a couple docked while we were there.

Still raining -- we were downtown at this point and looked for a place to eat lunch. After lunch there was a 45 minute boat cruise. When the cruise was over, we were on our own for a couple hours until the bus returned to take us home.

So, we decided to walk around and look at some of the shops. That way, we'd at least get out of the rain for a little bit. Suddenly, the rain stopped and the sun came out and it stayed out until we got on the bus to go home about 6:00. Then, it started raining again!

Annapolis - a beautiful town which Gene and I plan on returning to visit some time -- when it isn't raining!