Thoughts on my pics

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The Blue Angels performed in Annapolis as part of the Commissioning Ceremony for new Officers at the United States Naval Academy. I had intended to watch this from the Maryland World War II Memorial where I had watched the same show a few years ago. There weren’t very many people there and I was shocked when the place was absolutely packed and people were parked for miles along the sides of Rt. 450. I turned around and went back to Annapolis and decided to see if I could get into one of the parking decks. I figured there was little chance of getting in and I was right. They were full. Driving further along I realized there was a strip mall with a parking lot so I pulled in and waited for the show to start. While I did not see all of the fancy low level flying, I think I may have wound up getting better photos from here because I was not directly under the show. The part of the show I could see was still a lot of fun and the roar of fighter jet engines is always exhilarating. These are not the first fighters in flight I have photographed – I scored an F-16 flying over King’s Landing Park a few weeks ago. It was moving very fast and that experience made me think I probably would not get good photos of the Blue Angels. It turns out the Blue Angels were flying much slower. But that is by no means saying they were flying slow. I had to concentrate to keep a lock in my viewfinder even with them some distance away. The show lasted about 45 minutes. Great show Blue Angels! Good luck Academy Graduates!

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The Chesapeake Bay Bridge (aerial photo) opens for people to walk across its 4.3 miles in the spring. Not every year like it used to, though. I took vastly more pictures than I expected I would take. I took 429 pictures and uploaded 143. This really turned out to be about 3 albums in one. First the Bay Bridge walk itself, second the wildlife and scenery and third the boats and ships including the restarting of the Volvo Ocean Race.

I understand about 20,000 people walked across the bridge. I parked on one of the two Western Shore lots and took a bus provided by the Washington D.C. transit authority to the Eastern end of the bridge. All of the non-articulated buses I saw were natural gas or hybrid buses. I rode a natural gas bus to and from the parking area. The event appeared to be well planned and executed. Even though it took me a long time to get into a parking space, there was very little wait at either end to get on the bus and everyone was friendly. On the bridge itself there were a lot of personnel watching out for us from officers stationed at fairly frequent intervals to mini-ambulances stationed at a few places along the bridge. There were port-a-potties at both ends of the bridge and at several places along the bridge itself, but apparently ran out of TP fairly early as people were checking to see if others had any. Also on the bridge were two tanker trucks supplying water to a bunch of water fountains. No containers were apparently being passed out so you had to fill up your own. Helicopters were flying the length of the bridge keeping an eye out for problems. There were also planes pulling banners and an unusual sight, a helicopter towing a banner.

At the Eastern end of the bridge there is a pond in between the eastbound and westbound spans. This pond held a few treasures including a pair of swan nesting, a few mallards, a Red Winged Blackbird and some sort of black butterfly. Further along the bridge I caught my first photos of a bird called a Common Tern. Toward the middle of the bridge I was taking pictures of Gulls and Cormorants. I finally got some decent photos of Cormorants. They’re hard to photograph because they fly very fast. Scenic photos of both shorelines and the bridge itself were taken along the entire walk.

Since this was the Volvo Ocean Race restart day there were quite a few boats and ships to the South of the bridge including the Liberty Ship John W. Brown which I took photos of from the grounds of Fort McHenry a little while back, a sailing ship that appeared to be the Pride of Baltimore II and other sailing and motor boats lining up to watch the race. There was also quite a bit of boat traffic under the bridge. Various police and coast guard boats were patrolling the boat to make everybody pass under the bridge under a particular span towards the East end. Photos were also taken of two bay lighthouses, the Sandy Point Shoal Lighthouse and the Baltimore Lighthouse (which, incidentally, is not at Baltimore). When the Volvo Ocean Race restarted I was just to the East of the suspension span and got some pretty decent shots of the contenders.

I got several good photos of the bridges themselves from various points along the bridge, especially the Western end where the bridges curve northward and give you a good view between the spans towards the East.

All in all, this walk made for a good day. I was tired and a bit sunburned, but I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the next time they open the bridge to walkers. Despite the very long wait Eastbound vehicles had on the approach to crossing the bridge (only one lane was available to them), many of them seemed to maintain good humor crossing the bridge with some vehicle occupants cheering and waving the walkers and some trucks blowing their air horns.

