Before leaving Pasadena on Wednesday, September 13 Jonny had to help the Rendezvous organizer load all the conference materials and bring them to a storage facility. While he did that I walked Archie one last time on the Maryland Yacht Club’s beautiful grounds. Archie wanted to walk near the little beach so we did that first then circled around the whole expanse of lawn.
We didn’t leave until noon and had an uneventful trip south on the bay to Annapolis. The weather was sunny and warm and we proceeded along under the big Bay Bridge.
We timed our 3:30 arrival in Annapolis to correspond to the opening of the bridge we had to pass through to get to our favorite spot to anchor or moor, Spa Creek. We decided to grab a mooring because the area was filling up. This is such a perfect spot for us. It’s tucked away in a quiet part of the harbor surrounded by lovely homes and beautiful boats.
We could easily dingy into various parts of town and many of the closest tie ups were at the end of residential streets where there are often pretty pocket parks. A house near one of those tie ups had an excess of tomatoes and left them in a basket for people to take on the honor system. We were thrilled because we had not found a good source of local tomatoes until then.
We love staying in Annapolis. It’s such an interesting little city with an enormous amount of history, cobblestone streets, historical homes and charming byways. We spent the next couple of days relaxing and exploring its ambiance.
On Thursday, our friends Greg and Lynda drove up from Alexandria and we had lunch together at our favorite Boatyard Grill. They kindly brought us to the grocery store so we could pick up a few items and then we treated ourselves with ice cream. It has become an annual tradition for them to meet us when we’re in Annapolis. It’s always fun to catch up with them. (Sometimes I’m having too much fun and forget to take pictures!)
Fellow MTOA boaters, Mike and Marilou were moored near us and we invited them over for a drink one night. Mike is a new board member and it was nice to get to know them a little more. They live aboard their boat full-time!
The next day we made it a point to visit another favorite place - the Galway Irish Pub - for a brew at this classic Irish pub.
There was a big songwriting festival going on in town throughout the weekend. The artists were performing in pubs and different locations throughout the city. We were able to see several acts for free and all of them were very good. On our last afternoon we hung out on the patio of the Ram’s Head Tavern (which was the festival headquarters) eating lunch, drinking beer and listening to some very good musicians. One of the songwriters had won second place on The Voice!
Earlier that day we walked quite a ways into another part of town to pick up a prescription at Walgreens. On the way we came across a big farm stand where we stocked up on local corn on the cob and lots of fresh vegetables.
That night while I was making cream of celery soup with the excess celery I had mistakenly purchased, Jonny took Archie for a dinghy ride to Ego Alley where all the big boats cruise. Some of the biggest acts for the songwriting festival were performing there so he got to hear a little of that too.
We had a very quiet evening with our soup and corn, both of us nose deep in our books. The next day we would be leaving to explore some anchorages on the Chester River.