St. Michael’s, Maryland

Today we decided to get out of the house first thing in the morning. About 2 hours later we finally got out the door. It’s not as if we had a specific plan, we just wanted to get to know more of the area’s local traditions. We have learned that the western shore of Maryland is a zoo on holidays and out of control for a small family like ours. For these reasons, we decided to head on over to Easton to check out what’s happening in the downtown area as suggested online.

When we arrived in historic downtown Easton, we noticed most of the shops were open with no actual activities happing. We did find an open air clothing bizarre next to the county visitor’s center. Unfortunately, the visitor’s center was closed with just a few pamphlets hanging on the entrance door. One was for Tighlman Isand, and the other was for St. Michael’s Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

Disappointed with the selection, we drove across town and found a Wawa gas station. I picked up a newspaper and a soda. Jade skimmed over the paper after we left while I was driving back across town to give us a scenic tour by car since Johnny was taking his afternoon nap.

The local newspaper told us that the only thing happening worth while was a traveling carnival followed up by fireworks on the west side of town. Not the excitement we were looking for in the great state of Maryland. We did come to the realization that the only fireworks shows we wanted to see were on the eastern shore where there aren’t as many dumb people blowing their hands off with Black Cats. So, it was time for a new change of plan!

With Johnny passed out in the back seat, I decided to drive the family over to St. Michaels. It’s a historic town with rich kid’s resort marked with multiple Bentley’s. It’s a place where you WON’T find McDonald’s or Walmart.

We took one drive through the town with all of its quaint shops and deli’s. Unlike the last time I made it there in the fall, people were everywhere. It appears the town comes to life in the summer much more than I expected.

On the edge of town, we found a nice park with baseball diamonds and brand spanking new playground. With such a nice place, we just had to let Johnny get out of the car and play. So for the next hour we played on the swings and slides while Mommy took over a hundred pictures with our all to wonderful Nikon D200. Mommy even got a nice picture of Johnny in mid air as he jumped off a step.

After a while we were getting too hot in the summer sun. We packed everyone back into the car and went back to downtown St. Michael’s. We found a spot in the public parking lot and changed Johnny’s diaper. Once all ready, we walked up and down Talbot Street (Main Street) until we settled on a deli of our choice. The deli sported Boar’s Head meats and freshly made lemonade: yum! 3 sandwhiches, an order of large friends, and 3 drinks later, I was ready to cry from a bill of $38! Ouch! At least it all tasted good.

After the over priced deli, we went across the street to the only store that we wanted to enter. It was a hot spice shop where I could burn my mouth as much as I wanted on the samples. Mommy got her Ray’s Ole Apple Cinnamon BBQ sauce, which just rocks! I got my own marinade for making jerk chicken. I was warned not to marinade more than 4 hours or it would burn my mouth: too much fun! Frankly if the shop didn’t have the products we were looking for in the first place, we wouldn’t have even stepped in the door since they have a no stroller policy. Usually, an anti-family policy like that drives me, and my dollar, away as fast as possible.

Next we decided to go down a side street where we found everyone and his cousin making foot traffic. We found beautiful bay side piers with millions of dollars in boats to gaze over. We also found ourselves at the front entrance to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Hmmm, what do you think happens next?

After paying $70 for a family membership, we entered to find a small living history museum filled with Skipjacks and a big ole light house. We let Johnny play and run around until we were exhausted. Johnny even climbed to the top of a lighthouse on his own. He really liked the extra touches of lots of steps for him to climb up and down and up and down and up and down, (see a pattern?), as well as the ducks which were very comfortable with people walking up to them.

A few extra touches in the museum we enjoyed were the multiple buildings with air conditioning. We found a children’s building with a soft couch for us to relax on while Johnny had a snack. The museum was kind enough to even put a couple of TV’s in front of the couch so I could watch boat racing: how considerate!

In my opinion, the best part of the museum was over by the oyster exihibit. Off one of the piers, a plackard explains how fisherman catch the Maryland Blue Crab. By the sign is a rope down to the water attached to a cage. When I pulled up the wire frame cage, it actually had a couple of crab in it trying to get at the bait. Its just wonderful to see such real life things where an engineer like me would never get near it otherwise. Too bad the eel trap had nothing in it.

After the museum, we headed back to Easton to do a little shopping at Target before trying to visit the carnival and waiting for the fireworks. We stopped in at Target, did a little shopping, and had a snack in the cafe in front of Starbucks. There Johnny screamed in curiosity as tried to attract attention of other children. My interesting observation came from seeing a girl working at the Starbuck’s kiosk get canned for trying to give away a free drink to on of the loss prevention officers while his was on duty and in uniform: idiot!

As we walked out of Target and started to head over to the carnival next door, I noticed the thunder in the background. We knew there was a 50% chance of rain all day, but decided to risk it as much as possible. After getting in the car, we found the weather maps showning massive storms coming our way. So at the start of this blog entry, we were trying to race our way around the majority of the storm on our way home. Looks like it worked for the most part. We haven’t see a 10th of what Cambridge, MD, would be seeing right now.

Final side note: the minute we drove up to our apartments we saw a flash of lightning and all of the neighborhood lights go out, on, out, on, etc. Looks like it might be a long night.