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CAMBRIDGE, MD – Eastern Shore, Chesapeake
The town is old and pretty run down but again has some fabulous old buildings from another era. The downtown municipal building is a great old brick building with wonderful towers. The funeral parlor in town is another example of beautiful architecture. There are a few antiques stores with surprising high price tags and a few gift shops trying to give it a try. They definitely seem to be on the upswing and hopefully a new renaissance. And then to our surprise as we rode the streets on our bikes we discovered what you might call the “ghetto”. Tough looking teenagers with long white t-shirts just below their knees, baggy jeans and skull caps, and rap music blaring from broken down buildings. Most were standing around in groups, seemingly with nothing to do. Houses were in bad shape. Broken furniture and junk was piled on the porches or mostly scattered in the yards. Not for a moment did we feel unsafe though. As we rode by with Ziggy in the bike basket, it was always an ice breaker and usually a friendly smile it would create. We wondered at the history of this place and why there could be such extremes in wealth just one block over from each other. What kind of hard times had come to this place? We rode past block after block of old Victorian homes that in its heyday must have been pretty stunning.
We decided to stay here for a few days as the weather surprisingly picked up and there were small craft warnings. It wasn’t anything that Knotty Dog couldn’t handle but why fight it? We needed a break from the constant traveling and sightseeing and this was a good place to hang out. Though there weren’t many restaurants in town and not much to see in the way of sightseeing. We had no real incentive or fear of guilt for not going out everyday and trying to see all that there was to see. Down the Choptank River a couple miles, past the big bridge that anchors Cambridge and crosses the River to the other neck where Oxford and St. Michael’s reside is the new Hyatt Resort. We had heard about it from other boaters as “the place to go”. We decided against it because it was ridiculously expensive for dock space and we really aren’t into all the amenities that you’d be paying for such as the pool, golf, tennis, spa and in-house restaurants. We thought we’d ride up to it on the bikes or if the winds subsided, take the dinghy for lunch and check it out and maybe have lunch. CLICK ON
ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE
This is a significant stop for us in one respect because we were finally able to turn the AC off as the weather had definitely changed. We for the first time sit comfortably out the back deck without getting overheated and drenched in perspiration. Has autumn finally arrived? If so, it’s great for a change. We’ve been traveling since January (now it’s September) and we’ve had nothing but beastly hot weather and humidity. I almost forgot what it was like to actually be able to put long pants and a light jacket on. We’ve been watching the TV daily as Hurricane Frances has been creating havoc in Florida. We’re wondering if that’s why the weather has changed and is it going to come up this way? There’s one restaurant in town located on the inlet that looked like a place we’d like to try and really was the only one we could find for the first few days. It was located just down the alley between some of the big houses on the main street. You’d never know it was there unless you saw it from the water as you crossed the small lift bridge. It’s called Snapper’s. It’s your typical Chesapeake place with crab on the menu but this one also had a whole menu of Mexican food and Italian food. There was so much stuff on this menu; I wondered how they could offer all the different foods. They had indoor dining in the air conditioned room, and then a covered open air patio or deck, and then you could eat on some picnic tables on the brick patio below that on the dock area where the small boats come and tie up. That’s where we had to eat if Ziggy came along. This is where the ducks hang out and there’s plenty of duck poop. We found the table with the least amount of duck poop on the ground and sat down. We had a nice waiter and he would chuckle each time he came to the table because the winds were blowing 10-15 + knots and we had to devise paper weights to keep the cocktail napkins in place. At one point it even sprinkled but we held our ground. I couldn’t resist ordering Mexican food as we haven’t had any (or I should say ‘good’ Mexican food) since we left on our trip. I was served the biggest burrito I’ve ever seen and piled on each side were enough refried beans and rice for five people. Larry ordered a quesadilla “loaded”. Again, the east coast doesn’t have a clue about Mexican food but they weren’t shy in giving you plenty on your plate. We enjoyed our lunch and watched as the ducks nibbled mucky green stuff off the pilings.
