Mother-Daughter Weekend Part One: Annapolis

This weekend was the Mona-and-Rachel mother-daughter weekend extravaganza. I warn you, this will be a food-filled blog post. Mona has decided that I’m a foodie now, and I think I’ve decided that I’m okay with it.

After a pumpkin pancake-filled breakfast with Alli on Saturday morning, we jumped into the car and sped off to Annapolis, a town not given to moving quickly, or speeding off anywhere. As we pulled into town, we drove by a very large and in charge Memorial Stadium, and decided to drive into the parking lot to check out what was going on. We thought we might find some tailgaiting or something football-related, but what we found was so much better: USSBA championships! That’s right, I happened upon the first marching band tournament I’ve seen since 2003, when, you know, I was in one.

We drove down to the city dock area, and checked out some of the cute shops – I really loved this place called Re-sails (they make backpacks and such our of old sails), and Mixed Greens, which makes lots of cool recycled things as well. We lunched at the Hard Bean Café and Booksellers, this lovely bookstore slash coffeeshop slash ice cream store. Lots of wonderful slash-ness there, especially the turkey-havarti-ciabatta sandwich I sampled.

After checking into the B & B where we stayed, introducing ourselves to the owners, and walking around their gorgeous property, we headed back into Annapolis and walked around the Naval Academy – I had been there on a CTY field trip in 2000, but Mom never had, so went to the Museum and then walked all around the campus. Apparently, they beat Notre Dame that day, so we saw lots of excited people wearing Navy gear.

Speaking of Navy gear, we also saw lots of students around town wearing their uniforms – apparently, the students have to wear them all the time their freshman and sophomore years. I wore a uniform of sorts my freshman and sophomore years, but it consisted of jeans and a rotating Brandeis sweatshirt . . .

After the Naval Academy, we galumphed in the area around the State House, where we walked all around the many circles in the center of town. There were gads of glorious shops, most notably the Annapolis Pottery, a great shop with beautiful pottery and even better glazes (I had never seen a rock-n-roll looking honey pot until that day), and a used bookshop that looked like something out of my most Henry Higgins-inspired library dreams, The Annapolis Bookstore. Although realistically, any bookstore with an Ollivander’s Wand Shop sign in the front is off to a good start indeed.

For dinner, we went to the lovely seafood-y Middleton Tavern in the center of city dock. I thought I was going to have to go on a kosher vacation earlier than expected (one prepares for this in Baltimore, less so in a new place!), but was pleasantly surprised to find tableside Caesar salad on the menu. Dinner preparation that involves a bit of a show always ranks high in my book, especially when the result is a vigorously garlicky and anchovy-y and delicious Caesar salad. We finished with a yummy Crème Brulee, and then headed back to the B&B for the Prince and Me, which Mona had somehow never seen (crazy, I know). We enjoyed the beautiful ridiculousness of Julia Stiles and the prince of Denmark, and then collapsed with exhaustion after a wonderful Annapolis day.