Friday May 21, 2021.
Temp: 79/54, Humidity: 37/86%, Top Wind: w7 mph, Precip-none, Miles Traveled: 44
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We were up around 6:30, aiming for a 7:00 departure for our five hour tour today. I always get up first, and was up in the galley getting ready to make some coffee. Kenny looked at his phone for the latest weather outlook and calls up to me- “looks like the windows will probably be fogged in”. OK – I guess I should go check that before I do much of anything, so that they have time to clear. Sure enough, even though the front windows are facing east and in the sun already, the dew is so dense that the water is practically running down the windows. So I opened up all the windows and wiped them down inside and out, then just let them be open while I went back downstairs to finish getting ready to go. Lo and behold, the Captain had already made the ☕️ coffee. Nice! But then, I guess I was upstairs for quite a while. 🙂
Mr. Boyle-n-Water was up and out, so we chatted with him for a little bit, which was nice. We really hadn’t seen them much with us doing our thing, and them doing theirs, we just weren’t home at the same time. He helped send us on our way, and we left the dock around 7:15 on this beautiful calm splat flat water. YAY!
Once we got out of the Solomon’s harbor and headed east down the Patuxent River, there was a little bit of chop, since the light wind was coming at us from the east. Then out into Chesapeake Bay there was a bit more light chop, but really not a bad ride at all. It was just hard to see crab pot buoys in the chop, especially with the sun in our eyes. We were moving along just turning and getting into our northern heading when we saw this menagerie up ahead. 🤔When you’re way far away, it’s hard to tell what something is. Upon closer inspection, we decided it was not a ship, but maybe a Waterworld outpost.
Nope, it’s not Waterworld afterall. It is a huge dock, and there are huge tanks on shore behind those trees, and the navigation chart says there is a tunnel in between. I finally checked in with the Google, and it says that it is a Liquid Natural Gas shipping facility.
The wind forecast for today said that the 7mph east wind would die down to about 2mph in late morning. Sure enough, it did! We turned east and entered into the wide opening toward the Choptank River, and it smoothed out beautifully.
This was perfect! The air temperature was probably in the 60’s, only our own 10mph speed for a breeze, very few other boats around— it was so peaceful and comfortable.
We approached the Cambridge Yacht Basin, and called in for slip assignment. There is a neat lighthouse that I’m going to have to go check out. This is a really big marina! They gave us instructions on where to go, and thankfully they had sent us a “welcome” email when I made the reservation that included a map. So when he told us to go to G-10, at least we could figure out where G dock was, which is along the far back wall of the marina. We found it and slipped on into our spot all nice and easy like pros. 👍. The dock hand was a retired-like man about our age, and he gave us a welcome bag with all sorts of stuff, and showed us where a whole bunch of things are on the town map. Excellent welcoming committee!
We had made really good time, with tidal current in our favor all morning we were going about 10mph most of the time. It was just now noon-thirty and we were hungry. We decided to go check out a couple of places that the nice fella told us about. It’s a few block to town, so we walked along and saw all kinds of neat old homes. This is the Stewart House, part of which was built in 1802 by Dr Murray, and it served as his office and drugstore. James Stewart bought it in 1848. He enlarged and improved it in 1865, and remained in the Stuart family until 1931. I like it. Apparently when it was the drugstore, it sat right on the sidewalk. When Mr. Stewart bought it, he MOVED it back away from the sidewalk! That must have been before he enlarged it. 🤔
This is the Christ Episcopal Church, built between 1883 and 1892. It is a Gothic Revival style. I read that… I have no idea what style anything is. I just like that it was a unique greenish stone and has that huge round stained glass window.
If you look really close at the corner spires that go up at the base of the steeple, they have iron curleycues sticking up. Weird! And just below those where there is something sticking out from the building? Those are gargoyles. Not very big ones… they kind of look like rats, but that must be part of the Gothic-ness.
The main street in old town is Poplar which turns into Race Street. This is where the RAR Brewing establishment is. You knew there had to be one, right? We went on by, because we had our noses tuned into the BBQ Station. We’ll come back later.
It’s just a lil ol town.
We walked past the Grace United Methodist Church. It was built in the Gothic Revival Style, too. I just noticed that the steeple has those same little dormers as the other church, but no curleycues or gargoyles. I thought this one looked a little bit Norwegian/viking-ish. Similar to what happened back in Onancock where there were two United Methodist Churches in one small town, this one split also. In the mid 1800’s the Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church was divided nationally over the issue of slavery. Here in Cambridge Maryland, the dissenters split from the Zion M.E. Church and formed the Grace M.E. Church (South) in 1865, and completed this building in 1884. The name was changed nearly a century later to Grace United Methodist Church in 1968.
We soon found our destination – Lil’Bitta Bull BBQ. We ordered up some ribs and sides for lunch. We were both a bit disappointed, because they were pretty dry. They were dry-rubbed without sauce, which is how we really prefer our smoked meat. But these really needed sauce. The owner was a young gal in her 40’s that came around and asked everyone how their meal was. We were honest about the ribs which she really appreciated hearing. If nobody gives feedback, how can they do better? She visited with us for quite awhile, and she was really nice and fun.
They have a pretty sweet set up here.
This made me think of our four kids – they all love them selves some goodly smoked meat.
Back outside, we saw a couple of gals painting a huge mural on a building. I’m always amazed at how people can do this and have it turn out with good proportions and everything!
So of course we stopped at RAR Brewing, since we had to walk right past it AGAIN! 😉. They didn’t have any dark beers at all – I guess they’re geared up for summer beers already. Kenny had a beer and I tried one of their house made hard seltzers. It was kind of a pina colada, and it was filling! We each only had one and that was all the support we could muster for the brewery.
This was some kind of Imperial IPA blended with some pastry cream? He said it was surprisingly good. 🤷♀️
This is currently a court house that looks like a castle. This one is Medieval Revival, (yes, I read that) built around 1910 and was originally home to the National Guard Armory.
I just thought this little ol building was so original and authentic for old colonial times. The upper section was built in 1840 by an attorney, and the lower section added on in 1892. I read that in the 1800’s, attorneys were not allowed to practice law from their homes, so they often built small offices.
Here is the Stewart House again, from across the street. Notice that the street is still brick.
Oooh – I happened upon a beautiful color of peony, so it gets the flower of the day portrait.
The sign here says 1739, original home of Rev. Daniel Maynadier. Rebuilt in 1840 by Lawyer/Senator Henry Page. It’s just a neat and clean looking style. Ha! Then I read that Mr. Page and Mr. Steward (two lawyers) fought a duel in 1830, but neither was hurt. I didn’t think that’s how duels ended, but hey – they were attorneys, so they probably just debated their way out of it.
There is pollen in the air, everywhere. Kenny’s eyes and sinuses have been giving him fits for weeks now. When we left Florida in March, it was spring time, with the live oak trees full of pollen. As we move north, spring keeps blooming everywhere we go. There are a lot of magnolia trees here, and they are in bloom with their big pretty flowers. So you get two flowers today. 🌺
We didn’t need to eat anything for dinner, so we just relaxed and enjoyed the evening back at home. We are in a really crummy spot for sunset pictures, so here is an evening shot of the marina from where we sit.
Tomorrow is forecasted to be blazing 🥵 hot. I’m really glad we have air conditioning! I’ll try to do some more safari pictures of Cambridge.