During our stay in Annapolis we drove across the bay bridge to the Eastern Shore. It's a quiet, scenic and very rural area, and was the setting of James Michener's novel Chesapeake back in the 1970's - still one of our favorite books.
Drove down to the little village of St. Michael's, which is where Rita is standing in the photo above, and had crabcakes for lunch in a waterside cafe. Also drove over to Easton and just walked around the town on a pretty Autumn day. Made for a pleasant sojourn from the hustle & bustle of Annapolis.
After the reunion festivities wrapped up we departed Annapolis on Monday the 2nd and drove down to the Patuxent River area, which is where we lived 3 different times during postings to the Test Center and later to NAVAIR in Crystal City from '89-'91.
Stopped enroute to walk around the little town of Solomons just across the River from Pax. It's a popular summer destination for the folks from the DC area - especially boaters - but usually gets pretty quiet by November.
Enjoyed stretching our legs walking around the town - and having lunch at the old Solomons Pier Restaurant (crab cakes again).
Stayed on base at the Navy Lodge and explored the area again after being away for many years. The base has changed quite a bit thanks to the relocation of both the Naval Air Systems Command and the Naval Air Warfare Center - Aircraft Division to southern Maryland from DC in the 90's. What used to be a quiet little rural base is now bustling with activity (and people) and the two-lane corridor of Rte. 235 is now about 6 lanes going into and out of the base.
We drove out to St. Mary's City west of the base and down to Pt. Lookout to the south and they both appeared to be untouched by the development near the NAS - still as charmingly rural as ever.
We usually drive by our old houses to see how they're doing...and to see how all of our old plantings of trees, bushes and trees are doing. The photo above is our last house on Aspen Lane in Wildwood - still in pretty good shape after we sold it in 1991.
This is our first house on Town Creek Drive, where we lived from '77-'81. Loved it when we lived there but the neighborhood looked a little dated. Afraid the house was showing its age too.
This was our home on Defender Street near gate 3 to the base. Used to be that the forest began just behind it and ran about a mile along a winding dirt road to the bay - now it's all developed...nothing but condos and small single family homes.
We also swung by the schools that Kevin and Mike attended. Here's Little Flower School in Great Mills - still looks the same.
Below is St. Marys Ryken High School, which had a lot of construction going on near the entrance. Am sure that enrolment has increased dramatically with the expansion of the base in recent years.
All in all the area was still pretty much as we remembered - especially south and west of the base where the area from St. Marys City to Point Lookout appeared to be unchanged from our time living in the area all those many years ago.
This has always been one of our favorite areas - lots of good family memories here and we always enjoy returning whenever the opportunity presents itself.
We were looking forward to flying down to Valdosta to see the kids and grand kids, but received word late one evening that Rita's Mother had been taken to the hospital with stroke symptoms and so cancelled everything and flew back to Vancouver to be with her. Tests indicated that it wasn't a stroke after all but it was quite a scare for everyone nevertheless.
She's home now, mentally alert but physically still pretty weak. Rosie flew back from South Carolina, so all of the sisters are here providing support.
No comments:
Post a Comment