Oh, say can you see.....

Saturday 19th January - Monday 21st January 2013

Just when you are getting back into the swing of things in USA following the holiday season, the first public holiday arrives to give a long weekend in the middle of winter.  A good opportunity for more exploring, and junior ranger badge obtaining.  We are not yet suitably conditioned for driving more than a few hours for a couple of days break and so we decided to head off south to explore Annapolis in Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay region.  It was wonderful - definitely ranking high among my personal favourite US spots yet.  Annapolis itself is a small, historic town on the banks oTaylor bay, one time capital city of USA, now the state Capitol of Maryland.  It claims to be the world's sailing capital (there or Cowes?) but it does have the oldest State house in US in continuous legislative use where Congress accepted the resignation of George Washington from the Continental Army following the defeat of the British and also where the Treaty of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War (or War of Independence depending on your preferred terminology) was ratified in 1784.

Annapolis is also home to the US Naval Academy where young hopefuls come to spend 4 years training to be officers in the US Navy and Marines.  The campus is open to the public providing you can flash some photo ID and we spent a good few hours wandering around the Yard, catching some of a lacrosse game, seeing the chapel and very elaborate tomb of British merchant seaman John Paul Jones who, following accidentally killing a fellow sailor in Caribbean, fled to US and is credited with being one of the founders of the US Navy, and the prisoner of war model ships, including several of HMS Victory

If all of that was not enough, the star spangled banner traill, established to commemorate the 1812 War between the fledging US nation and - you guessed it - the British, also runs through this part of the Chesapeake Bay region and so we learnt all about local costal raids, the burning of the White House, and the battle at Fort McHenry in  Baltimore in which the local militia prevailed against all the odds, raising a huge Stars and Stripes to ward off the Red Coats and whose triumph inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the now very famous words.  Having also visited some of the coast itself, including an archeological dig in London Towne where a 17th century tobacco port is being excavated, the atmospher seeps out and you can nearly hear the battle cry.   It was certainly a time of bravery and courage.

Well enough history for one weekend.  We can't wait to come back when it is warmer and maybe get out in the water ands try the ice-cream which the locals were lapping up (do they not kow it is January?).