Touch of Class, a Marylander, was the first non-human female equestrian honored by the U.S. Olympic Committee as Athlete of the Year. In 1984, this Hall of Fame horse won two Gold Medals for the United States, clearing 90 of 91 jumps in show jumping Olympic competition.     Her achievement inspired a new award to honor horses and people who demonstrate the highest standards of excellence in Maryland’s horse industry.

Anne Arundel County has two Community Foundations. Both remind us that giving helps keep us strong.     The Community Foundation of Anne Arundel is big, visible and rich with caring people.     The Annapolis Community Foundation is, by comparison, small and relatively invisible. With a board of generous citizens, it gives small grants and start-up money to fund new enterprises within our capital city.

A friend of mine was fond of saying that cemeteries were pleasant places to walk. They’re also great places to reflect on local history and, especially this time of year, to feel the spirits of the past.     The cemeteries of St Anne’s Church and the old City Cemetery near the heart of Annapolis are a pair of open spaces wedged between busy Rowe Boulevard and West Street.

The skyline in Annapolis tells the facts of city life: the story of our 350-year history as a political center where great things happen, a religious center for the Church of England and the Catholic Church, the birthplace of our Navy, a center of education and an architectural gem.

Look around Annapolis these two weeks, and you’ll see how the maritime industry helps the visitor industry thrive.     Recreational sailing and power boating are newcomers to this old city. We were a working seaport from colonial times through World War II.     So well known were Eastport’s skilled wooden boat builders that in 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent the grand and famous schooner America here to be restored.

Annapolis is a city with a green ethic. We’ve been cultivating greenspaces for half a century with street-end parks, our Greenscape city beautification program, our commitment to cover half the city with a tree canopy and our cooperative program with Baltimore Gas and Electric to plant the right tree in the right place.

Annapolis is a walking town. It has always been so. In 1695, Gov. Francis Nicholson designed it so people could move from home to church to pubs to school to businesses in a two- to five-block walk.

It is evening in downtown Annapolis. The courtyard of the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre on Compromise Street is alive with people. Above their heads, in bold letters, the marquee spells out Chicago ...     Annapolis’ outdoor musical theater is in performance.

Annapolis has another fountain. You can’t miss it, for it dominates the plaza on West Street at Park Place as the great i am. Capping it is an unknown godlike male in the classic tradition and classically surrounded by horses. Water shimmers down it into a trough.

Downtown Annapolis is a time capsule. Follow me on this mile-and-a-half jaunt, and you’ll pass through 350 years.