Informed Traveling

Yesterday my family and I traveled to Annapolis, Maryland for the day. I went to the Maryland Law Library at the Court of Special Appeals, and everyone else went shopping!

Its a beautiful place. Right on the water with a nice harbor, its a serious tourist trap, too, though.

The Law Library is an amazing place, seriously. They have access to LexisNexis, which makes researching case reports much, much easier.

With regards to downtown Annapolis, started out with a visit to Capital Teas. After that, we went out to lunch at Cafe Normandie, which was terrific. I had the Salade Niçoise with fresh tuna. Yummy!

After I went to the law library, I met a friend at City Dock Coffee on Maryland Ave.

There are a couple of really cool characteristics of Annapolis. First off, its a small city by the sea. It has an irresistible charm - as long as its not too packed with tourists, but hey - we were tourists too! Second, its an old city, with lots of colonial style architecture - which I appreciate being from Boston and all. Third, it is the Maryland State Capitol - so there are some amazing government buildings.

All in all, I’m glad I’ve visited Annapolis a couple of times while living here in Maryland, and I’m looking forward to going back. Sure, its almost an hour drive, but its worth it, especially since I have a friend to visit there.

Last weekend I went to Gettysburg and had a really terrific time.

I went to dinner at a couple of different restaurants, including Bella Italia and The Inn at Herr Ridge.

While totally different types of restaurants, they were both totally delicious. Bella Italia is amazing Italian food; The Inn at Herr Ridge is amazing French food.

At Bella Italia, I ordered a “small” Sicilian style pizza. The “small” is actually very, very big. It nine slices of large pizza - enough for dinner and three lunches! My type of pizza. :-)

At The Inn at Herr Ridge, they were having a special: a three piece meal for $35; though the small dishes counted as two of the three. I ordered a small dish, a pastry dish with creme fresh, caramelized onion and some Sopprasseta. It was so good. In addition to that, I had the filet mignon - which normally is priced at $34, so the special was quite a great deal.

For dessert at the Inn at Herr Ridge, I had some chocolate cheesecake, and it was amazing.

I also went to a winery - the Hauser Estate. The view was phenomenal! I would like to go back some day.

If you are flying into TF Green airport in Waverly, Rhode Island for awhile and are planning to rent a car, get ready for a serious walk after you arrive.

The rental car agencies have been moved from the bottom of the stairs at the arrivals area to the third floor (above the arrivals), and all the way across the skywalk. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy walking, but this is a wee bit ridiculous!

While that’s a minor inconvenience, the rental car parking garage is another story. The “spirals” going up and down the floors have ninety degree angle turns - four for each floor. Yes, lots of people are going to crash while entering and exiting the garage. In my humble opinion, they are not the ones to blame, the designer of the garage is.

What do you think of the new rental care / parking garage setup at TF Green?