We headed down to Annapolis for a girl scout outing today - it was beautiful weather, so being a chaperone was a pleasure. We started the day with a walking tour of the downtown area. My wife had set up a guided tour, which was very nice. We went by the harbor, the state capital, and into the kitchen of one of the historic buildings - set up as it would have been back then. The capitol is quite nice - it's the oldest, in continuous use capitol in the US. Here's a picture I took, looking up the street towards the capitol dome:

The harbor is quite nice too - you can't see it in the low res camaera phone shot I took, but the Bay Bridge is off in the distance here:

It was cloudy for a bit while we were there, but it cleared off and got quite warm. We headed up the street from here to the Paca house. William Paca was one of four Marylanders who signed the Declaration of Independence; he had a house with a view of the Severn River built in the 1760s. It's no longer got that view; the Naval Academy is in the way (along with a bunch of filled land). Here's a view of the Paca house from the garden:

And a a view from the house, looking down at the "summer house" on the far end of the garden:

The house has an interesting history. It was privately owned until the turn of the 20th century, when a hotel company took it over. They left the house mostly alone (although they modified the bedrooms to add bathrooms, so they could be sold as suites). The garden was paved over and the bulk of the hotel was built there. It stayed that way until the early 60's - at which point the entire structure was nearly levelled for a parking garage. Fortunately, a foundation managed to raise money and buy the house and land, and then spent a number of years in restoration. It's a beautiful spot now - well worth visiting if you happen to be in Annapolis.