Annapolis

While Jon and Margaret took a walking tour of the Naval Academy and the Maryland State House, Terry and Judi set off in quest of much needed haircuts. They were fortunate to stumble upon the House of Ebbitt where award-winning stylists Isabel and Thom Ebbitt graciously kept their salon open after normal hours to provide an excellent haircut experience. We were greeted by the Ebbitts' two elderly golden retrievers and were introduced to departing customer, Maryland State Senator Astle. Prior to his election to the Senate, he retired from the Marine Corps as a Colonel following a highly distinguished career. Perched in the 100+year old barber chair, Judi noticed a picture of the Ebbitts with actor Michael Caine. When asked if he is a customer, Thom replied, "Better than that; we were instrumental in having him Knighted by Queen Elizabeth!" Seems a fund-raiser was being held to raise money to build a climate controlled space for the Magna Carta. Michael Caine was asked to host the event. His fee: Knighthood. Thom and Isabel helped make it happen.



Margaret said the highlight of their tour was the chapel at the Naval Academy. While it was interesting that the crypt of John Paul Jones is under the chapel, the most impressive and inspirational sight was a certain pew in the chapel which is ALWAYS kept empty in honor of our nation's POW's and MIA's.



Another highlight of our stop in Annapolis: Judi's sister Denise came for a visit! She lives near by and drove over to spend the night on the boat with us. We spent hours laughing, reminiscing and looking at vintage photos.

Rain Interlude in St. Michaels

Clouds and misty rain have not kept us from touring another lovely town. St. Michaels is more commercial than Oxford, as Talbot St. is home to numerous restaurants/cafes, antique shops, clothing and gift shops, and art galleries. Most old-town homes date to the Victorian mid-19th Century, but others near the Maritime Museum are much older. The Dr Dobson House, brick with white trim, was built in 2 stages, years apart.

Terry ran into a golfing friend from Jacksonville's Pablo Creek Golf Club, Howard, while browsing the Talbot St. shops, proving once again that this is a small world.

The flowers have been spectacular since Oriental NC: first azaleas and some irises, adding roses and more roses, now peonies in bloom and hydrangeas just about to burst into full flower. It’s been a beautiful spring!

Oxford by way of a detour back to SIYC

Less than 20 minutes out of Solomons, the port engine alarm sounded. Judi’s inspection revealed a major coolant leak. A call to John Simpson lead us back to SIYC to meet Scott Wiley of Bristol Marine, a boat mechanic par excellence. He found a potentially more serious problem, an oil leak in the transmission, left to gather supplies for both repairs and returned to get us seaworthy in short order. Scott travels the country making repairs and has been at The Harborage in Stuart several times. We give him our highest recommendation. While waiting at the dock, Monica Simpson sent freshly baked rum cakes to us and to Scott to take the sting out of our boat troubles and his Saturday work call. You just can’t get much friendlier or more helpful than that!

A short trip took us to Oxford, a beautiful and serene small town that Norman Rockwell might have painted. It was the home of Robert Morris, an entrepreneur who “put Oxford on the map,” and whose son significantly helped fund the Revolutionary War. The town park on the Tred Avon River is the picture of shady tranquility, and several families and couples were enjoying a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. Judi and Terry treated Margaret and Jon to a 34th Anniversary dinner at Latitude 38, the local hot spot with very good food.

Sunday afternoon, after slurping down possibly the best freshly-crushed strawberry ice cream in the whole wide world (from Scottish Highlands Creamery adjacent to Oxford Boatyard and Schooners restaurant), we pushed on to St. Michaels.

Annmarie Gardens & Sculpture Park

Calvert Cliffs & St. Mary's

Solomons Island

Continuing our epicurean tour of the Bay, our first stop in Solomons Island was Stoney’s Kingfisher for superior crab cakes, awesome Kobe burgers and blackened rockfish gyros. We toured the Calvert Marine Museum and Drum Point Lighthouse, a “screw pile” structure similar to Fowey Light in Biscayne Bay. A woman who gave birth to her first child while living in the house (decades prior, of course) spearheaded efforts to move the lighthouse from its original location to the museum site. We later joined Solomons Island Yacht Club members for happy hour and met lots of really nice folks, several of whom travel to FL, winter there, and/or have visited Stuart Corinthian YC. Their club is completing a major renovation to add space and modernize the kitchen. It’s beautiful.

Thursday morning we rented a car and toured Historic St. Mary’s City, MD’s first state capital in 1676. At the 17^th Century plantation home of Godiah Shea and his family, a “hired hand” explained the tobacco-growing and crop rotation process of the times. A hike toward Calvert Cliffs – where a wealth of Miocene-era fossils has been found – took us through woods filled with mountain laurel, tulip poplars and hollies as well as streams and pretty vistas.

Friday found Terry and Jon returning the rental car after dropping Judi and Margaret at Annmarie Gardens and Sculpture Park. This was our favorite excursion of the trip! Specially commissioned pieces, some on loan from artists, and others acquired from the Hirshorn Museum dot the wooded paths. A profusion of Glenn Dale azaleas in riotous colors brighten the borders. Inside, a pastel exhibit offered dozens of wonderful pieces. That evening, John and Monica Simpson, SIYC members, joined us for drinks and a number of other members came out to tour the boat and reminisce about prior encounters with Huckins, either in the Navy or with pleasure craft.

Every once in a while during ones travels, you meet special people and the SIYC members certainly meet that criteria! Thanks to all SIYC members for helping make our stay such a pleasure!

