I had a great week. Last Sunday, I left for Baltimore, Maryland, with my friend Robert Mayo to teach another of the Auction Technology Specialist courses offered by the National Auctioneers Association.
Monday night we went to the the Pier in Annapolis and ate oysters at a place called McGarvey’s Saloon. While the area of town appeared quite affluent, with brick buildings and very nice aesthetics, the meal was delicious though surprisingly affordable.
Tuesday we went with Sarah Sonke with Auction First as she took us on a guided tour of our nation’s capital. She used to live there for a time, and was quite good at taking us between the various sights and monuments.
We first stopped in front of the capital building, where I took the picture on the right.
Robert’s son is named Lincoln, so high on our list of priorities was the Lincoln Monument. We passed the mall and the various museums on our way from the capital to the Washington Monument. As we arrived at the Lincoln Monument, we realized it wasn’t going to be very easy to get there easily on foot, so we went past it and turned around by the Watergate and Kennedy Center. Coming back from another angle, we stopped just north of the Vietnam Memorial where we exited the vehicle. We walked through the Vietnam Memorial on our way to the Lincoln Monument, where we got several pictures and Robert purchased some memorabilia from the store conveniently located in the corner of the monument itself.
Once we got back into the vehicle, we continued our tour, driving as close as we could to the White House. We ended up by the Air Force Memorial, the Pentagon, the Jefferson Monument and the Ford Theater.
Before we left town, we ate at Ristorante Luigino where I had the petto e cosciotto d’anatra, or leg and thigh of duck. We were sitting among a bunch of suits who were loudly discussing the proposed automotive industry bridge loan [read: bailout].
The class was well received, as was the last one. We had a great time, and the restaurant connected to the hotel had fantastic crab cakes, which I ate at nearly every meal. The market catfish was also quite good.
We came back Thursday, getting to the airport about four hours before our flight’s departure, leaving us plenty of time to mill about. We stopped to eat one more crab cake at one of the airport restaurants before we left, and I also found a neat shop that had some political merchandise. They told me I wasn’t allowed to take this picture when I asked, but the coolness of the sale on McCain merchandise was too cool to pass up. I walked behind one of the shelving units and literally shot this picture from the hip.
As for the pictures, I’ve included some below. My camera sucks, and Robert’s was set accidentally to a low quality setting, so none of the pictures are really good as pictures go, but I thought I’d share nonetheless.
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Sounds like you had fun in DC. Kyle and I went a couple of Octobers ago. I tagged along with him to an eye geek convention of some sort. I enjoyed it despite the blisters I developed on my feet from Kyle, a.k.a. Clark W. Griswold, forcing us to walk 100 mph everywhere so we could “take it all in.”
Sounds like you had fun in DC. Kyle and I went a couple of Octobers ago. I tagged along with him to an eye geek convention of some sort. I enjoyed it despite the blisters I developed on my feet from Kyle, a.k.a. Clark W. Griswold, forcing us to walk 100 mph everywhere so we could “take it all in.”
Aaron,
I just clicked this post.Great stuff!!! Your post………good stuff,entertaining.The memories it brought of a spring week 36 years ago —–priceless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
During the days after Xmas I celebrated a milestone birthday.Don’t ask. All I can tell you young guys is the alternative invites living underground.
I had the pleasure of having some former students and athletes visit me for my birthday. Staying at my farm we had great late nights talking about 36 years ago when as their teacher and coach in western NY,I was assigned by the Principal to escort their senior class on the Washington trip by bus.
WoW,thanks for the memories!!!! Imagine,4 in the morning parked on the sidewalk in a Greyhound bus in front of a downtown MacDonalds.The bus driver screaming”your not allowed to do this” There i was with 10 football players who got hungry.They were all dairy farmers.Some had never left the town let alone the state of NY.WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad you had a great time.
Joe Abal
Aaron,
I just clicked this post.Great stuff!!! Your post………good stuff,entertaining.The memories it brought of a spring week 36 years ago —–priceless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
During the days after Xmas I celebrated a milestone birthday.Don’t ask. All I can tell you young guys is the alternative invites living underground.
I had the pleasure of having some former students and athletes visit me for my birthday. Staying at my farm we had great late nights talking about 36 years ago when as their teacher and coach in western NY,I was assigned by the Principal to escort their senior class on the Washington trip by bus.
WoW,thanks for the memories!!!! Imagine,4 in the morning parked on the sidewalk in a Greyhound bus in front of a downtown MacDonalds.The bus driver screaming”your not allowed to do this” There i was with 10 football players who got hungry.They were all dairy farmers.Some had never left the town let alone the state of NY.WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad you had a great time.
Joe Abal
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