“That’s my ride” It is not a moment too soon.
The United States is returning to normal, mask mandates have largely been lifted, it
is not as if the pandemic is over, far from it, but it is spring, and travel is back in the air.
And the Eastern Shore is an easy couple of hours from the capital, with a little stop along the way.
“I am the Straits Times US Bureau Chief Nirmal Ghosh
and I am going to show you the beauty that lies across the bridge!”
Barely an hour out of DC, and here I am at Sandy Point State Park, with the incredible
Bay Bridge in the background.
It’s an amazing bridge, it’s really one of the longest bridges on the Eastern Seaboard.
And I am gonna take a drive across it right now.
I love crossing this bridge, high above the gleaming bay.
It has a kind of epic feel to it.
You really feel you are transitioning to another zone, to the fabled Chesapeake Bay.
My first stop is St Michael’s, a quaint and picturesque town with old houses with
names like Snugglers and a main street lined with boutique shops and restaurants and saloons.
The Eastern Shore is a relatively affluent community, many people from DC, from Baltimore,
from Philadelphia, even from New York City – have second homes in this area.
Now, after two years of the pandemic, this spring is finally beginning to look better.
We’re excited, slowly getting back to normal.
We’ve had our sea glass festival, as well as our chocolate festival.
And projected in June, we have the beer festival.
So festivals are slowly coming back.
And it’s just nice to see people smiling, and just out and about, so yeah.
The Museum is just off main street; it’s a small town, so in fact once you park here,
you can walk pretty much anywhere.
And it is much more than just a Museum in the conventional sense, it is 15 acres of
history, Chesapeake Bay was once the most productive area in the world for oysters.
One stop not to be missed is the famed 1879 Hooper Strait Lighthouse.
Fabulous weather today, absolutely fabulous.
Let’s go to the lighthouse!
The coast is full of lighthouses like this, even the West Coast.
And you can actually live in a lighthouse.
I’m not sure if you can do that in this one, but you can do that, I know for sure,
on the West Coast.
And this is the light.
There’s the coal, and the wood to cook with.
And there’s a stove to heat the place.
This is the journal of the lighthouse keepers.
And the museum includes an active boat building yard.
This is an old, old tradition, kept very much alive here.
This is where a small boat used to hang, from these steel struts.
The boat was the only way the lighthouse keeper could get back to the mainland.
Some of these boats are for sale.
Fancy buying a boat?
Tempting.
Maybe not today.
It is now time for lunch, and I obviously must try the fabled Maryland blue crab.
You cannot leave the Eastern Shore without trying their famous crab, which is available
pretty widely.
It doesn’t come cheap, by the way; just this meal is roughly 40 US Dollars.
But rest assured, there are cheaper places with good food all about town.
My next quick stop is Tilghman Island, unfortunately not in that boat.
A genuine fishing community, accessible by road via a drawbridge, where you can find
little gems like this tulip garden and this Bed and Breakfast.
But after a brief wander around here, I am off to see the oldest full service Inn in
the entire United States of America, and that is the Robert Morris Inn at Oxford.
Built as River View House in 1710, and run as an Inn, since 1800.
The man who lived here, Robert Morris, was once one of the richest men in America.
Today the inn, redolent with dark wood and period furniture and old art,
and is owned by a Scotsman Ian Fleming.
What I am interested in today is kayaking.
Almost every place you might stay at here will have kayaks.
I am off to Royal Oak.
And a fabulous morning and my kayak awaits.
This is the thing about the Eastern shore.
Because it’s a maritime and marine environment, the weather is somewhat changeable.
But when it’s good, it’s glorious.
Gonna head out into the open water a bit, where it’s nice and quiet.
So here I am. Out on the water in a canoe.
It's absolutely beautiful out here. Incredible spring day!
And what better way than this to end my journey, with this utterly beautiful Maryland sunset,
over Chesapeake Bay.