The Road to The Corporate State

is lined with good intentions and historic towns.  We left St. Michaels and headed to Pennsylvania.  On the way we passed trough Delaware. Delaware has never been on my list of places to visit. I've always envisioned it as being nothing but DuPont chemical plants, but if the DuPonts, who have enough money to live any where like it, it must have some redeeming qualities.  Turns out they live across the border in Pennsylvania.  But within two hours are some wonderful places to visit and just across the border in the Brandywine valley is another world.  The road from St. Michaels to Chadds Ford is tree lined and filled with villages with more dead people in the cemeteries than walking the streets, but some of the cemeteries have really really old people.

The first village we went through was Wye.  It is on the river Wye

 

The town grew up around the oldest grist mill in Maryland. It was built in 1682.

The village also has a church built in 1721. I'm not sure why it took forty years to get a church built, but I'll bet it is an interesting story.  Let your imaginations sore.

Wye village

There are also several historic towns filled with 18th and 19th century buildings.

And one great fountain in something called monument square.

In the town where I was born is the oldest building was the Presbyterian Church across the street from my house.  It was 40 years old when I was born. that wouldn't even be a legal antique in Maryland.

Centerville

Black Water Refuge

 

Even though it rained on us the minute we crossed the bay bridge and tunnel, who builds a bridge that goes under water?, we loved the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It is totally different than Puget Sound.  Puget sound is deep.  The average depth of the Chesapeake Bay is 21 feet.  Twenty-five percent of it is less than six feet deep. It has fresh water, salt water and a lot of brackish water between the two.  The tidelands, creeks, marshes, and waterways weave in and around each other in a complicated dance. They are beautiful even in the rain.  I suspect the sun would only add to the beauty.

 

The major flyways for migrating birds come together and work their way down the peninsula. The waters are, or at least were, one of the richest feeding grounds in the world. The waters are filled with Oysters, crabs, and fish.  The skies are full of birds.

We spent an afternoon at the Black Water Refuge, but you could spend a summer exploring it and it is just one hundreds of spots. We drove from spot to spot, exclaiming oohs and ahhsss, just like a couple of silly tourists.

Black Water Refuge

Watermen and Bishops

The oystermen on the Chesapeake refer to themselves as watermen.  St. Michaels has a great marine museum chronicling there boats, tools and life style.

The museum has a wonderful collection of restored wooden boats.  They even have a "apprentice for a day" program where individuals can  work with ship wrights learning how to bend wood and make hulls fashioned together with wooden pegs.

Marine Museum

On the road too Black Water Refuge is the oldest church that has been in continuous use since it was build. Definitions are very important.  Everything is the oldest something due to some clever semantics.   I've seen the oldest church, the oldest gothic church, and the oldest church still in use.  Old Trinity Church was built in 1670 and someone has gone to church every Sunday since then.

It is an Episcopal Church now, but when it was built in 1670, it was part of the Church of England.  After the revolutionary war, the Church of England fell into disfavor due to the requirement for clergymen to swear allegiance to the British Monarchy.They reorganized into the Episcopal Church. In it's grave yard are people who served in every war the United States  has ever fought. Does your neighborhood cemetery have a revolutionary war veteran?

 

Old Trinity Church

The best laid plans

often gang aglay.  We left Seattle looking for sun and warmth.  We found the warmth, but landed amidst the remains of a unnamed, but still note worthy tropical storm.  St. Michaels on the water became St. Michaels in the water

but the rain was warm and we're from Seattle.  Our mother's really didn't teach us to come in from the rain.

The tourist section has some great restaurants for dinner

and the usual tacky places to shop

But on the back streets there are some really cute little houses

and some marvelous parks and walking area.  Can you park your sail boat in your community park?

Photos of St. Michaels

Whidbey Island

 

There was a very low tide at Whidbey, but due to a variety of conflicts, Molly and I could only spend one day there.  Vangie came up and joined us.  It was like an episode of animal planet.

When we got up in the morning, three deer were eating apples from the tree in the front yard. I’m not sure what knowledge they gained, but they appeared contented.

We walked out to Baby Island and saw a baby seal that had been born that morning.

 

And of course there was the usual collection  of starfish, eagles, herons and seagulls on the walk out.

 

 

Pictures from walk to Baby Island

Back to Whidbey With Tim

 

Tim got  into town from Arizona with the proper clothing for Washington such as long pants, polar Tec shirts, and sun glasses, just in case we got some sun.  We were joined by Bridget, Jason, Mary, and Adam on Friday night. Joe, Kathy, and Tim headed up on Saturday for a week end of coffee, fire works and sunsets.

There was not a low tide, but there was a little bit of beach

 

and plenty of room on the dock for Joe and Adam to set off the fireworks

See the fireworks

The weather was over cast, but it cleared at night so that we had good sunsets from the dock

 

 

See additional sun set pictures

 

And finally, we headed into Langley to get some Sweet Baby Island Coffee

 

See people wait while Joe gets everyone's coffee

 

We had a good time reading books, eating crab, drinking wine and in general just leading a decadent life. 

Whidbey with Friends

We went to Whidbey Island this week end with our long time friends the Seeks and the Posts.  The goal for the trip was food, wine and relaxation.  We figured six people, two bottles of wine per meal and three meals.  Six bottles of wine ought to do it and so each family brought six bottles of wine.  We may have over achieved.  Our meals consisted mussels, crabs, smoked salmon and pork.  Everyone brought a special recipe, secret ingredients, a lot of work in the kitchen and we expended  a lot of effort not to waste any of it.

And after all of that, if there was any room, and there always seemed to be more room, there were s’mores by the fire.

For relaxation we walked along the beach, sat on the dock, gazed at the ocean and hiked to Baby Island.

Photos of Beach Walks

The water line is narrow moving boundary between where you can find things on dry sand hunkering  down until the sea returns to cover them and squishy things  breathing a sigh of relief as the waters covers them again.  We put on our boots and walked the narrow margin poking at star fish and saying yuk to the moon snails. It would seem that people are more common than beach creatures, because while we stopped, pointed and talked about everything we saw, there was no indication that they were aware of our existence.  

T

Things on dry sand

Things in the sea

With seeing things on land and in the sea, it is only appropriate that we saw things in the sky.  There was disagreement as to whether we were seeing Egrets or Herons but the  Audubon book allowed us all to safe face by stating  that the Egret was a type of Heron.  However, we could all identify the eagles and seagulls and regardless by name, they were all beautiful.

Bird Photos

 

One evening we went down to the water and saw the sky reflected in its smooth surface.  In a place where waves, like tea and oranges, can come all of the way from China to churn the water; the ocean lived up to its name and was truly Pacific.

There was sky above us and sky below until an off shore breeze started stir the water and began to break the reflection in ever widening circles.

Sunset across the water

And as a final treat, we went to Ebbey’s Landing for a hike along the bluffs to check out the wild flowers, the view, and plan our trip into Coupeville for ice cream.  Alas, the smallest cone you could purchase had three scoops, but we chose carefully and with wisdom. 

Photos of Hike

It was a wonderful time with  friends, good food, funny stories and no problems.