We've owned out VW Rabbit for about a month now but haven't been driving it much. In fact, as of Friday, the car only had about 130 miles on it and three-quarters of the tank of gas it had when we picked it up in the dealership.
When we bought the car, we knew we wouldn't drive it very much. I work in Georgetown, a part of the District where parking is downright nightmarish, so I commute to work via the Metro (subway). Parking on the University of Maryland campus is also hard to come by and expensive, so Kyle takes a shuttle bus to school every day. That leaves our poor little Rabbit parked in our apartment building's lot for days at a time.
One of the main reasons we did buy a car was to take day- or weekend-long trips on a moment's notice. The first opportunity to do just that popped up Saturday, so we jumped in the car and drove to the Maryland capital city, Annapolis, which is on the Chesapeake Bay.
Though Saturday's weather was on the chilly side, the sky was blue. The trees have changed, so the drive was beautiful. After a quick visit to the visitors center, we settled in to a local pub and got our first crab cakes as residents of Maryland. They were fantastic, and now we know what all of the fuss is about!
Next, we walked over to the State Capitol building. The first floor consists of exhibits. There is information about Annapolis' role in the American Revolution and creation of the USA. The state house also has the silver from the USS Maryland, which was decommissioned in the late 1940s.
We were struck by the small size of the Capitol building. It is much smaller than the ones in Wisconsin and Kansas. This is partly because it is a smaller state, and therefore has fewer legislators. However, the building is so small I doubt all of the legislators have office space in it.
Our next stop was the Naval Academy campus, which was gorgeous. There is a beautiful chapel in the middle of it. We would have loved to have seen the inside, but there were two weddings going on back-to-back while we were there. Instead, we visited the museum, which has artifacts from the country's naval history. There were captured flags from Nazi Germany and Japan from World War II, and a large collection of medal presented to naval heroes. The bottom floor of the museum houses a collection of model ships.
Overall, it was a great trip. The Rabbit now has about 200 miles on it. Maybe we'll crack a thousand by next summer.
Look for three more photos from Annapolis in the photo gallery (top right).
Comments