Can't Get Enough of the Eastern Shore

A call to the Geek Squad this morning revealed that the computer would not be ready until late this afternoon at the earliest.  We had not planned to spend another night on the Eastern Shore, but we don’t have to be in Washington, D.C., until tomorrow afternoon.  With another day to explore, we decided to head to St. Michaels, Maryland, and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

On the way we stopped for lunch at a diner in Cambridge.  For the last few days I have been eating my way down memory lane – crab cakes, fried oysters, chicken and dumplings, collard greens – some of my favorite foods from growing up in Maryland.  It still amazes me how food is so tied to one’s experience of a particular place, and how food can bring back such wonderful memories.  I’m in heaven.



Fried Oysters, Macaroni and Cheese and Collard Greens

St. Michaels is a charming town that has always been connected to the water.  Originally a noted shipbuilding port, the town is now a popular yachting center on the East Coast.  The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is a wonderful 18-acre museum that celebrates the way people live, work and play on the Chesapeake Bay.  The museum is preserving a vanishing way of life by restoring historic boats that plied the bay.  The skipjack Rosie Parks, built in 1955 and used to dredge oysters from the bay, is the current restoration project.


Hooper Strait Lighthouse and Mister Jim



Restoring the Rosie Parks



The Edna E. Lockwood on the Left, a National Historic Landmark



Wateman's Wharf at the Museum

Exhibits at the museum explore how the Chesapeake Bay has evolved from a working waterway to one where people come to play.  The oyster industry is explored in another building.  One of my favorite exhibits was on waterfowl and how the bay attracts flocks of migrating birds.  The collection of decoys was amazing.



Who Said I Wouldn't Appear in Public in a Bathing Suit?



Who Said I Was Crabby?

Maryland Even Has Natural Resources Police

We backtracked to Salisbury and were rewarded with a virus-free computer.  What a relief! Now we can get back on track.