Maryland for a Close to My Heart weekend.

Annapolis MD
March 18-20
Stopping at Hershey's Chocolate World

Annapolis MD

 Close to My Heart was having its seasonal expression launch this weekend in Annapolis MD. Several of us packed up and headed south for this weekend of information on Scrapping, time to scrap and most of all fun with friends. I drove this weekend and had Ryan and Phyllis with me. They made the nearly 6 hour drive seem like a walk in the park. We enjoyed the drive as the company kept great conversation. The side stop to Hershey's chocolate world was a nice break in the drive.

 Will you look at all that CHOCOLATE!!!

 YUM!!!

 We took the FREE chocolate tour. These self moving carts take us through the chocolate world step by step while telling the story of Hershey himself. COWS are the big thing that set Hershey apart in his chocolate manufacturing. Milk Chocolate that is.

 Making millions of KISSES.

 This is my poor attempt at a selfie on the chocolate tour ride with Ryan. Phyllis is behind us...I totally cut her out. I am a big fail with those selfies...

This side trip may have caused us a little back up during rush hour. As I expressed my dissatisfaction with WHY do these cars suddenly need to break and stop and go and stop and go and stop. Ryan explained simply "Physics". I yelled about PHYSICS for over an hour before we finally got to our destination. YEAH!!! were here. 

Linda our upline upline had reserved a room for scrapping over the weekend. We enjoyed a little time for scrapping, settling into our room and getting acquainted with the layout of the land before we all headed out for dinner at Fudruckers. 

Of course I had a burger and fries. What would you have expected?

Lynne, Chris, (two women I cant remember their names) Linda and Ryan. (Phyllis is out of the shot sorry Phyllis). I think these ladies would kill me if they knew I had this in the post so I made it small...LOL After dinner we had a few cocktails and soaked in the hot tub.

The following day was the Spring LAUNCH.  Ryan and I had breakfast in the hotel before the 9am doors to open. This is some of the GREAT new stuff!!!

Florence.....

Magical...

AND MY ABSOLUTE Favorite With Flamingos...Calyapso.

Come visit my website if you are drooling for your own stash. These papers come out May 1st.
wendyb.ctmh.com

Phyllis poses with our Canadian presenter. He spoke french. I searched for a sticky boy with NO luck...bummer

Getting Ready,....

Shelia and Sandy came in late last evening, but they made it for the presentation.

Look at these fun little accessories,

This women had a friend present this to her, It is of her deceased daughter. What a wonderful way of remembrance.

Then it was time to get the PARTY started. The theme Baby Your Worth it!!!!

Look there is Sandy the whole reason I am in this little club....and some photo bombers.

Let the unavailing begin....

All TOP SECRET til May 1st!!!!

After the presentation some of us decided to take trip to the city. I was so not prepared for the weather. It was rainy and wet and cold and YUCK! Kindof like this guy.

We made it to a little pub in the center of downtown called Ram Head. A beer to warm us up.

We had some yummy Cherry Blossom special brewed beer. It was good! Cheers

This nice gentleman was here for the Annapolis weekend and agreed to get  a picture with all of us, Interestingly enough he is from Oswego NY. What fun. We were here for a special weekend. The weather was still AWFUL.

I didn't get a whole meal as I ate in my room. (I had fries just because I could) Ryan had this awesome yummy dish of Chicken and Waffles, 

Chris offered to pose her crab cakes...

The girls offered to share their sampler (only $5-) Some were pretty good others,,,NO! I'm not a big fan of the dark brews.

Annapolis was so stinkin cute. It has all this old style charm. Fun Fact: Annapolis was named as such to Honor Princess Ann who later became Queen of England in 1702.

After our mid day meal we were informed that there is paid parking on the streets...Opps!!! WE didn't pay. We all ran to the car, but too late. The metermaid was ticketing us just as we ran up. WE tried to get out of it. Man O Man! We decided to find the FREE parking and walk are way around the area. It was so cold and so wet. I was totally not in the mood to walk...but I so wanted to see the city and the bay.  We started off our walking tour at St, Johns College. I so loved the buildings and the brick stone roads. Although they do not make for good walking if you are not paying attention to your steps.

We were blessed with some Blooms.

Are these cherry tree? or Magnolia? My guess is Magnolia.

Chris poses.

At State circle we find the Maryland State House. There was actually congress going on when we visited. Even on a Saturday,

Im not sure who this man was, Or what he represented.

But Chris sure liked (licked) him.

I believe this is the Government House. I have to admit I was so focused on being cold and wet, I didn't take much time to review the wet and crumbled travel brochure to check.

Coffee sounded great...BUT I am one of the few who is NOT a Starbucks fan.

Getting a glimpse of the State House from Main Street. You can pretty much see this dome from all areas as this is the center of town.

I thought this guy was pretty cool. A little shopping in search of an umbrella (I have several already and a great big one in my car, I rode with Lynne dummy.)

Instead I found a winter coat. Its pink and warm fleece inside with a hood to keep out the rain and it made me so HAPPY...and it was ON SUPPER DUPPER SALE. only $25- I tried to find a matching ones (not in pink) for Mark and Gavin but the guys sizes were all x-small.

All warm and dry..except for my feet. (I seriously only brought flip flops and my black fur filled moccasins.) They did not keep my feet dry at all.
We made it all the way down main street and toward Annapolis Harbor in search of some great water views....BUT there was work being done at the Market Place and the whole area was boarded up with fencing all around it. We couldn't see the water even if we jumped. Plus it was so foggy and overcast...chances there was not going to be many boats out there.

The use of Slaves in the Military. This little house held some interesting facts about the original colonists.
We headed back towards the car and simply enjoyed the quaint narrow streets and the charm of these lovely old buildings.

Isn't this beautiful?

This garden area was so over grown but I bet in the SUMMER is is absolutely Amazing.

The ladies needed to get their own cheery blossom beer so we headed to another location (a second Ram Head Tavern) where they all got some.

Once back at the hotel we scrapped and had some fun.

Yeah what a great weekend.