DUCKS RULE By the way ducks rule on the Chesapeake. They are everywhere and they are tame as pets or should I say, the minute they see you eating, they come marching or paddling over, friendly as could be. The mom’s will bring the babies and train them in the art of begging or squawking until you throw them something just to shut them up but this only encourages them more. That is your first mistake because the seagulls, though unseen, are mysteriously watching you the whole time from unknown places and the minute you throw some food out, they swarm in over everyone’s head and you know what might happen then. Then you are embarrassed that you threw that left over piece of bread. You are sure that everyone is disgusted with you for getting the birds all stirred up and who are now pooping on everything. There’s no acting innocent as they all know who did it. Same thing happens on the boat. The ducks know ahead of time exactly what time dinner is and they start making the rounds in the marinas. They go from one boat to another squawking to remind you they are there in case you are inside and don’t see them and if nothing produces from the galley window, they don’t waste time at your boat but head on to find a “softy.” If you do throw some goodies to them, they are your pals for life or for the duration of the visit or stay at the marina. They never let you out of their sight. They hide under the dock or other places and watch for you. There’s a boat just down the dock from us. Everyday two toothless old salts sit in their cockpit and put hard kernels of corn on their swim deck to feed the ducks. At night, when we take Zig out, the men are gone, but about 8 ducks are lined up on their swim step and have taken over residence, settled in for the evening. They spend the night on the swim step which is usually loaded with a couple piles of dry corn for midnight snacks I guess. I fed the ducks in DC and actually felt slighted when a storm came and they didn’t come for a few days. In St. Michael’s, it was swans. They are much more elegant. There was a beautiful mom and dad who had four almost full grown babies that were still grey in color. We laughed, as every late afternoon, or early evening, they would make their way from somewhere in the back creek, and slowly head over to the Crab Claw Restaurant for a “hand out.” It was like a family going out to dinner. I loved to watch them as they preened themselves across the harbor, before dinner, like getting cleaned up and dressed for a meal out, and then in single file, head on over for whatever might be on the menu that night. In the Solomon’s, I would watch early in the morning as a single swan would make it’s rounds sometimes by himself or sometimes he would join in with a group of ducks. Somehow, there is something very sad about seeing a single swan. As you probably know, they mate for life, and he must have lost his mate, so now he makes his way alone. He really seemed sad and somehow he seemed too elegant to hang out with those loud mouthed ducks. Then in Oxford, we met up with a “gang of waterfowl”. I call them this because they were a real mix. There were no swans in this group. Swans would be too sophisticated for these ruffians. They were like a gang of mixed ducks, all kinds of breeds, all sizes, and three big white geese. They were renegades if I ever saw any. There was some mixed breading too. One of the ducks was a mix of black and white spots, nothing that Mother Nature would produce in repetition I’m sure. They hung out in a group and were tough with those big fat geese out front protecting the rest. They weren’t afraid of Ziggy either. Ziggy couldn’t budge them as he likes to run up to groups of seagulls, etc. to make them fly off in a dramatic cloud of flapping squawking birds, but no way with these thugs. They held their ground and the geese would hiss and make awful loud honking noises at him. Ziggy was a little embarrassed by the whole thing and tried to act like he was just heading over that way for a “little pee” on a small pitiful weed that he conveniently found that some how made his embarrassing run over to scare them somehow look OK. Our first exposure to ducks was when we were heading up the Intracoastal in North Carolina. They began to show up big time. Those miles of rivers and marsh areas that we passed were loaded with ducks, duck blinds and hunting lodges. Now in the Chesapeake, we don’t see signs of hunting, though I’m sure it exists. We just see symbols everywhere like they were cherished, not hunted. We see a whole industry of artful decoys beautifully carved and painted. Some are antique and some are new and some are done by people that you make you want to collect them. There are painted and carved plaques for bed and breakfasts and hotels with beautifully carved, painted ducks and swans on them. They’re everywhere except on the dinner table. MARINA While we’re here for a few days taking a break from sightseeing, there is plenty of sightseeing in the marina. It was nonstop people watching from the boat yesterday and the day before. The winds had picked up to 12 to 15 knots in the marina and everyone was having a heck of a time getting around in their boats. We saw several near misses and many that got hung up on