Annapolis 38:59.434N 76:29.504W
Lotus
Thu 15 Jul 2010 20:22
  It took us a few day sails with
overnight stops in sheltered anchorages near quaint little seaside towns, before
we arrived in Annapolis, which is a bustling town steeped in history and home to
the famous American Navy Academy which we were moored less than a hundred
yards from. Annapolis formed the gateway to Washington DC, but only on
weekdays when the commuter buses run. They prefer to keep the riffraff
or was it the tramps out of the town at the weekends. this lack
of transport led us to spend a lazy weekend wandering round and taking in a few
sight. We went on a guided tour of a an old colonial house which was
conducted by the worst tour guide we've ever experienced. She was
Australian and could well be a twin of Dame Edna, she was a dotty old bird who
couldn't remember any dates, place names or important people throughout the
history of the house - still, it was quite amusing. We also had a
walk through the Naval academy and was surprised to see what looked like 14year
olds marching out of time with each other. It did make us feel old when we
thought that this group of kids were to be the next defenders of American
freedom. As it turned out, they were just kids on a summer
camp. We also walked for several miles to find a computer repair
shop. When we realised we still had another couple of miles to go we
employed our new technique; we find a kind looking middle aged American and
pretend that we are lost, invariably their overwhelming kindness leads them to
give us a lift to our destination. In this instance the guy even waited
for us and took us all the way back to the boat.
Up with the larks on Monday, or was it the
seagulls, to catch our commuter bus to Washington. Arriving at 8am there
were not many attractions open, so we spent the time very unwisely walking
from closed museum to closed gallery and by 10 o'clock when they all opened
we were already knackered. We had an action filled day with the morning
spent in the Natural History Museum, lunch at the Native American (Indians
to you and I) museum, a trip up the Washington monument in the afternoon
followed by tea with president Obama at the white house. Unfortunately, he
stood us up, the security guards would not believe us when we said we had an
appointment and we were left forlornly looking at the Whitehouse through the
railing with all the other tourists. We finished the day with a tour round
the National Gallery which had lots of Picassos, Monet's, Manet's, Renoirs and a host of other French impressionists. With
bleeding feet, aching muscles and tired eyes we wearily made our way back to
Annapolis on the last commuter bus.
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