Weekend Wanderings: Wandering in Annapolis

We got the travel bug last weekend. We've been stuck in town for weeks and needed to go somewhere and DO something. It couldn't be far because we were deciding on the spur of the moment and we didn't make arrangements for Corgi girl to stay the night with anyone. That's how we started the discussion.

What are the places we can visit within two hours of DC? North, South, East, West. We threw out places and ideas. We plotted and planned. But in the end, we went with an old favorite: Annapolis.

Without crazy traffic, it's only about an hour from DC. As I've mentioned before, you can take a lovely sailing cruise on the Woodwind lines - which we'd thought about doing, but didn't make a reservation ahead. Instead, we had a lovely lunch at one of the many restaurants in the historic section of the city.

I'd spied the spires of a church as we left the parking lot and headed to the restaurant, and convinced the husband to explore with me. Walking up the hill from the water, we found St. Mary's Church next to the Charles Carroll house and gardens. We had to walk around the church to get to the gardens, but they are such a lovely oasis in the middle of the city!

Charles Carroll was one of four Marylanders to sign the Declaration of Independence. Apparently, he was the only Catholic to sign and was the last to die. The land was eventually purchased by a group of priests and a beautiful church building now occupies the space next to the house. The history of the house indicates there was once a private family chapel as Catholics had to worship privately in early America. This makes me wonder if the remnants of the private chapel became part of the existing church building. His house can be toured by appointment on Saturdays and Sundays (again, plan ahead!) and there's a very interesting history of his long and vivid life here.

As we were walking through, one wedding was leaving the church and another was ready to enter. Because of the weddings, we didn't try to enter the church, but the pictures I've found make me want to go back and see the inside for myself! One bride and several bridesmaids were in the courtyard behind the church taking pictures of this special day. Apparently, we weren't the first to discover the serenity of the garden. This is definitely a place worth exploring further.

Oh well, I guess we'll have to go back to Annapolis!