Hidden Gem Near DC

50 minutes away from downtown Washington, DC lies a charming seaside town, nicknamed the “Sailing Capital of the World”.  Although often overlooked as a vacation destination, we discovered that Annapolis was the perfect weekend getaway, with tons of historical sights to see, gorgeous views, excellent seafood, cute stores and plenty of outdoor activities – all a short drive away from the city.

We started out from DC on a gloriously sunny Saturday morning and headed straight to Cantler’s crab shack for an early lunch. Cantler’s is famous for their fresh crab and we sat by the water enjoying our meal. Jie had a fried softshell crab sandwich which had the entire crab (surprisingly juicy) stuffed in a soft potato bun while Mei ordered the lump crab cakes that she had been looking forward to all week. The crab cake was the size of a baseball and was composed of nothing more than sweet, succulent lump crabmeat. It was the biggest and freshest crabcake Mei had eaten before.

 

After a satisfying meal, we headed to downtown Annapolis, where Jie landed a winning streetside parking spot across the bridge in Eastport near the RockFish grill restaurant. She learned of this location few days ago when she went on a sailing trip with her colleagues. With downtown Annapolis packed with cars, we agreed that finding this free parking spot was hidden gem #1.

We also thought of some cool names for boats, including: Raise the Roof and Egads. hehe!!

After stopping by the visitor’s office to pick up some information, we headed to the Naval academy where we conducted our own tour and visited the Jewish chapel, the magnificent dining hall and Bancroft hall, which houses the largest dorm in the world and the Memorial Hall, which reminded us of the palaces in Europe with its intricate marble designs and paintings. We still haven’t resolved why marines have to wear all white because it seems to be so much more expensive to do laundry. This was hidden gem #2

It was getting hot, so we stopped for some gigantic ice cream at the Annapolis Ice cream factory. Jie had the raspberry chocolate chip with big chunks of chocolate and Mei had the strawberry oreo flavored ice cream, which reminded her of a Mcflurry married to Haagen dazs strawberry ice cream. Heavenly!!

After walking around and exploring Main Street, including a pit stop at the Pink Crab (cute boutique) and the original Hobo store and having a laugh at a teapot shaped bag, we drove to the B&B Mei had found online called Meadows Garden B&B. We stayed in an adorable room called the French Country room (you can see why!) Definitely hidden gem #3.

There was also a pool on site and a creek down the road, so we spent some time attempting to paddle a paddleboard, but realized after paddling that we had been doing it backwards!

There was also a dog that liked to toss Mei his saliva-drenched ball. Mei was not amused, therefore no pictures were taken to remember this dog by.

Then we went back to Annapolis for our sunset sailing trip on the Woodwind, a schooner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schooner). It was a busy crowd - there was a bachelorette party going on (which was a bit obnoxious), a Mexican travel show being filmed with a garden gnome as the mascot that got carried around, and Mei also got to steer the boat! We were also provided with free beverages, snacks, cheese and crackers. Most of all, it was a beautiful view and we got to see the gorgeous sunset. Hidden gem #4.

After the cruise, we walked a few blocks down Main Street to have dinner at Piccolo Roma where we ordered crab ravioli and an amazing seafood fettuccine which had big chunks of scallops, shrimp and tons of crab meat mixed throughout a light, cream-based sauce.

We were too stuffed for dessert so headed home afterwards.

The next morning, we had breakfast in a beautiful patio streaming with sunlight. The owner of the B&B, Wendy Mays had taken our order the day before and made steaming hot breakfasts for us. I had the breakfast enchilada and Jie had the farm fresh frittata which was the best frittata we had eaten, with eggs from chickens right running around the garden.

After checking out of the inn, we went back to Annapolis, stopped by farmers market to get some peaches and then went into a spice and sugar market (hidden gem #2) and realized that you feel like you actually taste something just by the smell (i.e. inhaling the chile rubbed bbq and Jamaican jerk chicken spices actually made me feel like I was eating it). Also cool stuff like fruit infused sugars.

Our last stop was this place called the Clay Bakers where we got to paint our own pottery in a cute setting with awesome music. Jie made a sailboat plate and I made a crab plate. Hidden Gem #4!

The Gun Bun

The Jiemei adventures continue! And what kind of adventure would it be without a hiccup or a slight mishap to laugh about afterwards?

For Memorial weekend this year, we went to San Francisco and Sonoma (also known as the hometown of Ben Flajnik, our dreamy Nadal look-alike Bachelor who turned out to be a MAJOR disappointment. sigh).

The trip there was pretty brutal, with Jie catching a 6 am flight from Washington DC and getting into SFO at 9 am. Mei had a slightly less punishing schedule, with her flight leaving JFK at 7:30. Thankfully the weather cooperated, and we were reunited at the foodcourt in the SFO airport.

The first day was spent driving from SFO to Sonoma. On the way, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge! SF was simply gorgeous that day.

It took about 1.5 hours to drive to Sonoma and we passed by some beautiful wineries along the way as we entered wine country. The house we rented was a 3-bedroom cottage right next to a stretch of vineyards with a backdrop of lush, rolling hills. I fet like I was living in Tuscany! The apartment was furnished with cozy, Pottery Barn-like furniture. The only odd thing was the abundance of fake plants in the house (they looked nice, though!). Below is the living room:

At night, we had dinner at a Portugese restaurant called LaSalette, which was right in the heart of downtown Sonoma. Jie and I were excited, because we passed by the village theater, which looked like the place Ben took his first date on the last season of the Bachelor!

The next morning, Jie and I took 2 bikes out from the garage of our house and ventured to go on a bike trail that was part of our guide book. The biking trail was supposed to take us 2 hours and go through 4 or 5 different wineries. Unfortunately, we realized there were no brakes on the handles after we started out! We resorted to a make-shift brake system by skidding our shoes on the ground whenever we had to stop. Our poor shoes!

Check out the beautiful vineyards! We could see stretches of these go on and on.

After visiting Homewood winery and going through a complimentary tasting (we bought a pinot noir in the process!), we rode on to Gundlach Bundschu winery, also known as the "Gun Bun". It was breathtaking riding into a long stretch of white path with vineyards on both sides. There was even a little pond next to the tasting room where visitors could picnic and enjoy the grounds.

We decided to head back as it was getting late, but wanted to find a shorter trail back, so Jie asked around and found a different trail going back to downtown Sonoma. Unbeknownst to us, it was a hilly path that required serious braking.. but since we hadn't figured out how to brake with our antique bikes, we ended up walking most of the way with the bikes. Jie tried to ride down part of the hill but essentially flew down the slope and crashed into the bushes. She ended up with a bunch of scratches on her knee =( Thankfully a passerby saw us trying to clean her wound and stepped in to do it for us (we have absolutely no experience with first aid!!). Jie not so happy in this pic =(

At night, we had a barbeque in our backyard and sat around the fire pit chatting. It felt kind of like being in girl scout camp! My favorite was the huge shitake mushrooms:

We also loved the abundance of juicy and cheap fruits at the farmers markets!!

At Viansa winery for the memorial day bbq

Then we went next door to Jacuzzi winery which also had an olive oil tasting room. This is the same owners as the people who invented the jacuzzi!

Jacuzzi was definitely one of the prettiest wineries of them all

Our donkey neighbors, Morgan and Dakota.

On the last day, we drove back to SF and the girls slowly left one by one. Mei stayed on for an extra day to explore SF!