A Brave Soul….

There she was – in her school’s colors of red and blue – surrounded by a sea of Blue and Gold at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.  The match-up?  The US Naval Academy versus the University of South Alabama in a rival only a few of us really care about.  The rivalry started five years ago when Navy and South Alabama signed an agreement to play a total of four games against each other starting this year, but that agreement was cut short to just one game in Annapolis, Maryland and one game in Mobile, Alabama since Navy is joining the Big East Conference in 2015.  But we’ll get back to all that in a moment.

Our weekend getaway started early Friday morning when we left the house way too early to catch our flight to Baltimore.  United was nice enough to cancel our original nonstop flight and never notify us.  Luckily, we caught it a few weeks ago and got a redirected flight through Cleveland, Ohio.  The flight to Cleveland was great, but the flight to Baltimore was on a Dash-8 – a prop plane that has no business being certified by the FAA to transport cattle let alone people.  What a long, bumpy, loud flight!!!!

We landed, got the car, and drove to our hotel to drop some stuff off and grab a quick bite to eat before heading back up to Baltimore for Jersey Boys (the traveling Broadway show).  Yes, I know… we just saw the exact same show seven weeks ago on Broadway when we were in New York… but we enjoyed it so much we figured we’d take advantage of the traveling show being in Baltimore the same time we were there.

A panoramic from where we ate dinner 

Look at that sunset!

Jersey Boys - The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

Making some great sounding music!

Grand Finale 

Hippodrome - Balitmore, Maryland 

After the show, we walked the streets of Baltimore to the Inner Harbor to grab some dessert at The Cheesecake Factory.  I’m rarely an adventurous eater, but I usually get a different cheesecake each time I’m there.  Karen, on the other hand, has gotten the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake every time we’ve been there since they came out with it (about 5 years now).  This time around, I got the new Toasted Marshmallow S’mores Galore Cheesecake and it was FABULOUS!!!

Yeah.... it's THAT good!

After a late walk back to our car in the rain (to walk off the calories), and a late drive back to Annapolis, we made it back to Nappy-town after 1AM… sometimes it’s nice to be out without the kids!

We got up the next morning and walked over to “the yard” (aka the Naval Academy).  Karen loves to see the beautiful fall foliage this time of year and we love the deals we can get at the Midshipmen Store (a store only open to Midshipmen and alumni with discounted prices and no tax).  We knocked out a lot of Christmas shopping… good thing we brought an expandable bag!

Then it was back to the room to change into warmer clothes for the football game.  It was about 50 degrees throughout the game, so we bundled up with Under Armour, sweatshirts, and our favorite team’s jerseys.  This is where Karen showed her true colors as an extremely brave woman!  Not only did we sit on the Navy side, but we were surrounded by alumni from the Class of 1983 who were at the game for their reunion, a loud and boisterous bunch.  Karen didn’t hesitate to cheer for her beloved Jaguars each time they scored.  Unfortunately for Karen, she only got to cheer loudly twice because Navy crushed the Jaguars 42-14!  GO NAVY!

Bill the Goat joining us at the stadium 

A friendly picture before the "big rivalry" 

A shot of the new stadium on an overcast day - it never looked this nice when I was there!

This "Spirit Button" says it all - I walked up to a group of Plebes and offered one of them $5 for their button (they get them for free).  They originally looked at me like I was nuts, but after I explained to them I graduated in the USNA Class of '03 and my wife from South Alabama, they relaxed a little and one of them gave me his button at no charge.

All 4,000+ USNA Midshipmen at "March On" 

USNA Color Guard

One final look at the scoreboard

Singing "Blue and Gold" with the Brigade

Google doesn't lie, right?  Saving the screenshot for prosperity

A leisurely Sunday with breakfast at the famous Chick andRuth’s Delly and some fall foliage sight—seeing topped off the wonderful weekend before we headed back to the airport to end our mini-vacation.  A wonderful time was had by all… even by those on the losing team!

Annapolis is such a nice town

Beautiful Leaves