Tuesday May 18, 2021.
Temp: 72/47, Humidity: LOW! 8/52%, Top Wind: SE8 mph, Precip-none, Miles Traveled: 4 in flipflops.
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Again, we talked about how windy it has been the last few weeks, and how guilty we feel just “wasting” the day in a protected marina at a cute little town, while the weather is PERFECT for traveling. (This is the kind of place you want to hole up in when the weather sucks!). Fortunately though, at this point the coming week to ten days continues to look fantabulous as far as wind goes. And it’s going to get warmer…. so we’ll continue to stay in places with power so we can have our air conditioning on… and we might even find a POOL! So yes, we just relaxed and hung out in Onancock today. However, we DID take a walk up to the Corner Bakery, and yes… they had piles of donuts and cinnamon rolls! Woo-Hoo!!!
Nothing with maple on them, because they only do maple with bacon on the weekends. But we’d survive just fine with cinnamon rolls, chocolate donuts, and glazed cinnamon donuts. They are all so fresh and yummy! WOWZA they are good! 😋 And I’m not even a donut connoisseur (like some captain that I know 😉)! But if all donuts were this good, I might become addicted.
We took our sugary treasures back home to have with coffee, then I went on a big walking safari around town. My little ❤️ gizzie on my phone says that I walked four miles today. I just wanted to see the area a bit. I would have enjoyed having my bike, but it is really hard to get off of the top back deck when we are on floating docks. Floating docks are close to water level compared to fixed docks. That usually means an additional 1-2 feet that the bike has to be hoisted down and back up, which isn’t easy for either of us. So I walked which is OK, I just wouldn’t get to go as far. I saw some cute houses, but I didn’t see any plaques or anything to indicate historical significance or age on any of them.
This house is right by the marina, and is actually the house of the lady who walked with us yesterday. She was very nice, just like everyone we’ve encountered here. This afternoon I was sitting in the back of the boat, and a gentleman walked by asking each boater if we had everything we needed, if he could assist in any way. He kind of spoke with authority like he could get us anything or do anything necessary to provide for any needs. I actually think he might have been the mayor, who knows? 🤷♀️
This building is the Hopkins & Bro. historical building. Hopkins ran a successful mercantile firm for more than a century from 1842 until 1966. The store enjoyed continuous operation under four generations of the Hopkins family. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places and is owned by the Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society (ESVHS), which is responsible for its upkeep.
It is right here at the wharf.
There is a small museum inside as well as the Mallards on the Wharf Restaurant.
I went across a bridge to another section of town, and captured this shot of the marina. Island Girl is tucked in behind the boat with the dark hull.
More cute houses.
And a flower portrait, of course!
I found a nature trail behind an old historic school, and there was a variety of trees and bushes. There were even name tags for some, and guess what?! I think I discovered what the fluffy fern needle kind of trees in the Dismal Swamp are! I think they are Bald Cypress!
Check this out! It says they like to grow in wet acidic muck. Ah-HA!
This was in front of the old school, but I was alone, so I couldn’t pose with it for you. 🙃
Back in town, I saw this sign, so I went to investigate.
This magnificent Federal-period Georgian-style house was built from 1799 to 1803 for prosperous merchant farmer John Shepherd Ker; his wife, Agnes Corbin Ker; and their family. It is described by the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission as “the finest and most elaborate Federal mansion on Virginia’s Eastern Shore” and “one of the Shore’s major architectural landmarks.”. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I guess I could have gone inside and taken a tour. 🤷♀️
Right next door is the Market Street United Methodist Church, that yesterday I said looked a bit scandanavian. It is huge! From the road, it just has a small frontage appearance, but it goes waaaay back behind!
This is just a shot of old town. It really isn’t a very big place. On the Google map, there is more to the official town of Onancock about three miles east where a highway runs north and south up and down the peninsula. But without my bike, I won’t be making a trip to the grocery store which is way out there.
Another flower portrait, just because they were so dainty, tiny, and pretty.
Meanwhile, back at the marina, there was construction work going on. It’s been going from 8-3 each day. They are making the boat launch wider, so they put up walls to try to keep the water held back, and they continually pump water out. Then they are running a big track hoe to dig out the old walls and material. It’s kind of noisy, but not as terribly disturbing as you might think.
We decided to go the The Mallard for dinner. The menu just looked so good! And we could sit out on the dock and enjoy the evening sun. ☀️ It was a completely cloudless day, and reached the mid 70’s in the sun.
I had my heart set on their crab cakes, because I heard from a reliable Looper source that they are the best in the Delmarva. (Defined later….). But alas, they had NO CRAB CAKES TODAY. WHA?!?! 😩. But this is Chesapeake Bay Crab country!!! Where’s the justice!?
Kenny ordered soft shell crab – another Chesapeake Bay staple. Neither of us have ever had it, and it just sounds so strange since we come from Pacific Northwest Dungeness Crab country. But this was flash fried with a bourbon sauce, so why not try it? He said it was very good, and surprisingly a lot of meat! Soft shell blue crabs are harvested right after they molt, before their new shell develops and hardens. I learned all about it when we were here in the Chesapeake Bay in 2018. It’s really a fascinating process how these buggers are harvested to get them at the exact soft shell phase.
We had another beautiful sunset. Look at that water!!
Tomorrow we will leave the eastern shore of the Bay, and we’ll leave Virginia behind.
I think the shape of the state of Virginia is interesting. It’s a pretty big state as states on the east coast go. Tell me why the end of the eastern peninsula was stolen from Maryland and given to Virginia. And Delaware is even weirder why it carved out a chunk of the peninsula. Perhaps the peninsula was too prosperous for just one state to get all the benefits, so the colonists chopped it up. I looked it up, and it’s really a long story. For now, the best nugget of information for you is that the peninsula is known locally as ‘Delmarva’. (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia). So if somebody says ‘it’s the best crab cake in Delmarva’, they’re referring to the whole eastern peninsula between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
You want another observation that I didn’t know until recently? (Apparently I didn’t pay enough attention in High School U.S. History class!). During the Civil War, eleven states seceded from the Union (United States), and established their own president (Jefferson Davis; 1861-1865) and established Richmond, Virginia as their capitol city. It really is not very far from the Union’s capitol city of Washington DC. No wonder this area was so crazy, with the two capitols only about 100 miles apart?! Sheesh!
Abraham Lincoln served as United States President from March 4, 1861 to April 15, 1865. He had been sworn in to his second term of office on March 4, 1865. On April 9, he oversaw the end of the American Civil War when the Confederate Army surrendered to the Union. He died just four days later on April 15, 1965, from a gunshot by a Confederate sympathizer.
Jefferson Davis was president of the Confederate states (the South) during the Civil War, and was captured when the Union Army caught up to him on May 10, 1865, in Irwinville, Georgia. He was imprisoned for two years at Fort Monroe Virginia, but was never tried for treason. His best general, Robert E. Lee, had surrendered on April 9 at Appomattox in Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant, which effectively ended the Civil War.
So there’s your history lesson for today. Tomorrow, we’re headed to Maryland.