I'm open to any questions about how to do gameday, see the Yard, or optimize downtown Annapolis.

Two big tips:
Stadium parking is sold out. Unless you've got a season ticket holder's parking pass, you have to plan for offsite.
Clear bag policy is in effect this year.

lol. They don’t even travel to Raymond James.

I'll be heading there tomorrow. Visiting in laws in DC (staying one night) then heading to the game. I probably wont get to do much tailgating unfortunately.

We are staying in Annapolis until Monday. So would be down for some suggestions for restaurants and things to do Sunday.

Annapolis had been on my bucket list, so I am pretty excited about this weekend.

(10-16-2019 07:46 PM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  I'm open to any questions about how to do gameday, see the Yard, or optimize downtown Annapolis.

Two big tips:
Stadium parking is sold out. Unless you've got a season ticket holder's parking pass, you have to plan for offsite.
Clear bag policy is in effect this year.

Slightly unrelated, but my wife and I visited Annapolis for the first time last weekend. Thanks for all the tips from ECU game week. It’s truly an awesome place.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(10-17-2019 01:13 AM)Ocalabull Wrote:  I'll be heading there tomorrow. Visiting in laws in DC (staying one night) then heading to the game. I probably wont get to do much tailgating unfortunately.

We are staying in Annapolis until Monday. So would be down for some suggestions for restaurants and things to do Sunday.

Annapolis had been on my bucket list, so I am pretty excited about this weekend.

Okay, for gameday, coming from DC area without much tailgating, your timeline goal should be to be in your seats for the march-on, anthem, flyover, etc, so twenty minutes before kickoff. As long as your group are all mobile, I recommend planning to park at the church on Rowe Blvd / Farragut and walk. This is the first chance to park at all after the traffic lineup coming off of 50 and is pretty easy-in-easy-out. I'd say put St Paul's Lutheran into your maps/nav of choice, and that should avoid Waze or whatever trying to take you back into neighborhoods to get to "Stadium" - ultimately non-productive.
In the stadium, make sure to walk around -it truly is a memorial, so there are plaques, arches, etc, especially up in the North End Zone (the end with the water tower, section 25/125 end on the visitors' side). Note you can leave at halftime and return as long as you get your ticket scanned on the way out - so if you do have some tailgating opportunities you can get an extra 15-20 minutes in.

For Sunday, you obviously want to hit both the Academy and downtown - you can do both in a full day.
On the Yard
I will say, being Sunday, if you're churchgoers, start with a service at the Academy Chapel - it's on the general tourist list so you can multi-task. Immediately after services, they do a "seated tour" in the nave, talking through the history, the stained glass, the organ, etc. Also go down to the basement for John Paul Jones' crypt.
I got ahead of myself on the walking tour, though...
Enter USNA through the pedestrian entrance at Gate 1 - two blocks from the City Dock downtown. Metal Detector and photo i.d. When you come through the entranceway, the visitors' center in Halsey Fieldhouse is down the sidewalk to your right. Some informational displays and gift shop. From the visitors' center you can go up the seawall a little way if the weather supports, and you can probably see Ricketts Hall and the football equipment truck, but what may one day be worth visiting , the "Physical Mission Center" is still under construction. Everything else is back the other way. Back to where you first came through security, look up and to your left and you can visually guide on the Chapel dome. From the Chapel, you can see the central walkway, Stribling Walk. Some monuments there, but at the East end of Stribling is Tecumseh Court (Tecumseh should still be painted up) and Bancroft Hall, the dorm that houses all 4,400 Midshipmen. See the central rotunda, Memorial Hall upstairs, and the sample midshipmen room. A little farther walk is the cemetery, in the news recently with Senator McCain, but an interesting walk around.

Downtown Annapolis
You can easily see the City Dock / Main Street area AND USNA all in one day.
Breakfast: best bets are Chick and Ruth's Delly on Main Street and Iron Rooster by the Market Square. Both are likely to be crowded. I think Buddy's Crabs and Ribs still does a brunch buffet - more gourmand than gourmet but views of the dock and the bay.
Lots of choices for lunch or drinks or dinner. McGarvey's is the quintessential Annapolis pub, and Middleton's is historic itself. Pussers is right on the docks with inside and outside seating. And just walk up Main Street for shops or snacks or people watching. Across the creek in Eastport, Carrol's Creek Cafe is my favorite - great food and if it's warm enough a deck looking back at downtown. Water Taxi will take you from City Dock to Carrol's Creek's marina. Also in Eastport, Boatyard and Davis' are "sailing" pubs.
Other tourist interest within a block or two of City Docks - the Maryland State House, Paca House and Gardens, the Peggy Stewart House.

(10-17-2019 11:17 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(10-17-2019 01:13 AM)Ocalabull Wrote:  I'll be heading there tomorrow. Visiting in laws in DC (staying one night) then heading to the game. I probably wont get to do much tailgating unfortunately.

We are staying in Annapolis until Monday. So would be down for some suggestions for restaurants and things to do Sunday.

Annapolis had been on my bucket list, so I am pretty excited about this weekend.

Okay, for gameday, coming from DC area without much tailgating, your timeline goal should be to be in your seats for the march-on, anthem, flyover, etc, so twenty minutes before kickoff. As long as your group are all mobile, I recommend planning to park at the church on Rowe Blvd / Farragut and walk. This is the first chance to park at all after the traffic lineup coming off of 50 and is pretty easy-in-easy-out. I'd say put St Paul's Lutheran into your maps/nav of choice, and that should avoid Waze or whatever trying to take you back into neighborhoods to get to "Stadium" - ultimately non-productive.
In the stadium, make sure to walk around -it truly is a memorial, so there are plaques, arches, etc, especially up in the North End Zone (the end with the water tower, section 25/125 end on the visitors' side). Note you can leave at halftime and return as long as you get your ticket scanned on the way out - so if you do have some tailgating opportunities you can get an extra 15-20 minutes in.

For Sunday, you obviously want to hit both the Academy and downtown - you can do both in a full day.
On the Yard
I will say, being Sunday, if you're churchgoers, start with a service at the Academy Chapel - it's on the general tourist list so you can multi-task. Immediately after services, they do a "seated tour" in the nave, talking through the history, the stained glass, the organ, etc. Also go down to the basement for John Paul Jones' crypt.
I got ahead of myself on the walking tour, though...
Enter USNA through the pedestrian entrance at Gate 1 - two blocks from the City Dock downtown. Metal Detector and photo i.d. When you come through the entranceway, the visitors' center in Halsey Fieldhouse is down the sidewalk to your right. Some informational displays and gift shop. From the visitors' center you can go up the seawall a little way if the weather supports, and you can probably see Ricketts Hall and the football equipment truck, but what may one day be worth visiting , the "Physical Mission Center" is still under construction. Everything else is back the other way. Back to where you first came through security, look up and to your left and you can visually guide on the Chapel dome. From the Chapel, you can see the central walkway, Stribling Walk. Some monuments there, but at the East end of Stribling is Tecumseh Court (Tecumseh should still be painted up) and Bancroft Hall, the dorm that houses all 4,400 Midshipmen. See the central rotunda, Memorial Hall upstairs, and the sample midshipmen room. A little farther walk is the cemetery, in the news recently with Senator McCain, but an interesting walk around.

Downtown Annapolis
You can easily see the City Dock / Main Street area AND USNA all in one day.
Breakfast: best bets are Chick and Ruth's Delly on Main Street and Iron Rooster by the Market Square. Both are likely to be crowded. I think Buddy's Crabs and Ribs still does a brunch buffet - more gourmand than gourmet but views of the dock and the bay.
Lots of choices for lunch or drinks or dinner. McGarvey's is the quintessential Annapolis pub, and Middleton's is historic itself. Pussers is right on the docks with inside and outside seating. And just walk up Main Street for shops or snacks or people watching. Across the creek in Eastport, Carrol's Creek Cafe is my favorite - great food and if it's warm enough a deck looking back at downtown. Water Taxi will take you from City Dock to Carrol's Creek's marina. Also in Eastport, Boatyard and Davis' are "sailing" pubs.
Other tourist interest within a block or two of City Docks - the Maryland State House, Paca House and Gardens, the Peggy Stewart House.

Although I won't be going this year, I want to figure out a way of identifying this for 4 years from now the next time USF comes to Annapolis. Thank you very much!

USFFan

When I went to a game at Annapolis, we went to dinner at Chick and Ruth’s after the game. I highly recommend it.

The Navy t-shirt fans are fun to screw with.

(10-17-2019 01:23 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  The Navy t-shirt fans are fun to screw with.

The VAST majority of people in the tailgating lots, and even in the stands, aren't really bigtime Navy football fans, they're Navy Gameday fans. And that's fine. We sold them on Navy Gameday. We sold them on tailgates and flyovers and kids sledding down the hill on cardboard. It keeps us in the top half of this conference in attendance, when we have the second-smallest student/grad population.

But it doesn't make for an intimidating home environment.
And you might find "fans" who don't necessarily understand the offense. Or our conference. Or plenty of things. Add into the mix that the actual football fans and grads suffered loooooong periods of sucking so the negativity is never far from the surface.

(10-17-2019 01:44 PM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(10-17-2019 01:23 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  The Navy t-shirt fans are fun to screw with.

