America's Great Loop Cruising Association (AGLCA) Spring Rendezvous Road Trip -Day 2 - Sunday April 29, 2018 - St Michaels , MD to Norfolk, VA

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Well yesterday there where no photos - today is a make up and then some day. I really enjoy blogs with lots of photos so hope you do too.

Let's begin with some morning photos of St Michaels. The actual harbor is very small - the size of a good pond or a large swimming pool. Well that last one maybe a stretch - but it is small. It is rather beautiful though. The park near the center of the harbor shore is below.

Defending the harbor still

There is a great number of old homes around the center of the town. Rather interesting that such homes from yesteryear would seem to us so small - but they had the tiny homes figured out long before the modern craze was invented.

This one is a large home here

 This photo is of the west side of the harbor

We left St Michaels about 9:00 and headed to Annapolis. I had been there years ago - only on a quick trip through a few streets.  Today we saw why so many folks speak so highly of the historic town.

The capitol of Maryland is located here and the capitol building (seen below) is the center of the old town. We were lucky to find a parking spot and walked a ways around

 And old hotel - looks like a lighthouse - you think?

 The governor's mansion is just that - and it is located across from the State House building

 The supreme court, shown below, is in the same area

 Statue of Thurgood Marshall is impressive

 As it was mid morning the need for coffee was brewing - sorry couldn't stop myself. We found a wonderful coffee shop on a side street. I even passed up a Starbucks (not hard) in order to find a local coffee establishment - mission accomplished!!!! It was even needed more because it was windy and very cold for what we expected

 We have friends that just went to Holland to see the tulips - I got to see them as well.

 Remind anyone of Beacon Hill in Boston?

 We then took the local roads to Norfolk. It is farm and rural setting most everywhere much south of Annapolis. The main route we drove is 17 - it once must have been the main road to Hampton and Norfolk. It was mostly a four lane highway that was likely built out in the forty's. The interstates made it far less used - for much of the northern end it looked like a drive through the land of 1950 frozen in time - including gas stations with the portico roofs over the gas pumps - once used a long time ago -seems the interstate impact was very dramatic.

We did make it to Norfolk in late afternoon. We are at the Sheraton in Norfolk where the meetings will be held. The scene below is of the large Navy repair yards located here. The inter-coastal waterway passes right between all the ships.

 Turning and looking north below, you see the mouth of the Elizabeth River and mile 0 of the Intercoastal Waterway that runs south. We will be coming through here next spring.

 The Rendezvous starts tomorrow and I will have some photos of the Looper boats at the marina

As Red Skelton always said,

God Bless and Good Night