U.S. Naval Academy

I haven't been on a Vantage House "field trip" for a bit.  We've had a change in staff and organizing these has not been high on the priority list.  This trip to Annapolis was well done, however.

It was a lovely day, blue sky, light wind, low humidity.  Perfect for taking a tour of one of the service academies.  The others are the Army's West Point in NY and the Air Force academy in Colorado Springs.  

The campus is huge and we saw only a bit of it.

Our tour guide (yellow shirt below) was a retired Navy doctor and has been doing these tours for 15 years.  He was very knowledgeable.

The Academy mascot is a goat!

Heads of departments get some pretty fancy mansions to live in.  This is actually a duplex but each side is huge.

We didn't go in many buildings but the doors on this one were interesting as

was the light with the ship on top.

The top of the Navy Chapel peeks through the tree tops.

One of two buildings we entered was Dahlgren Hall.

One of the Wright Brothers' planes hangs in there.  The guide said it could still fly.

Two Japanese torpedoes are on display.  Here's one of them.

The nation's largest dormitory here at the Academy houses all the cadets and their huge dining room. Here's one corner.

Cadets assemble here before each noon meal time.  None until later this summer as all are off on assignments and training for the summer.

The architect modeled this building on French architecture.

Tecumseh statute.  Cadets flip a coin up to the arrow case before exams for good luck.

The chapel

And inside the chapel

This candle is lit at every service to honor the missing in action from the Viet Nam War.

We saw very few midshipmen when we were there.  The class is 1/3 women but I think they're all called midshipmen.

Here's the gate where we met our bus after lunching on campus.

I had toured the Academy before but with 4th graders in tow.  It was nice to go on an adult tour and learn other tidbits about the place.