Ya know, I've been to Annapolis twice now, and I've officially decided. If I ever win the lotto or get my hands on a million dollars or something---I think Annapolis is one of those towns I'd consider living in. Its just beautiful in a real "old school" kind of way. Just seems like a town where you'd like to be from. If you have tons of money of course. Don't kid yourself. If you live here, either you have lots of money or you're just above the poverty line. It just seems like it would cost a fortune to live there. I mean, ya got the Naval Academy right smack dab in the middle of town, and right there walking past you every day is the best and the brightest that the nation has to offer. So we get up early on Saturday morning to go to Annapolis. This is going to be the one day of our trip that we need to rent a car though, and the day before I had made a reservation with Enterprise, with the only stipulation being that I would have to return the car to the airport location, which wasn't a huge deal since the airport is about a mile away from our hotel. So in the morning I call Enterprise and they decide to send me to "another location". The whole situation is rapidly degrading into a huge clusterfuck, when I remember that we had passed by a Budget location within walking distance of the hotel. So we begin the walk over to Budget. I walk into the office, and notice that I am number 8 or 9 in line, and there appears to be about 20 people outside waiting for a vehicle---and naturally there's ONE FRIGGIN PERSON working the entire office!!! Pretty soon the yelling starts (and believe it or not---it was not me!) and I beat a hasty retreat before the cops show up. I tell Kim that we can just go get a car at the airport. So we get in the van to take us to the airport, and about 2 blocks from the hotel we glance out the window and notice an---you guessed it---Enterprise Rent a Car. The guy in the hotel van let us out and we go and rent a Buick Century....which is a great car is you're like 85 yrs old or you work for the CIA. We headed towards Annapolis, choosing to follow the directions of the guy from Enterprise, who informed Kim that her Mapquest directions were completely useless. We get to Annapolis, and stop in to visit Andy's friend, the dreaded Max Balzano--who is only slightly less of a band geek than Andy. I have no problem realizing why they were friends. Two peas in a pod. Both of them going into 9th grade, and zero interest in girls. Moi?? I was in 6th grade and swiping Playboys from the Navy Exchange my friend! Anyway, the Balzano's had this incredible house, which is like 3 stories high, plus a basement....its just awesome. They were very gracious and took us to lunch downtown at a place called "Mangia's", where we had a very nice Italian meal in amongst a ton of sports memorabilia. Italian food and sports---thatsa one nice-a-combo!! We then walked over and briefly toured the Naval Academy, which is a beautiful campus, except that on this day it was pouring rain, as Kellie swore that the hurricanes were following us up the coast of the U.S. The only bummer was that here it was a Saturday afternoon, and the Navy football team wasn't practicing. What's up with that???
Finally we headed home, trying to beat the really bad weather that was predicted to be in the D.C. area around dinner time. I had been trying most of the day to get in touch with my parents, and was becoming concerned about how they had made out in Orlando with the hurricane the day before. I finally reached my not-quite-as-good looking brother, who had spoken to them briefly and told me that both were doing fine, although they had lost some screens, a fence and some shingles off the roof.
I finally got through to Dad, and informed him that Governor Jeb Bush hisownself will be down in the greater Orlando area to hand them a check to pay for the repairs. We decided to stay relatively local for dinner that night, as it was literally pouring rain--remnants of Hurricane Charley--and so we ate at Chevy's and had--once again---Tex Mex. Kim and the kids will never turn down Tex-Mex, that's for sure. I was fine until my 2nd Pina Colada arrived, and finding it not quite up to snuff, promptly returned it to the bartender. How dare he give me a poor quality beverage?
End of Day # 4
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