ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND: AROUND TOWN AND ST. ANNE'S CHURCH

We couldn't find a parking space in downtown Annapolis near the State House, so we parked about a mile away. The good part about that was that we got to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Chesapeake Bay. The bad part is that it was about 100° and about 90% humidity.

As we got near to downtown Annapolis, it was a nice surprise to come upon this public art piece showing a man telling stories to three children:

That soda behind the girl on the right almost looks like it belongs there.

Then we learned that it's not just ANY man--it's Alex Haley, author of the epic saga Roots (1976), which became a record-breaking television miniseries in 1977. (By the way, did you know Haley also co-authored The Autobiography of Malcolm X? That came out in 1965.) Roots tells the story of six generations of Haley's own family. The Kunta Kinte - Alex Haley Memorial commemorates the arrival of Haley's ancestor and other slaves in this very harbor:

I had a flashback to the Kunta Kinte statue in Atlanta outside the Martin Luther King Museum, which shows Kunta Kinte holding aloft his baby daughter Kizzy, much like Mufasa holds up his newborn cub Simba in The Lion King.

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND: THE STATE HOUSE

I'M SO CONFUSED. You know the building where the governor has his office? What is it called? "The Capitol," you say? Not in Maryland, and not in Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Carolina, or Vermont. They all have State Houses.  And then there is Ohio, which, just to be difficult, has a Statehouse. Not to be outdone, Delaware has a Legislative Hall. Geesh.

The Maryland State House is not your typical capitol in spite of the columns out front and the long portico. There is a small, stacked dome rather than the typical massive white one. This building looks like it was built in a different era than most of the capitols we've seen, as indeed it was. Constructed in 1772, it is the oldest state house (and I'm assuming that means oldest capitol building too) in the nation still in legislative use. George Washington himself walked these halls. The treaty that ended the Revolutionary War was ratified here.  For nine months between November 26, 1783, and August 13, 1784, this building even served as the capitol building for the United States, so I guess they can call it what they want, right?

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND: U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY

We hadn't done much exploration in Maryland other than a visit to Antietam in 2014. We have a goal to visit all the state capitals, so during our recent trip to NYC and DC, we made a trip east into Maryland to visit Annapolis.

Located about two-thirds the way up Chesapeake Bay, this capital city has a definite seaport vibe:

It's an ideal location for the United States Naval Academy, founded here in 1845. In addition to visiting state capitals, we also like to visit major universities, and so we thought we'd check out the USNA.

There was fairly heavy security for a college campus. We had to pass through a metal detector, have our bags checked, and get a name tag to be able to enter the campus. However, after that I was pleasantly surprised. The Naval Academy is really set up to be a tourist destination, complete with an excellent tour guide who leads visitors around campus. We started at the statue of the Navy's mascot, Bill the Goat. (I'm not kidding; that's his name.)

 

TOPEKA, KANSAS: FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND TIFFANY WINDOWS

     “I cannot understand why you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to the dry, gray place you call Kansas."
     "That is because you have no brains," answered the girl. "No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home."
     The Scarecrow sighed."Of course I cannot understand it," he said. "If your heads were stuffed with straw, like mine, you would probably all live in beautiful places, and then Kansas would have no people at all. It is fortunate for Kansas that you have brains.”                       ~L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

As noted in a previous post, the Oz books were my life when I was in elementary school, and I must confess that everything I have ever thought about Kansas came from their pages.

Boy, was I mislead. I suppose Kansas can be hot and dry, and most likely I would feel differently if I had visited during a cyclone, but now that I've been there, I think Kansas is full of art and culture and lots of surprises. We ran across one of those surprises in Topeka.

Topeka's First Presbyterian Church, built in 1884, is relatively simple as far as churches go. The original building had a wooden steeple that stood 160 feet high. It was damaged by lightning in 1888, repaired, and then damaged again in 1910. Can you blame the church leadership for deciding to permanently remove the tower?

Photo from here

The church has a large sanctuary with a beautiful hand-carved altar:

However, the real glory of the church and the Big Surprise referred to earlier is on the surrounding walls: ten stained glass windows designed by none other than THE Louis Comfort Tiffany and installed in 1911 at a cost of $14,000. The church calls them "Windows of Comfort," a nice play on Tiffany's middle name.

(These are terrible photos, but they give a good idea of how the windows are placed in the church.)