An Engaging Screen on the Green

National Mall, July 27, 2009: A bum rain forecast kept us away from last week's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, so we ignored another rain forecast for this week's Dog Day Afternoon.

While folk were gathering, a group in red shirts practiced card messages: Did she say yes and Congratulations. Later a young couple stopped in front of the screen putatively for a chat.

Jay proposed to Lauren in front of the screen and surprised her with a gathering of well-wishers in the audience; she said YES:

A robin and a squirrel:









At DC's Screen on the Green, the HBO Dance occurs immediately before the feature:

A Day Along the Choptank

Eastern Shore of Maryland, July 25, 2009: Traffic crept between Annapolis and the Bay Bridge toll plaza but we forgot all about it once we could take to the back roads.
We stopped by the Concord church and cemetery:








And by Nagels' pond, the boyhood swimming hole:
We had lunch at the Suicide Bridge Restaurant next to the notorious Suicide Bridge over a tributary of the Choptank River:

















The restaurant features metal sculptures by Paul Lockhart who lives nearby:












We stopped in Cambridge to see some of the Budweiser Cambridge Classic, sanctioned by the American Power Boat Association. The Cambridge Power Boat Regatta Association has held an annual inboard powerboat regatta on the Choptank since 1911!












The boats make 5 laps of a one-mile course in Hambrooks Bay:

Three boats passing on the turn:








A Romanesque Revival bank downtown:

We visited Old Trinity Church (c. 1692) on Church Creek about 8 miles south of Cambridge. The church was one of only two Anglican churches in Maryland before the first Vestry Act established 32 state-supported Anglican parishes. [Maryland Anglicans were never content with the toleration of the Catholic Lords Baltimore; following the English Revolution, Maryland Anglicans overthrew the Proprietor Charles Calvert, suppressed the Catholics and established state churches.]

The church building was remodeled in the mid-19th century and then restored to its colonial form in the early 20th century:

The churchyard contains the grave of Thomas Carroll, governor of Maryland (1830-31) and of his illustrious daughter Anna Ella Carroll, who was an unofficial member of Abraham Lincoln's cabinet:

The grave of a 20-year-old Marine trumpeter in WWI, Benjamin J. Linthicum, Jr., who received the Silver Star:

We stopped at 4 farmstands along the way [tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, onions, potatoes, peaches, peanuts], but apparently the shopping got in the way of photography:

The South River Bridge

Annapolis, MD, July 18, 2009: Everytime we crossed the South River Bridge on Maryland Route 2 (the Road to Mandelay), we always said that someday we wanted to check out the bridge and the view. Today was an unusually mild July day--neither hot nor humid--and we had the time!

Later at Collington: