From tavlsv@radiks.net Thu Aug 30 13:30:35 2007 Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:55:09 -0400 From: Theresa A. Valentine To: Larry and Theresa Valentine Subject: Valentine Travel Update (re-sent) "Do you know where we are?" That was the question to Larry about 10:30 one Saturday night. No, not from me; I'm fanatical about knowing where we are and if I was the least bit uncertain you can be sure that I would have posed the question long before 10:30 p.m.! We were anchored in a nice open spot (to catch the breeze) on the Wye East River and sitting out on the sundeck enjoying the quiet and the stars when a runabout cruised up to us and the man, apparently lost, asked the question. As Larry tried to explain where they were the woman piped up with "yes, Wye Landing, that's where our boat trailer is!" Larry provided a few directions and they went on up the river. I guess people are the same everywhere, we all saw this type of thing happen in our years boating on the Mississippi. A warm (okay, very warm) summertime hello to everyone. Actually, for the most part, summer weather on the Bay has been very kind to us. It has been hot at times but then fronts have came through and cooled things down. When it is nice we anchor out; we have been fortunate to get in quite a few pretty anchorages along with a selection of marinas where there is electricity and air conditioning. Now that it is August it appears that there may be no more reprieve from the heat but we had planned for that and so next week we are going over to Baltimore to do some sightseeing. Then we will leave the boat there for a couple of weeks while we fly to Boise for a visit and then stop back in St. Louis for the medical updates In July we had a good time visiting with Omaha neighbors Jake & Hannah Meade (and their parents Troy & Julie). Jake & Hannah took their first airplane ride on a trip to Washington D.C. and made time to spend a couple of days with us between sightseeing and visiting Six Flags. We did the boat ride thing and enjoyed catching fish and playing at the marina pool. The big disappointment was that we were unable to swim off the boat due to the nettles which are jellyfish like creatures that move up the Bay each summer and sting swimmers. The Chesapeake Bay is awesome! Nearly 200 miles long and 23 miles wide at its mouth, it is the largest inland tidal body of water on the Atlantic coast. Forty-eight fresh-water rivers flow into the Bay and mix with the sea water making it one of the world's largest estuaries. An estuary is a body of water that has both tidal flow from the ocean and a constant influx of fresh water from rivers. The resulting brackish water produces a rich and complex natural environment that supports a great diversity of plant and animal life (and grows really good oysters & crabs). You might also be interested in knowing that the Chesapeake Bay has 12,000 miles of tidal shoreline and drains a watershed of 64,000 square miles reaching into six states. In addition to all of the natural attributes the Bay has enough history to keep the average person interested for a lifetime. It was 400 years ago this spring that Capt. John Smith sailed into the Bay and founded Jamestown; there had been other explorers prior to Smith but they were not able to sustain their settlements. The Revolutionary War was fought on its shores and rivers, as were the wars of 1812 and the War of Northern Aggression (as they say in Virginia). The Bay area is truly the cradle of our Nation; as well as the seat of our government. Oh, did I mention that it is beautiful and those 12,000 miles of shoreline are generally populated with hardwood trees or marsh grasses and provide more quiet anchorages than we could explore in our lifetime, much less one summer. Now if it just didn't have winter it would be perfect! One unique stop was Tangier Island. Tangier & its sister Smith Island were settled in the mid 1600's. During the Revolutionary War most of the residents of Tangier were British sympathizers; during the War of 1812 12,000 British troops were quartered on Tangier and legend tells that the island was stripped of its native trees in order to repair British naval vessels. We had always heard that on Tangier they spoke English with a British accent that was difficult to understand. Not any more! Their English is just perfect. Tangier is small, only 1.5 miles wide at its widest part and 3.5 miles long and for many years their were no cars on the island, there are now. It is home to watermen and most residents earn their living from the rich waters of the bay. The women meet the tour boats and rent golf carts to or serve as guides for the tourists. They also run the restaurants for the tourists to eat in and B&Bs for the summer tourists and the fall waterfowl hunters. Due to the relative isolation (only way on/off the island is by boat) and it's nature as a working class island Tangier does not attract many newcomers. The families of most of the residents have lived here for generations. We found it interesting that families bury their dead in small plots, often in the front yard of their homes. It would be unfair to leave you with the impression that this is a "backward" sort of place. In fact they enjoy cable TV & cell phones, although some would question whether these demonstrate real progress. Residents are quite proud of their school system (K-12) from which a very high percentage of graduates attend college; I am unsure how many of those college grads make Tangier their home after they complete their education. We stopped in Cambridge, MD and old sailing friends came and whisked us away for a few days of exploring around Ocean City, MD. We visited Assateague National Seashore where you can actually get a permit to drive on the Atlantic side beach. The beach was beautiful but the real fun for Larry was raking for clams. This was a completely new experience for us but Ed & Karen are experienced "clammers" from many years of vacations at the shore; with a little instruction Larry was up to speed in no time. When Ed was ready to call it a day Larry was still saying, "I'm just gonna' try to get a few more". We also explored the Boardwalk at Ocean City and had lunch at Seacrets. I'm guessing that name may stem from a rather popular expression "What happens in (fill in the blank), stays in ..." As I said we were there for lunch, at night they have as many as three bands playing on different stages, a DJ to warm up the crowd and big screen TVs for patrons who can't see the stage from their seats. They also have stage lights and sand covered dancing areas. It's likely a place that holds more than a few 'secrets'. The exceptional thing about Seacrets is that every spring they truck in hundreds (no exaggeration) of palm trees and plant them right on their beach, the trees and other tropical plants create an ambiance that reminds you of the tropics, as do the "jerked" specialties on their menu. They also have a bar seating area that is in the water and if you would rather lounge and soak up the sun while you drink they have anchored large floats for you to relax on. The waitresses in that area wear bikinis and slosh through thigh water to serve your drinks, the guys wanted to sit in that section! All in all it was a "do not miss" kind of experience that everyone should do once (sort of like Graceland)! If Seacrets doesn't sound cultured enough you might be interested in our visit to the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, home of the world's largest collection of decorative bird carvings. Brothers Lem & Steve Ward were barbers and self taught carvers. Initially they carved & painted decoys to hunt over. As time passed they perfected their craft and created the most spectacular decorative carvings. Admiration for their work gave rise to a competition that attracts carvers from all over the world. The judging is held each year in Ocean City and the winners in the various classes are exhibited at the museum along with the permanent collection. If you are ever on the Eastern Shore make time for a visit here, then drop on by Secrets for lunch. No trip to the Eastern Shore is complete without a stop in touristy St. Michaels. This time we went into St. Michaels from the "back door", San Domingo Creek off of Broad Creek on the Choptank River (rather than off the Miles River). San Domingo Creek has a lot of beautiful homes; their latest celebrity resident is Dick Cheney. It was fun speculating on what property might be his! In most of the residential areas we have seen on the Bay the homes are on a small acreage rather than lined up on coastal lots like you see in Florida. Thus we can be anchored in a creek or river and there may be homes nearby but they are often blocked from view by trees or sometimes there are gardens & lawns that run to the water, all in all a very pretty shoreline. We anchored in San Domingo Creek and took the dinghy to a small dock about a block off of Talbot Street and walked to town. Blessed by its relative closeness to Washington, Annapolis & Baltimore St Michaels is the "go to" weekend destination for boaters from those areas as well as non-boaters. The town, not surprisingly, has developed quite a little tourist industry and there are a lot of cute shops, quite a few B&B's and at least 4 ice cream shops. I read in a tourist brochure about an establishment that billed itself as "the largest wetland plant nursery in the country" and called about a tour. Apparently the average tourist does not call them because they seemed surprised, but they assigned a staff member to show us around. The process was quite interesting, they do it all from seed collection, through shipping the little plants. The firm also designs & installs plantings at the edge of the creek, offering an environmentally friendly way of preventing erosion along the shoreline. Historic Chestertown, founded in 1706, was a favorite stop for us. C'town was once a Royal Port of Entry and because of it's location on the route that travelers took from New York & Philadelphia to Washington D.C. and Virginia men like Washington, Jefferson, were frequent visitors to the inns and wharves of Chestertown. The architecture of the period has been very well preserved and the historic walking tour has 23 structures that were constructed prior to 1900. The oldest building on the tour is the White Swan Tavern that is said to have provided refreshment for General Washington. It was built in 1733 as a residence; in the 1790s the structure was enlarged into a tavern and remained active until the 1850s when it became a general store. In 1981 the Tavern was restored to its 1795 appearance and reopened as a Bed & Breakfast (I hope they updated the plumbing!). Chestertown is also the home of Washington College. Chartered in 1782, just 7 months and 5 days after Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, it is the first college chartered in the nation after our Declaration of Independence. I first read that it was the first college chartered in our nation; true, but not the whole story. There were other schools established between 1770 and 1781, however they were not chartered by our nation until some time after the Revolutionary War. These schools are apparently sometimes referred to as the "Colonial Nine". Washington College is the 10th oldest college in the Country; General Washington was apparently quite honored to have the school take his name and he donated 50 guineas to help establish the school. This was the largest gift that the school received upon its founding. We walked up to the town square for the weekly Farmer's Market, while we were there we stopped to chat with the Kent County Master Gardeners. Every time I visit with MGs from around the country I am reminded how lucky I was to have such great education and support as a MG in Douglas County. The market was a great success, we got great tomatoes and came home and ate 2 of them with our breakfast omelets. After inventorying the remaining produce we made another trip to get still more tomatoes! I should tell you that I had originally "sent" this out about 3 weeks ago, unfortunately I found out today that many folks (or perhaps all of you) had not received it so I am sending it again. We have been away from the boat for the last couple of weeks and will be going back on Sept 1st. Hope you all have a terrific Labor Day Holiday. Until later, Theresa & Larry