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!