The VAST majority of people in the tailgating lots, and even in the stands, aren't really bigtime Navy football fans, they're Navy Gameday fans. And that's fine. We sold them on Navy Gameday. We sold them on tailgates and flyovers and kids sledding down the hill on cardboard. It keeps us in the top half of this conference in attendance, when we have the second-smallest student/grad population.

But it doesn't make for an intimidating home environment.
And you might find "fans" who don't necessarily understand the offense. Or our conference. Or plenty of things. Add into the mix that the actual football fans and grads suffered loooooong periods of sucking so the negativity is never far from the surface.

I like the fans that stand on the balcony by the visitor's section and just yell you suck over and over again. I even went and bought a water for one guy and told him to drink it as he would go hoarse after 4 hours of doing that.

(10-17-2019 01:46 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  

(10-17-2019 01:44 PM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(10-17-2019 01:23 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  The Navy t-shirt fans are fun to screw with.

The VAST majority of people in the tailgating lots, and even in the stands, aren't really bigtime Navy football fans, they're Navy Gameday fans. And that's fine. We sold them on Navy Gameday. We sold them on tailgates and flyovers and kids sledding down the hill on cardboard. It keeps us in the top half of this conference in attendance, when we have the second-smallest student/grad population.

But it doesn't make for an intimidating home environment.
And you might find "fans" who don't necessarily understand the offense. Or our conference. Or plenty of things. Add into the mix that the actual football fans and grads suffered loooooong periods of sucking so the negativity is never far from the surface.

I like the fans that stand on the balcony by the visitor's section and just yell you suck over and over again. I even went and bought a water for one guy and told him to drink it as he would go hoarse after 4 hours of doing that.

South endzone? Section 32/132 area? So by the "Captain's BBQ" tent? Never knew that myself-can't hear 'em from section 2...most of the time the visitors' band is right there...doesn't seem like trying to out-shout a band is the recipe for success.
I do know the people in the first suite on that corner.

(10-17-2019 11:17 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(10-17-2019 01:13 AM)Ocalabull Wrote:  I'll be heading there tomorrow. Visiting in laws in DC (staying one night) then heading to the game. I probably wont get to do much tailgating unfortunately.

We are staying in Annapolis until Monday. So would be down for some suggestions for restaurants and things to do Sunday.

Annapolis had been on my bucket list, so I am pretty excited about this weekend.

Okay, for gameday, coming from DC area without much tailgating, your timeline goal should be to be in your seats for the march-on, anthem, flyover, etc, so twenty minutes before kickoff. As long as your group are all mobile, I recommend planning to park at the church on Rowe Blvd / Farragut and walk. This is the first chance to park at all after the traffic lineup coming off of 50 and is pretty easy-in-easy-out. I'd say put St Paul's Lutheran into your maps/nav of choice, and that should avoid Waze or whatever trying to take you back into neighborhoods to get to "Stadium" - ultimately non-productive.
In the stadium, make sure to walk around -it truly is a memorial, so there are plaques, arches, etc, especially up in the North End Zone (the end with the water tower, section 25/125 end on the visitors' side). Note you can leave at halftime and return as long as you get your ticket scanned on the way out - so if you do have some tailgating opportunities you can get an extra 15-20 minutes in.

For Sunday, you obviously want to hit both the Academy and downtown - you can do both in a full day.
On the Yard
I will say, being Sunday, if you're churchgoers, start with a service at the Academy Chapel - it's on the general tourist list so you can multi-task. Immediately after services, they do a "seated tour" in the nave, talking through the history, the stained glass, the organ, etc. Also go down to the basement for John Paul Jones' crypt.
I got ahead of myself on the walking tour, though...
Enter USNA through the pedestrian entrance at Gate 1 - two blocks from the City Dock downtown. Metal Detector and photo i.d. When you come through the entranceway, the visitors' center in Halsey Fieldhouse is down the sidewalk to your right. Some informational displays and gift shop. From the visitors' center you can go up the seawall a little way if the weather supports, and you can probably see Ricketts Hall and the football equipment truck, but what may one day be worth visiting , the "Physical Mission Center" is still under construction. Everything else is back the other way. Back to where you first came through security, look up and to your left and you can visually guide on the Chapel dome. From the Chapel, you can see the central walkway, Stribling Walk. Some monuments there, but at the East end of Stribling is Tecumseh Court (Tecumseh should still be painted up) and Bancroft Hall, the dorm that houses all 4,400 Midshipmen. See the central rotunda, Memorial Hall upstairs, and the sample midshipmen room. A little farther walk is the cemetery, in the news recently with Senator McCain, but an interesting walk around.

