William Paca House, Annapolis, Maryland

Quoting from Historic Annapolis website about the William Paca House:

This five-part Georgian mansion was built in the 1760s by William Paca, one of Maryland’s four Signers of the Declaration of Independence and the state’s third Governor. Carefully restored by Historic Annapolis beginning in 1965, today it is recognized as one of the finest 18th-century homes in the country and a National Historic Landmark. Guided tours of the house, which features period furnishings and paintings, reveal the inner workings of an upper-class household in colonial and revolutionary Annapolis.

We recently enjoyed a tour of the house and the garden. 

Spa Creek, Annapolis, Maryland Drawbridge

I am not aware of any drawbridges in either Arizona or Utah. When we came to the Spa Creek Bridge, we found the drawbridge open and boats traveling up and down the Creek. I jumped out of the car and walked up to take a few photos. My wife drove the car into a convenient parking lot and we continued on with our short trip when the bridge went back down.

Spa Creek, Annapolis, Maryland

I have a serious conceptual challenge calling this a creek. However, it really is Spa Creek in downtown Annapolis, Maryland. This image is looking north up the creek. Actually, the "creek" is an estuary of the giant Chesapeake Bay. The real creek is a swampy little trickle of water in a gully that regularly floods with heavy rains.

King Kamehameha I at the US Capitol Building

If you have been to the US Capitol or visited Honolulu or watched Hawaii 5-0 then you have seen this statue. From a painting of Kamehameha I, this statue doesn't look like him at all. Here is a summary of his life:

Kamehameha I (Hawaiian pronunciation: [kəmehəˈmɛhə]; c. 1736? – May 8 or 14, 1819[1] ), also known as Kamehameha the Great (full Hawaiian name: Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kauʻi Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea), was the founder and first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii. A statue of him was given to the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C. by the state of Hawaii as one of two statues it is entitled to give.

Colonial Era Hedgehog Cake

We have seen two of these cakes in Annapolis, Maryland. There are recipes for this cake going back into the 18th Century. They do not sound very tasty. Here is a link to one recipe from Colonial Williamsburg. http://recipes.history.org/2013/12/to-make-a-hedgehog/

We saw this dish at the William Paca House in Annapolis, Maryland.

Elephant at the Smithsonian

This is probably one of the most recognizable and photographed exhibits at any of the museums in Washington, D.C. During the summer months, it would be difficult to get a photo of this magnificent elephant without showing the crowds of people. But this was a visit last winter when the museums were relatively sparsely visited. I have always wondered how you preserve animals by killing them and stuffing them for museums.

Saguaro Alcove

Until you have lived in the Mid-Atlantic part of the United States for a while with all the trees, you can't really appreciate the difference of the Arizona Sonora Desert. There are a few very beautiful places that we have visited, but most of what you see here is a solid mass of trees and vines. The real scenery of the Eastern part of the United States is in the mountains and along the seacoast. But I certainly feel more at home in the deserts of the Southwest.