Maryland trip

Wayne and I went to Maryland this past weekend. We flew into Baltimore, picked up a rental car, and drove down to Saint Mary's County. It was called an interview trip because we are probably going to relocate there. It was basically so we could look the area over and decide if we like it enough to live there. Wayne would be working on the PAX River NAS as a contractor for his current company and on the JSF. We flew there on Thursday and drove down through Calvert County and over a ginormous bridge to get there. Wayne took a nap and by the time he woke up it was dark so we just stayed at the hotel that evening. On Friday he had a tour of the base and was there until around noon. Then we went out to look over a few areas we wanted to see and basically just drove around. I will explain what we did with the pictures posted. Then on Saturday we went out with our Realtor and she showed us more housing areas as well as subdivisions and basically told us about the schools and history of the area. Even though we don't have kids in school, what school district we are in will play a big part on where we move to. On Sunday we went to church and then drove back up to Baltimore and flew on home. Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

 

This is the view out our hotel window. I loved the beautiful colors of all the trees but especially the red Maples.

 

What really surprised me was how there are broad leaf and evergreen trees interspersed. It will be green there year round because of that. Even more encouraging was that there was not a hint of allergies from either Wayne or I...yippee!!

As part of our ride on Friday we went down to Point Lookout State Park. That is on the very tip of the peninsula and there is a lighthouse there as well as a few other buildings. Unfortunately it was only open for tours on Saturdays but we still got some good pictures from down there. Above is the lighthouse itself. It is said to be haunted according to some signs. It was in operation from 1830-1966...wow.

 

I tried to get a picture showing how the water went around on all three sides but was not successful because of the fence. This was the closest one I could get.

 

This looks like a grave stone but in actuality it is a marker of a hospital that was there. It says it is dedicated to the soldiers, sailors, and hospital personnel from both the North and South who were there between July 1862 and July 1865.

 The picture above and below are both looking west from Point Lookout. It was a chilly, breezy day and I was really glad that I had brought a windbreaker. I love how the sun shines on the water.

 

This picture is looking east from Point Lookout. This area is located just west of the Chesapeake Bay so not quite to the ocean but you could not see land when you looked across it so in my opinion it might as well have been the ocean. So I have seen from sea to shining sea this year. I have loved all the traveling I have done.

This is a smokehouse that was at Point Lookout. It said on the sign that it was used by the keeper of the lighthouse. I tried to look inside but it was too dark.

This was a Confederate Cemetery at Point Lookout. Unlike the one I saw in Iowa, this one had no markers. The pictures from my Iowa trip are on my phone but I think that I will send them to my email so that I have them with my other digital photos.

These last two photos are from our tour with our Realtor. Most of the time I was too busy taking notes but when we stopped at this water access that was with one of the subdivisions I had to snap a couple photos.

We both really liked it there. The people were nice and friendly. The only deciding factor now is whether the pay increase is enough to afford it as the housing is much more expensive than in Texas.