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The Piney Point Lighthouse (aerial photo) is great spot to spend some time. Even though the signs indicated the museum was supposed to be open the day I went (May through October, Noon to 5PM, Friday through Monday – this was a Saturday afternoon in May), it was closed. Fortunately the grounds are open. There were only a small handful of people there and I was alone more than half the time. This is kind of an out of the way spot. Because there was a tanker loading (or unloading) the near constant sound of fluid rushing through the pipe was present. It sounded a bit like a jet engine at a fair distance. But it did not bother me. This is probably not a frequent occurrence. I enjoyed the opportunity to take photos of the tanker and the tugboats in addition to the lighthouse, critters and great scenery.

I probably discovered this place through its membership in the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network which I periodically check for great places to visit. I particularly enjoy looking through that site because some of my greatest shots have been on or near some body of water, most often the Chesapeake Bay. The Lighthouse grounds are no exception. I got some great photos of an Osprey nest here with one of the adults making forages out for nesting material and food. There were some other birds around as well. I got some great photos of Gulls, Tree Swallow, Cardinal, Mourning Dove and a great sequence of Double Crested Cormorants apparently chasing a gull. I also got some photos of jellyfish and a rabbit. There were some interesting shells and other things on the beach, including a feather, that were also photographed.

One of the highlights of this place aside from the lighthouse itself is a pier that allows for great viewing of the Osprey on their nest. Their website says that this is a wheelchair accessible pier and I would certainly agree with that. There’s a good sturdy boardwalk leading all the way to it. There are also benches to sit on at the end of the pier some of which look directly at the Osprey nest (looking at the aerial photo above, the pier is a small line heading Southeast from the beach, the Osprey nest is the black dot on the water to the Northeast of the pier). The Osprey nest can also be seen by walking along the beach. There is also a nice sandy beach here. They discourage swimming and for good reason. This is very close to where the Potomac empties into the Chesapeake Bay and I imagine the currents can be quite strong. The beach itself has interesting shells and other items which produced some interesting photos. The signage on the lighthouse grounds is good and discusses the lighthouse itself and the history of the grounds.

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I sometimes check the MDisfun.org website’s calendar to see what sorts of events are going on. I saw the Southern Maryland Spring Festival listed and decided to go down and have a look. It turned out to be more like a carnival at the St. Mary’s County Fairgrounds near Leonardtown, Maryland. The highlight of this event for me was the parade which consisted mainly of old cars followed by old tractors. I think I spent about an hour here and was annoyed by the teenagers who didn’t seem to know how to behave in public. You can see from their webpage what kinds of things went on and overall this event was nice for families.

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My trip to the Historic London Town & Gardens (aerial photo) was a very pleasant experience. The day started overcast with a thin layer of clouds. Because of my great luck with bright direct sunlight I was hesitant to go but decided to give the lighting a chance. I discovered that this kind of lighting has some benefits over direct sunlight in that there are few or no shadows and the lighting is more even and not so harsh on some types of subjects. However, the clouds burned off before long and the day was brighter than I expected.

Admission to both parts (The William Brown House, which is the main feature of the town, and the Gardens) is $7. One or the other is $4 each. I bought the $7 tour which also provided me with two brochures, one containing a map of the grounds with the trails shown and markings of features of interest and the other a brief history of tidewater trade and travel. These are both very nice and enhanced the experience.

The Historic London Town & Gardens is split into two parts as suggested by the name. The garden is where I spent most of the 4 hours on the site (open that day from noon to 4). The flower gardens cover less space than it seems to. It has trails that wind around and the number of attractions are packed in fairly well. This is a terrific place to spend some time. I got the feeling I get from some places of peace and well being here. I seem to get this most often when I am alone in a beautiful place. In fact, I am not sure words can really describe this feeling. There are a wide variety of flowers and plants in the gardens. There is also a small pond where I found two mallards taking a mid day nap. I only posted pictures of the female because the male was fairly well hidden in some tall plants. I think the photos of the mallard came out pretty well. There were also some Osprey and Gulls flying over head and I got a few pictures of those. I got a pair of pictures of an Osprey carrying some lunch but the camera didn’t focus fast enough (and I wasn’t patient enough to let it) so the pictures are slightly blurry but I posted them anyway. I think they came out well enough.

There is a guided tour of the William Brown House which lasts roughly an hour. Photography was not permitted inside the house so I am not able to provide any photos of the interior, but I did post a couple photos of the exterior to the album. The tour is very interesting and the guide described life during the era the house was being used, the various items in the house and some stories of some of the individuals that lived in or passed through. There are also other buildings on the property as well as an active archaeological dig in a tent which I was able to enter and see the cut lines in the dirt and some of the items in the layers. No one was doing any digging on this day, however.

