Friday in Annapolis

 At Karen's suggestion, we visited the Naval Academy in Annapolis on Friday.  We were very glad we did and found it very interesting.

This is the building that houses all the approximately 5,000 midshipmen.  It was huge!  I don't remember how many acres the building covered, but our guide said there were over 5 miles of hallway in the building and it has its own store, post office and barber shop (to mention a few) in the basement.  It also has its own zip code.

 We learned that the campus is not called a campus, but the yard and the students are midshipmen, taken from a term in the British navy when young sailors (12 and 13 years old) were positioned in the middle of the ships to relay messages to the front and back of the ship.  The first year students are plebes.  About 20% of the midshipmen are women.  The Naval Academy trains and commissions the officers for the Navy and the Marines.  In the fall of their sophomore year, they have to choose in which branch of the service they will serve.  They owe the country 5 years for their education.

 There were bells on both sides of the stairway leading to the main entrance of the building.  This Japanese bell is rung only after the Navy beats the Army in football.  You could tell there was a big rivalry between the two.

 What would a Naval Academy be without some anchors on display?!  The submarine fleet is also under the navy's command.

 We always love the beautiful green countryside and all the huge trees when we are in the eastern U.S.  Reminds us how much of a desert we live in.  (We aren't sure driving in that traffic is worth all the beauty of the landscape though.)

 This is the non-denominational Christian church.  The stained glass windows line each side of the chapel.  The left depicts scenes from the Old Testament related to the seas/water and the windows on the right are scenes from the New Testament.  They are very beautiful.  There is a huge one at the front of the chapel of Christ walking on the water, but our picture was too dark for it to show up.

 This one is of Noah and the flood.

 Our tour guide told us that there used to be a rash of weddings in the chapel right after graduation, but they were finding that they had a high rate of divorce, so now mandatory counseling is required before they can marry right out of school.  This year she said there were 18 weddings scheduled.  The men on the steps are practicing for some ceremony having to do with the upcoming weddings.

 This is a bust of John Paul Jones.  He is considered to be our country's first naval hero.  He never lost a battle to the British in the Revolutionary War.  He was trained in the British Navy as a young boy and young man, but came to America and sided with America in the Revolution.  He died in France and was buried there, but the powers-that-be decided some years ago that he should rest in America.  They went to great lengths to identify and bring his body back here and the vault holding his body has a permanent home in the basement of the Naval Chapel.

This thirty foot obelisk is on the grounds of the academy. Every fall the upper class men grease it with a couple of hundred pounds of grease and the plebes have to see who can be the first to reach the top. Legend says that the first to reach the top will be the first admiral in their class. Our guide said it hasn't happened yet.

 Here is a statue of the Academy's mascot, the goat.  Not especially threatening-sounding, is it?  You can read the traditional story on the plaque below.