Cannons, Capitals & Crabs!

September 19-26, 2022

Cherry Hill Park was home for this stop and we highly recommend it! It’s been owned by the same family since 1921 and they clearly know what they are doing!

Keeping the roof spick and span!

First off, location, location, location, right? The campground is located 18 miles from Washington DC, 29 miles from Annapolis, 28 miles from Baltimore, and 25 miles from Alexandria, Virginia. Each of these are all very easy day trips that we couldn’t resist!

Our 10-year-old granddaughter, Eva was so excited to hear we were going to be in Maryland! The very first thing she said when she learned we were going there was, “You should go to Fort McHenry. It’s where Francis Scott Key wrote the Star-Spangled Banner!” Eva's school had just celebrated the birthday of the Star Spangled Banner and she clearly understood the lesson! Well, with that ringing endorsement, Baltimore’s Fort McHenry promptly went on our agenda! The fort is both a National Monument and a Shrine, making it a pretty special place to visit. The National Park Service does a great job of running and maintaining it, as well as giving insightful lessons on American history. We attended one ranger-led program in which the ranger made use of a giant map painted on the patio. The map shows all of the bays and rivers surrounding the area’s cities and towns providing a great visual for her talk. The ranger did a fantastic job of setting the scene and explaining the various battles during the War of 1812. Of particular interest to us was the Battle of Baltimore. Francis Scott Key was a lawyer who had been sent on a truce ship to negotiate with the British about the release of one of their prisoners. Although Key was successful in his negotiations and the prisoner was released, he was forced to watch the raging 25-hour battle from the Patapsco River aboard the British ship. It was this scene that inspired Key to write what eventually became our National Anthem! Although we all learned this story during our history classes so many years ago, it was really fascinating to hear it again while we looked up the river to the location from which the 16 British ships bombarded Fort McHenry. It was so easy to envision the rocket’s red glare and the bombs bursting in air, giving proof that our flag was still there!

Original cross braces for the flag pole the Star Spangled Banner flew from!

We saw an advertisement that Annapolis was a hosting site for the Maryland Seafood Festival, so that was another activity we couldn’t pass up. Maryland is known for their delicious blue crabs, so here was our big opportunity! Not only did we get to listen to great live music, walk on the shore of Chesapeake Bay, enjoy some local craft beer, and take in a BMX demonstration, but we were also able to participate in the Crab Soup Cook-off! You can’t imagine how filling a dozen small (quarter cup size) cups of crab soup is! There were several variations of crab soup for us to sample, but our favorites were the chowders. Before leaving the festival, we had to try a crab cake. We had heard so much about them that we couldn’t resist. Everything was delicious and we had such a fun day!

Blue Crab Cake! Yummy!

Getting my Crab Chowder from the eventual winning restaurant!

Before leaving Annapolis and heading back to the campground, we stopped by St. Mary’s Church to attend Mass. We were delighted to learn the Saturday Vigil Mass was held outdoors with Annapolis Harbor in the background! Even more of a surprise to us was that Charles Carroll’s home sits adjacent to St. Mary’s Church! Carroll was the only Catholic signatory of the Declaration of Independence and was the last surviving signatory. He died 56 years after writing his name on that historical document.

Mass was held under the canopy in the background

Although this was our Maryland visit, we did stray a little and got a few bonus locations in, Washington, DC being one of them! It seems that Cherry Hill Park specializes in facilitating trips to DC! Somehow, they have managed to be a stop on the metro bus station route. They also have a concierge (Barb) who can provide you with maps, sell you metro tickets, recommend restaurants, and answer any questions you have. In addition to all of this, they have a variety of tour bus options for you to consider.

Barb helped us put our DC game plan together

One of our personal guidelines during this grand travel adventure is to be finished driving around and back to our camper by the time it is dark. When we saw they offer a Monuments by Night tour, we jumped on it! We had been to DC a few times before, but being able to experience the monuments and memorials after dark was a unique opportunity for us. We are forever grateful to the brave men and women who have fought to gain and preserve the freedoms we enjoy. It is always humbling to visit the memorials in DC and try to envision what these souls faced.

The Jefferson Memorial from across the Tidal Basin

Korean War Memorial (notice how all the heads are looking in different directions)

The Lincoln Memorial

The MLK Memorial

The FDR Memorial

Our tour guide was excellent, with great humor as well as knowledge. We had a good chuckle as he prepared us for experiencing the “DC fauna” when we went to the White House. While we were there, we only experienced peaceful demonstrators. We were especially touched by the Ukrainian protesters there. What a tragic situation.

One of our favorite stops was the Lincoln Memorial. Our tour guide pointed out the spot where Martin Luther King stood as he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Pretty cool!

Where King stood when he gave his famous speech

In 1970, I had sent away for a Vietnam POW bracelet. Sgt. Fred T. Schreckengost’s name was on my wrist for several years. Eventually, his family was able to have closure when his body was returned home for internment. There are no words to explain the feelings when you see all of the names on the Vietnam Memorial wall. One of the men on our tour bus had served in Vietnam and was looking for his buddy’s name. Such an incredibly sad and somber experience.

The Vietnam War Memorial

R.I.P., Fred

On another day, we took the Metro Light Rail into D.C. It was heartwarming to run into an Honor Flight group while we were at the WWII memorial. Dick’s father served in the Navy during WWII. Verner would share how, when he enlisted, he fully expected not to survive. As the war was coming closer to an end and it looked like he was going to live, he started wearing his life jacket! Verner served in the Pacific theater of the war and watched from his ship as the men raised the flag on Iwo Jima. He saw so much war that after getting back to Iowa, he had no interest in traveling again.

An Honor Flight visits the WWII Memorial

The Marine Memorial

WWII Memorial

The Capitol seems to be getting some preservation and restoration work done to its exterior. A large portion of it was draped when we were there. Word is this is expected to be completed in another year.

The Capitol is getting a face lift!

The National Museum of the American Indian is a super cool building. It is made out of limestone from Minnesota. It’s hard to describe its design, but it has no corners! It’s designed to appear like natural rock, sculpted by wind and weather. It’s fascinating!

National Museum of the American Indian

After having been to Fort McHenry, we had to go to the National Museum of American History and see the Star-Spangled Banner! We were able to view it through glass, but photography is not allowed. It was surprising to see a large section of it is missing. Its shape is closer to that of a square rather than a rectangle due to people taking snips of it as souvenirs. Even one of the stars has been cut out and is missing!

The desk upon which Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence!

DC was fascinating to visit and, who knows, we will probably be back there again someday. There is so much to see and do that, every time we visit, it’s like an entirely new experience!

Our final excursion, also outside of Maryland, was to Old Town Alexandria in Virginia. It was fun walking along the Potomac River and taking in a little of the history of this charming community. We really enjoyed stumbling upon Christ Church, which is the church George Washington and Robert E. Lee attended when they were in the area. This church also served as a hospital for soldiers during the Civil War. The history we run across absolutely fascinates us!