Family Time Back East - Part One

As I mentioned in my last post, we have rented a rather gigantic house in Annapolis so we can assemble the clan together in one location. The house itself is humongous. We find rental houses fall into one of two categories. They are either places that are used almost exclusively as rental properties or they are homes that people occupy that are rented during times when the owner is not using it. This property is clearly of the later category with family pictures and very personal decorations all over the house. It also includes some very unusual rules about what you are allowed to use and what you are not. But trying to find something that fits our needs is difficult with a family or our size so our chief rental research expert, 1A is certainly to be commended for searching this out.

We all arrived yesterday with the exception of 1A and 1.1 who have a commitment back home that she has to fulfill prior to coming out on Wednesday. We decided today to visit the historic center of Annapolis. Oddly enough during the 17 years that we lived in Maryland, Wife and I never visited Annapolis. However, first, early in the morning #1, #3 and I went out to join the Rotary Club of Parole Maryland's weekly meeting. #1 is President of her Rotary Club in Lafayette California, Wife and I have applications into a club in Albuquerque and # 3 is looking at potentially joining a club in Amsterdam. One of the attractions of Rotary for Wife and I is the custom of being able to visit a club wherever you are traveling. This was a chance to experience that and it was quite the welcoming group.

Presidents exchanging Rotary Flags

Then it was off to historic Annapolis

We made a vow that we were not going to travel as a group. It is too hard trying to coordinate going, arriving, balancing the needs of the various age groups. We said we would go as individual units and since this is not a gigantic town, we'd most likely run into each other there. That lasted for about 15 minutes after we arrived, when we all congregated and pretty much did the whole town together with some spinning off of various peoples from time to time.

The weather is very overcast. As is always the case with our Olympus cameras, this leads to lots of issues trying to get shots that really pop. Plus since it is the first time that I've had the camera in had since our last trip, I was fumbling trying to remember how to do things. 

Annapolis has an extensive history. It was the site where George Washington resigned his commission as head of the Continental Army in 1783. There is a memorial to Thurgood Marshall, the first black member of the Supreme Court who was a Maryland resident. There is much more history here but I was kind of going with the flow of family tide so I'm afraid I don't have all the names of the buildings and their histories for these pictures.

Street scenes

Historic structures

Inside St. Anne's Church

Where there are rumors of ghosts

3.1, always the navigator

Inside the Maryland State Capitol Building

The House of Representatives

The Old Senate Room restored to original design

From its gallery of Revolutionary War Portraits

The room where Washington gave his resignation

Silver Plate from the USS Maryland 1906

3A discusses the civil rights movement with 3.1