Day 47 More Annapolis

All I can say at this moment is - oh, my aching feet! We walked the city of Annapolis from 9am to 4:30pm. We started with the Capital Building. It was imposing with all it's stone and marble and the original capital building of the US. It's where Washington resigned his commission after the Revolutionary War. The original final draft of his speech is on display. It was very impressive to be separated from something "the father of our country" wrote by a piece of glass. You can visit the old original chambers and the new ones. Next we were on to the William Paca House built in 1763. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and a Maryland governor. The house is a great example of Federalist architecture, but the spectacular part is the 2 acre garden out back. Most of the houses here are so close together, you couldn't squeeze a piece of spaghetti between them, and here's this guy with 2 acres of land. Also impressive. We ate lunch in an 1800's Irish pub, then proceeded to explore St. Mary's Catholic Church. (Pic is from brochure - you cannot photograph church) It is a huge complex of social organizations and schools. The church, built in 1859 after the original 1700's church was destroyed,  is magnificent and most of the interior is white. The guy responsible for building the church was the only Catholic to sign the D of I. Another fun fact, the organist of this church in the early 1900's wrote the Navy theme song, Anchor's Away. We spent hours walking around just gawking at historic houses and snooping in shops. When we got back to dockside, we had to stop at Pusser's Bar in the Marriott (3rd pic - bar in very center) and have a painkiller. Ironically, John had his Soggy Dollar BVI hat on - the home of the original painkiller. So far, no bad weather. There was lots of crazy wind and waves last night which made for sporadic rest, but it settled down by like 4am and we finally dozed off to a deep sleep. However at 6:15am, the Academy, which is a stone's throw from us, started their morning drills...with a megaphone. At 7am the yelling stopped and then we hear someone shouting about "picking up those oars" - crew practice started around the mooring balls. (Academy behind crew team) Oh hell, we gave up and made coffee. Tonight should be calmer and we are touring the Naval Academy tomorrow since just we ran out of gas today.