I love Annapolis. It
has some old English city charm, with its brick roads and walks and roundabouts
and street names like “Duke of Gloucester” and the like.
Plus, it has docks and water and yachts and boats and
Pussers (awesome seafood) and cool artsy shops.
I stole away for a short visit to Annapolis Sunday morning,
to go for a run and explore more of the city on foot. I sort of expected the city to be quiet and
calm on an early Sunday morning. Um,
no. It was full of people and action…a hot
rod car show, yachts in and out of ego alley, runners everywhere including a
5K race through downtown, Navy men and women in their dress uniforms walking around, and
hipster students from St. John’s crashing every coffee shop.
And every single person looked like they stepped out of a
magazine. The runners all looked like
they run a quick 10 miler every morning to warm up for their Runner’s World
photoshoot. The residents and their dogs
looked like they stepped out of a Lands’ End catalog. The yachters (I’m sure there’s a proper name
for them but I choose yachters) had their grey cable v-neck sweater and dark jeans
uniform on, scarves tossed carefully carelessly around their necks. The hipsters had perfectly imperfect scruff
and the best plaids.
I didn’t have time to do my laundry before I left, so I chose the cleanest clothes I could find that looked okay. So the running gear I was wearing in preppy Annapolis was my ten-year-old, unflattering but gets the job done running gear. I felt a LITTLE like an outsider, a photobomber, if you can photobomb an entire city. A city-crashing version of a wedding-crasher.
But I did my thing anyway and enjoyed the brightly colored doors, the little patios hidden away, the red brick everywhere, the bright sunshine and cool wind.
And I decided that Annapolis is a little too perfect to be
my favorite little east coast city. Perfect takes a little fun out of everything,
adds a bit too much pressure.
But Annapolis, you’ll always be number two.
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