Outside the house I was able to get some great photographs of a groundhog. There is also a “tenement”, a tobacco barn and some other structures of interest on the property. There is a dock on the river near the house with a bench next to the water’s edge. The bench is placed a little too close to the edge for comfort as far as getting in and out go, but it is a great place to get a view of the river and some of the critters in the area. There is quite a bit of boat traffic up and down the river, but you can’t really hear it when you’re not right on the river’s edge.

This is a quiet, beautiful and peaceful place and I am glad I live only a few minutes away from it. It is very likely that I will be returning to this place at least a couple times more this year.

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The Baltimore Waterfront Festival was an interesting experience. It was a pleasant clear warm day. I look the light rail from the Glen Burnie Station to the Camden Yards station. This was my first time on the light rail since they finished the double tracking project where they double tracked the entire line. I walked East along W. Conway Street until I reached Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. I was surprised at how many people were here. According to the website 350,000 people showed up to the 4 day event. The centerpiece of the Waterfront Festival is the Baltimore stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race. There was quite a bit to see and do here. There were several old style sailing ships in addition to the Volvo Ocean racers.

I made a near beeline for the Top of the World observation deck at the top of the Baltimore World Trade Center. I had previously been here on February 5th after visiting the Baltimore Aquarium. I had found appallingly filthy windows. I was certain with warmer weather, more visitors and the Festival, the windows should be spotless. Wrong. They were once again appallingly filthy. I do not think the people who run this place care about visitor experience and I recommend that you avoid this place if clean windows will be an issue. It wrecked the experience for me even though I was still able to get a few good shots. You’ll see the filth in the pictures I took from there, however. For the $5, I expect the windows to be clean, after all, that is all they have to offer.

I continued Eastward along the Northern edge of the Inner Harbor passing the aquarium and the Power Plant. I arrived at the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse. I climbed the stairs up to the lighthouse and saw that they were doing some restoration to it. There is apparently usually a fee to get into the lighthouse, but it was free on this day and there was a friendly and enthusiastic attendant on hand to explain the lighthouse to folks. Some of the rooms were closed, but you could walk the outside ring and climb the stairs inside to just below the lighthouse lense. I got a great view of the Baltimore Public Works museum but I did not visit. I plan to in the future.

After I climbed off the lighthouse I decided I was hungry. There’s a restaurant called McCormick & Schmick’s. I decided to give this place a try since it had been a while since I’d had something nice to eat. It took about 8 minutes for the waitress to take my order. We were not getting off to a good start. I had their fried shrimp with shoestring fries and what they called an “Arnold Palmer” (lemonade and iced tea). The shrimp were tasty but they’d been fried too long. Instead of a nice golden brown they were more of a deep brown and the breading dug into my gums. The shoestring fries were great and I love the seasoning they put in them. The Arnold Palmer was pretty bad. It had bitter iced tea in it that restaurants often serve. I never seem to learn my lesson about restaurant iced tea. The waitress came by with the check, I put my money in it and she took it and vanished again. After 7 minutes I started to look for her. I asked the hostesses at the front if they knew where she went. 5 minutes after that she showed up a dollar short. I will not be returning to this place.

After the Top of the World and McCormick & Schmick’s efforts to ruin my day, I wound back West, the South along the Inner Harbor. Here there were exhibits, shows, boats and vendors. A great set up. There is a great visitor center here as well. Volvo had their setup along the Southern edge of the Inner Harbor. Some great things were on display here related to the Volvo Ocean Race including a semi truck, a Volvo made out of legos and other interesting things.

A bit beyond this is a memorial to the Pride of Baltimore. I will let their website get into the details, but this is a beautiful place. From here I walked up to the top of Federal Hill Park. The top appears to be geared mainly as a park for the locals and there is a very nice fenced in playground up there. What is truly nice about this place, however, is the view North across the Inner Harbor to Baltimore’s skyline. A view to the East gives you the more industrial side of Baltimore. There are benches up here and this is a great place to sit a while. There’s also a large open grassy area at the top of the hill. The Baltimore Museum of Industry is at the base of the hill on the East but I did not go there on this day. I plan to visit sometime in the future.

I saw other things while here, but I will let the photos in the album tell the rest of the story. For the most part I enjoyed this day despite the fact that I typically do not like to be around crowds.