Downtown Annapolis
You can easily see the City Dock / Main Street area AND USNA all in one day.
Breakfast: best bets are Chick and Ruth's Delly on Main Street and Iron Rooster by the Market Square. Both are likely to be crowded. I think Buddy's Crabs and Ribs still does a brunch buffet - more gourmand than gourmet but views of the dock and the bay.
Lots of choices for lunch or drinks or dinner. McGarvey's is the quintessential Annapolis pub, and Middleton's is historic itself. Pussers is right on the docks with inside and outside seating. And just walk up Main Street for shops or snacks or people watching. Across the creek in Eastport, Carrol's Creek Cafe is my favorite - great food and if it's warm enough a deck looking back at downtown. Water Taxi will take you from City Dock to Carrol's Creek's marina. Also in Eastport, Boatyard and Davis' are "sailing" pubs.
Other tourist interest within a block or two of City Docks - the Maryland State House, Paca House and Gardens, the Peggy Stewart House.

Damn! Thank you for all of this!

(10-17-2019 04:05 PM)Ocalabull Wrote:  

(10-17-2019 11:17 AM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(10-17-2019 01:13 AM)Ocalabull Wrote:  I'll be heading there tomorrow. Visiting in laws in DC (staying one night) then heading to the game. I probably wont get to do much tailgating unfortunately.

We are staying in Annapolis until Monday. So would be down for some suggestions for restaurants and things to do Sunday.

Annapolis had been on my bucket list, so I am pretty excited about this weekend.

Okay, for gameday, coming from DC area without much tailgating, your timeline goal should be to be in your seats for the march-on, anthem, flyover, etc, so twenty minutes before kickoff. As long as your group are all mobile, I recommend planning to park at the church on Rowe Blvd / Farragut and walk. This is the first chance to park at all after the traffic lineup coming off of 50 and is pretty easy-in-easy-out. I'd say put St Paul's Lutheran into your maps/nav of choice, and that should avoid Waze or whatever trying to take you back into neighborhoods to get to "Stadium" - ultimately non-productive.
In the stadium, make sure to walk around -it truly is a memorial, so there are plaques, arches, etc, especially up in the North End Zone (the end with the water tower, section 25/125 end on the visitors' side). Note you can leave at halftime and return as long as you get your ticket scanned on the way out - so if you do have some tailgating opportunities you can get an extra 15-20 minutes in.

For Sunday, you obviously want to hit both the Academy and downtown - you can do both in a full day.
On the Yard
I will say, being Sunday, if you're churchgoers, start with a service at the Academy Chapel - it's on the general tourist list so you can multi-task. Immediately after services, they do a "seated tour" in the nave, talking through the history, the stained glass, the organ, etc. Also go down to the basement for John Paul Jones' crypt.
I got ahead of myself on the walking tour, though...
Enter USNA through the pedestrian entrance at Gate 1 - two blocks from the City Dock downtown. Metal Detector and photo i.d. When you come through the entranceway, the visitors' center in Halsey Fieldhouse is down the sidewalk to your right. Some informational displays and gift shop. From the visitors' center you can go up the seawall a little way if the weather supports, and you can probably see Ricketts Hall and the football equipment truck, but what may one day be worth visiting , the "Physical Mission Center" is still under construction. Everything else is back the other way. Back to where you first came through security, look up and to your left and you can visually guide on the Chapel dome. From the Chapel, you can see the central walkway, Stribling Walk. Some monuments there, but at the East end of Stribling is Tecumseh Court (Tecumseh should still be painted up) and Bancroft Hall, the dorm that houses all 4,400 Midshipmen. See the central rotunda, Memorial Hall upstairs, and the sample midshipmen room. A little farther walk is the cemetery, in the news recently with Senator McCain, but an interesting walk around.

Downtown Annapolis
You can easily see the City Dock / Main Street area AND USNA all in one day.
Breakfast: best bets are Chick and Ruth's Delly on Main Street and Iron Rooster by the Market Square. Both are likely to be crowded. I think Buddy's Crabs and Ribs still does a brunch buffet - more gourmand than gourmet but views of the dock and the bay.
Lots of choices for lunch or drinks or dinner. McGarvey's is the quintessential Annapolis pub, and Middleton's is historic itself. Pussers is right on the docks with inside and outside seating. And just walk up Main Street for shops or snacks or people watching. Across the creek in Eastport, Carrol's Creek Cafe is my favorite - great food and if it's warm enough a deck looking back at downtown. Water Taxi will take you from City Dock to Carrol's Creek's marina. Also in Eastport, Boatyard and Davis' are "sailing" pubs.
Other tourist interest within a block or two of City Docks - the Maryland State House, Paca House and Gardens, the Peggy Stewart House.

Damn! Thank you for all of this!

Weather isnt doing you any favors.
Hot crab dip at Federal House, cream of crab soup at Carrol's Creek might help.