Double T Diner
12 Defense St
Annapolis, MD 21401
GPS: 38.983851, -76.536513
United States Naval Academy
Annapolis, MD 21402
GPS: 38.982070, -76.483983
Anne Arundel Medical Center
2001 Medical Pkwy
Annapolis, MD 21401
GPS: 38.989607, -76.533577
Our first event of the day was a family reunion at the Double T Diner in Parole, MD – a western suburb of Annapolis.
and breakfast is beyond belief.
Jean and Mary Morais are the widow and daughter of Michelle's deceased brother Gerry. Michelle and Jean keep in touch regularly by phone but it has been a long time since Jean and Mary have seen Adam and family. In fact they have never seen Ben who is now five years old.
The Double T Diner is huge – way beyond any visualization of a diner. They easily accommodated us at a table for ten. Our breakfast lasted over two hours as we all caught up on life and memories. We left a BIG tip. I must add that three young gentlemen were able to sit still and tolerate boring adult talk for two hours. That was unbelievable. Congratulations boys – you amazed everyone. Breakfast over, we said goodbye. Mary and Jean headed home and the rest of us piled into Adam's rental car bound for downtown Annapolis and the Naval Academy campus.
Annapolis, MD was founded in the year 1649. In the succeeding 365 years, there have been no improvements in parking conditions. Dealing with a vehicle in downtown is a nightmare of epic proportions that continues into the grounds of the Naval Academy. We were striving to reach the chapel for the memorial service for members of the class of '99 who have died since their graduation. We decided to drop off Adam and family at the chapel while Michelle and I would try to park the car. We finally found a space barely big enough to shoehorn the car into and of course as far from the chapel as you could get. It would have been easier to grease the street and push the car in sideways. That done, we struck out for the chapel at a brisk pace in hopes of getting to see some of the memorial service.
About halfway there disaster struck. With a loud sickening thud, Michelle was on the ground. Shattered sun glasses and gushing blood everywhere scared me to death and since she was face down, I couldn't see anything. A small crowd quickly gathered and a young Ensign called 911. (Thank you sir, whoever and wherever you are). Ambulance and police arrived and we convinced Michelle to go for treatment. The police took a lot of information and pictures. The culprit in this incident was a square of concrete sidewalk that had been lifted by a tree root. This was obviously not a new hazard.
Off to Anne Arundel Medical Center – Michelle on a gurney in the back of the ambulance and I in the cab with the driver. After a pretty thorough going over in the ER, this was the final assessment. She suffered a small facial/skull cut on her left eyebrow. Sunglasses were destroyed but eyeglasses were just bent and gave her a real bruise around her eye socket. Heretofore unnoticed was injury to her left elbow caused by falling with her left arm in front of her. Over the days to come that became the more serious part of the whole incident. Worst of all was the fact that her jacket from the 2013 Maritime Province Caravan was covered with blood. It's all about priorities.
It was a couple hours before I was able to reach Adam on his cell phone and update him on our situation. I convinced him that we were OK, that he should not interrupt his plans for the day, and that I would join him after I got Michelle back to the hotel.
The hospital released Michelle and we took a cab back to the hotel then I continued back to the campus to join up with family. We connected at the Visitor's Center and while standing there the ambulance arrived with siren going responding to another call. While one paramedic went into the building to answer the call, the other two recognized me and came over to inquire about Michelle. I brought them up to date and they wished us well. I thanked them again for their excellent service.
We spent the afternoon touring the campus, loading up on Navy logo stuff for the boys at the Mid store, and doing informal "meet and greets" with Adam's classmates as we encountered them. As evening approached, the boys were winding down and so was I, when we realized that the only key to the rental car was in Michelle's jacket pocket which was now at the hotel. Aw s@#$*!
Dan Bessman, Adam's academy roommate and best man at his wedding, was there with a car. So the two of them made the trip back to the hotel to retrieve the car key, while the rest of us had a snack supper at the pizza shop in Dahlgren Hall. That seemed to take forever but I'm sure it was our exhausted imagination. Amy, the boys, and I made the long trek across campus to our parked rental car. It seemed ages ago that I parked that car. We headed for the hotel while Adam joined up with some of his classmates for reunion and reminiscing. What a day.
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