Crisfield, MD

At Somers Cove Marina, we were fortunate to meet part-time dockmaster Bucky Daisey. Bucky was originally from Chincoteague but met and married a Crisfield girl and as the saying goes, according to Bucky, if you marry a Crisfield girl, you either learn to love Crisfield or get a divorce and move away. He's still here after 45 years. Bucky was our chauffeur to and from Food Lion, tour guide, chamber of commerce rep and most importantly, liaison between Jon and the local dentist. He wouldn't take any compensation from us but was willing to accept donations to his church.

While in port today, we had the opportunity to make a few minor repairs. The wind was blowing too strongly to make the ferry journey to Tangier Island today. We'll plan to visit upon our return.

Wachapreague, Flounder Capital of the World

Mr. Austin Cox & the Story of Soft Shell Crabs

Today we were honored to meet Mr. Austin Cox, 90 year old mechanical engineer, 5th generation Waterman (crabber), son of the world's oldest working Waterman (93 at his death), and D-Day Survivor. Sgt. Cox landed on Omaha Beach June 6, 1944 with the 29th Division of the 115th Infantry Regiment. He was 24 at the time, the oldest man in his platoon, and platoon leader. Mr. Cox was among 10 veterans chosen to attend the 65th anniversary commemoration held at La Cambe, France last year.

Mr. Cox also shared with us the story of soft shell crabs. He maintains a traditional soft shell crab shanty at the Crisfield Museum where he shares his knowledge of crabbing to more than 900 school children every year during molting season, April thru June. Soft shell crabbing is far more labor intensive than crabbing for hard shells. We were able to see first-hand, crabs in various states of molting. The crabs have to be manned 24-7, moved from pen to pen as the molting process progresses. Once the crab backs out of his shell, he is defenseless and subject to attack by other crabs. We discovered that the crabs are cleaned during processing and even though the crab is whole, you don't eat any of the gross parts. We were so impressed that we actually each ate a soft shell crab as an appetizer. Verdict: good but not remarkable, to our taste.

Onancock

Chesapeake Bay's Eastern Shore

As you can see from our looper locator, we are in Crisfield, MD. We left The Tides Inn on Friday May 7, and cruised to Onancock, VA. At check-in, Terry asked Dockmaster Al if they had "wifi". Al responded "Why do you want to know if I have a WIFE??" Hence, the delayed Blog entries. We later learned from the manager of the Blue Crab Bay Company that Al is from Tangier Island where Elizabethan English is still spoken so he and Terry were divided by a common language.

Onancock (pronounced uh-NAN-cock) was founded in 1680. It is a quaint town with many historic, well-kept homes and friendly people who seem to really care about each other; willing to help out strangers. After a couple of days, they made us feel as one of them. It was one of our more enjoyable and relaxed stops so far. On Saturday morning, Onancock held their annual flea market. They blocked off the one main street and set up booths to display their treasures. We were docked at the town wharf at the end of the main street, so we had a continuous parade of people checking out Litenup III. It made us proud that she drew so much attention. Well, until a fellow showed up in a vintage jeep with a machine gun (complete with ammo box)and a 10-hp Johnson outboard motor, both mounted on the back. He won the prize for most interesting means of transportation.

Dockmaster Al loaned us his car to drive around the area. We really felt awkward about accepting his generous offer but when we declined, he told us not to worry; it was his wife's car and he hated it. So we drove to the Flounder Capital of the World, Wachapreague, for lunch and stopped in at the county seat of Accomac to look around. The economy of the Eastern Shore is primarily related to fishing, crabbing and oystering, with some agriculture thrown in.

Winds have been unusually high and have resulted in us spending additional days in both Irvington and Onancock. Otherwise, the weather has been nice.

Urbanna

Rappahanock

Tuesday -- Leaving Hampton, we were able to experience for the first time, the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and so far, she has lived up to her reputation as being one of the world's greatest cruising areas. Passing traditional Chesapeake Bay lighthouses, Point Comfort and Wolf Trap, we had calm seas and little wind as we headed toward the Rappahanock River bound for the Tides Inn. On the Rappahanock and Carter's Creek, we noticed a distinct difference in the terrain. Beautiful homes atop high bluffs with lawns stretching all the way to the water's edge. We felt as though we were looking at calendar pages, such was the beauty. The Tides Inn (Google this place!) is wonderful with the amenities of a fine resort. We bicycled into town and to the local winery where we were greeted by a huge fox who was as surprised to see us as we were to see him. Later that day, we cruised around the small creeks in our tender and saw an otter scampering across the yard of one of the homes! Is there no end to the wonders of nature we will experience??



Wednesday -- Today we took a tender ride 6.5 miles across the Rappahanock to the historic town of Urbanna, VA, the Oyster Shucking Capital of the World. On our journey, we have noticed that many locales make similar claims and therefore, we all feel required to do taste testing to make a final judgement. Though Urbanna has a storied history, today it is a sleepy town EXCEPT during the Oyster Shucking Festival in November when the town hosts over 200,000 people in one weekend! Yikes!

Evenings in Hampton, VA

Williamsburg

Williamsburg, VA

While Jon and Margaret traveled to Fredericksburg for a wedding, Terry and I toured Williamsburg and enjoyed the sites around Hampton, VA. Neither of us had been to Williamsburg in years. We drove the Colonial Parkway along the beautiful York River arriving in Williamsburg to find many roads were closed for a bike ride along the Parkway and a farmers market was being held in the middle of the historic district! As our touring time was limited, we chose to walk the main historic area and take a carriage ride past some of the other sights. The actors in period costume entertained throughout the day. Such fun to see it all!