Annapolis Oct 21. - 25, 2021

Thursday:

Because of Covid we weren't able to drop James off at Annapolis. We wanted to find some time to see him play hockey and check out where he's been living the last year and a half at the Naval Academy. Matt reserved us a VBRO for all 15 of us the weekend the Naval Academy was inviting all alumni. Our 5, grandma and grandpa, Lisa and Steve, and Mark and Marisa with their 4 kids. Our five flew out of Madison. We had a layover in O'Hair where we met up with the remaining 10. Wilson stayed with Kelly once again. Good thing he has Bailey to play with. We landed in Annapolis relatively late. We got to Our RVBO and we were all a little shocked to say the least. It definitely has character! The hot tub isn't what we thought it would be…it's a blowup one in the basement with green carpeted walls. The stairs creep a little bit as you go up and down and the couches in the living room are a bit too soft. Our outdoor pool was a bit cold and the horse in the front definitely entertained especially when Mark and Steve decided to ride it. I honestly think the place was great.

Friday:

This morning I got up relatively early and decided to attempt a run, maybe it wasn't such a smart idea, I've been battling ankle pain with unclear diagnosis. It did feel good to run though. Afterwords I went to Safeway to buy some grocery essentials for us. Mark, the Littles, and Erma headed to Trader Joe's to get some more essential groceries. The rest of us chatted amongst ourselves sipping our coffees for the first few hours of the morning. We got our walking shoes on and headed to check out James campus. Today we put in 10,000 steps. We watched a little march performance of the Academy over the noon hour. We saw a lot of amazing places all over campus with lots of history. We hit the midshipmen store and bought must have essentials with navy logo wear. James surprised us in the store with a quick hello. It was so great to see him all dressed up in his uniform! We then grabbed some lunch at the café. I found a new drink, a STOK vanilla cold brew coffee. Yum!! We all divided up after that. Marisa, myself, the three Littles walked down the main downtown street to do some shopping. We found pointed Popsicles from the olden days, water bottle stickers, Annapolis magnets, must have sweatshirts, Black raspberry Himalayan salt bath crystals. The street we shopped on reminded Marisa of Stockholm, Norway. Meanwhile Mark and Larz found an Mason's lobster rolls where they enjoyed the lobster rolls. We had sent Steve to go to the parade start to sit down and people watch. He found himself a spot in the alumni section from 1991. Later during the parade we spotted him amongst all the other alumni and just had to laugh! We watched the parade. At least three cadets passed out. If you lock your knees you can get lightheaded. We made our way back to our VBRO and chilled with James telling us stories…including the sharing of his broken toe injury while doing a flip turn swimming. Fortunately it hasn't held him back…still playing hockey! James has applied for studying abroad in Germany next year. He finds out next week if he will be chosen. We all chilled until James' 10:30 hockey game. So great to see him play!!

Saturday:

This morning my foot was a little sore from all the walking yesterday so I only did a walk. After a little yoga, I had my smoothie and chatted away…the normal chitchat we do with the Hanson gang. We had to be to the football stadium by 10:30 AM for the Navy versus Cincinnati football game. Wow was that an event!. Fly over jets, parachute cadet landing on the field, the marching of the cadets on the field, push-ups of the plebes on the field after a touchdown, and the kid fans sliding down the hill on cardboard! Larz enjoyed his pregame football game he played with other boys and attempted to catch the field goles. The littles died their hair blue, purple, and pink. I was in Heaven with my super pretzel covered in mustard with coffee. Oh…I guess the football fans of the family also enjoyed the game…grandpa, Steve, Matt, Mark…Grandma, Lisa, Marisa, Evelyn, and Noelle enjoyed the hugs from James in uniform. He couldn't sit with us on the hill but did surprise us a time or two with a quick visit. After the game James was able to come back with us to our VBRO. We Took a quick breather for before heading "to get to the point". An amazing crab house with in an outdoor seating. Lars was in heaven especially with his oysters…but not Greta! After many laughs we made her way back to the VBRO and crashed!

Sunday:

This morning I only did a walk. My ankle is still sore even after dipping it in our freezing cold pool acting like an ice bath. I went to Trader Joe's…it is always fun to check out a new grocery store. Found some amazing coffee almonds. We headed into our three cars and drove over to the campus for James to take us on our private walking tour. We saw the field he had done many fitness tests in, including bear crawls, pull ups, timed runs. We walked through the cemetery sadly seeing some of the prior shipmen having passed. He had many many stories for us…it was so nice to have a private tour from him. Afterwards we made our way back to the VBRO for pizza and watching of the packer game. A few of us went to check our a rental house here in Annapolis that we may consider renting for James commencement. I enjoyed another walk in the sun, ice cold immersion of my sore ankle in the pool and writing in this journal while watching the kids splash in the pool. Unfortunately we had to run James back…he had lots of homework to do before tomorrow morning. Fortunately we will see him again in 3 weeks for Thanksgiving! We did our final stroll down Main Street. Matt got a Navy flag for our house, the kids bought their pointed popsicles again and I got my much needed Cappuccino ice cream from Kilwins. We headed back to our VBRO for movie and popcorn and unfortunately packing to head back. We leave tomorrow at 2:30AM. Best to back up tonight. We enjoyed our time here…boy did it go fast!!

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