an annapolis adventure.

    After many applications for summer internships, Jason was finally accepted with the National Consortium for the Studies on Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism or "START". He is very excited to code and write case studies for chemical and biological terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, the program is in Maryland, near Washington DC—so Jason and I will be temporarily separated until August. Luckily, the drive is only 3.5 hours by car or train, so we’ll be visiting each other whenever possible.

    I drove down to Maryland with Jason to get him settled into his new apartment, but if you know us well enough, you know that we made an adventure out of it. We went a little out of our way to stay the night in Annapolis. We were there on the most gorgeous day with the sun shining and a refreshing breeze.

If only I loved being IN the water this much

Story of my life

    Just driving into the city was like another world. We entered the city from a giant roundabout where the Maryland State House stood in the middle. The busy city streets eventually ran alongside the Chesapeake Bay and we waited 15 minutes for the Spa Creek Drawbridge to go back down. I am crazy for ocean side cities. They seem to say to me, “Come and relax, put your feet up, and enjoy your stay.” We had to park very far away, but we did not mind the walk especially since we could look at the sparkling water and all the names of the different yachts and sailboats. Walking back over the drawbridge, Jason wanted so badly for the drawbridge to lift with us on it.

Gorgeous drive into the city

Walking into Downtown Annapolis

    Downtown was hot and busy. The cobblestone sidewalks led to many stores that I instantly wanted to go into to shop. Annapolis is well known for being home to the United States Naval Academy, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go on a 40-minute boat ride of the backside of campus and wander the Chesapeake. I wasn’t really paying attention because I was too busy relaxing and soaking up the sun.

All aboard the Harbor Queen

I'm going to miss that cute boy's smile

    After the ride, we walked around and visited some of the cute stores and bought t-shirts and of course, a postcard. We followed the road up to the State House. I seriously fell in love with this beautiful building. So far we've seen the State Houses of Idaho, Utah, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, but this was by far the most amazing. The Maryland State House is the oldest state capitol still in continuous legislative use in the US. We had fun posing for photos in front of its gigantic columns and enjoying the view from the top of the stairs.

I should have bought that hat for Jason, it's so cute on him

Maryland Statehouse

Maryland Statehouse

The other side of the statehouse

    We walked around a little more, stopping by the Maryland Inn and headed back downtown for some ice cream. From the moment we had arrived in Annapolis, there was a line out the door of the Storm Bros. Ice Cream Factory, so we figured it must be worth the wait. I think what draws people in is that it has been around since 1976. We ate our ice cream near Ego Alley watching yachts come and go in a narrow slit of sea.

Jason loved the look of the Maryland Inn

Even more gorgeous as the sun starts to set

Gotta have my ice cream

    To end our fabulous day, Jason’s one wish to see the drawbridge lift came true!  We kind of freaked out because we were practically in the middle of the bridge when the alarm started and the barrier gates came down.  We weren’t really sure if where we were standing was okay, but it turned out that we had front row seats to see the boats sail passed us. It was so nice to be able to have one last adventure with Jason before I see him again in July. 

At the start of our day. . .

By the end of the day