the end of piers as the winds pushed them against them. Many would go and tie up at the wrong dock and then a few minutes later move to another, each time having great difficulty. Most were in their foul weather gear as it must have been pretty choppy out on the Bay or the Choptank. The women are usually standing out on the front of the bow holding lines as the husband is in the back doing his best to steer them in. One big 50 foot sailboat came in and she looked like a little Donald Duck out on the bow in her yellow rubber foul weather gear. I almost fainted when I saw this middle aged woman jump off the bow to the dock, about 5 feet, to land in a huge ”whomp” to try to get the boat tied up. She had been hanging on the outside of the rails of the boat and could easily have been crushed between the boat and the piers as her husband bastardized the art of docking. Her husband was driving that thing all over the place barely missing boats and docks as did a 360 degree turn much faster than we could imagine possible. They didn’t have a clue as to how to tie the lines and once at the dock were running back and forth trying to figure out where everything went. We wondered what they were doing on this big 50 foot boat. There was another couple a black man and white middle aged woman. They wandered around the marina for hours. We couldn’t figure it out. She patiently stood on the bow with her boat hook looking like she was holding a staff. She was so wobbly and weak that we didn’t know what she thought she was going to do with that stick. He got them stuck several times against the pilings and would spend hours pushing with his hands on the piers trying to free it. The wind wasn’t that bad but everyone seemed to get themselves stuck. He spent most of his time doing this and away from the helm. She never left her post with the boat hook. There was nothing we could do nor anyone else unless you had a power boat to pull them away. People would walk by and stand a look at them and then wander on. We finally got bored and went to read or fix lunch. We never did see how they got free. Then there was an older couple that had a small trawler type boat. He was coming down the channel and at the same time out comes a huge sailboat from one of the lanes. No one bothered to wait for the other to pass but just kept coming. As they barely missed each other passing he got too close to the piers and got stuck there. The wind kept pushing him up against the piers. When he finally managed to get off after scrapping his boat, front and back, he managed to get in the main channel and nearly missed two other boats! It was incredible As the day went on, the winds on the Choptank really picked up and it was getting pretty rough out there. We were amazed to see another small trawler type heading out into it with about seven people (including woman and children) all sitting up on top on the fly bridge. It was so top heavy and was flopping back and forth in the winds and seas we were really alarmed and afraid for them. We couldn’t believe they would go out like that in a boat so unstable full of people. It looked very dangerous. It was non stop crazy entertainment in the marina all day long. Larry finally put some fenders on the outside of the boat just for protection. We spent the next few days watching the leftovers of Hurricane Frances go by. We saw the edges of the huge black clouds slowly but swiftly wandering the skies looking for another place to create havoc. It was like a huge black monster but fortunately he was about out of juice. He was big and strong still, hard to imagine him bigger than this down south. FOR EXCITEMENT We certainly got our exercise here as it was a few miles to the grocery store. The grocery store was located on the main road coming off the bridge (HWY 50. That area is your typical Bad America. Its one Burger King, Mc Donald’s, Wendy’s after another. We had to ride that way to get to the grocery store at some ghost town mall that the Fresh Produce was the only thing that had survived a bad economic time. A big night for us was one night after dinner; we all piled on the bikes and rode to the Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone. This Dairy Queen was so busy. It had a line outside a mile long. You could also buy farm produce at the Dairy Queen! So I we bought three ice cream cones and a bag of fresh tomatoes. One morning, as we were riding our bikes, searching for anything that resembled something like a Starbucks or a bakery, for morning coffee, a roll or bagel, the only thing we could find, remotely close to it, was the Dunkin Donuts. So we got some coffee and indulged in the decadence of greasy donuts on the side of the highway. Other times we would just ride the bikes in the complete opposite direction, down the country rode, west of town along the waterfront, and see the water lapping the shore and some beautiful old homes facing the Choptank. THE PEOPLE The people here are simple and friendly. The guy down the dock has been daily working away at restoring his old wooden boat. You can tell it’s a labor of love and he is ecstatic if you ask about his boat. He said he and his dad restored it but that his dad had long passed away. I noted that the boat was named “Old Dad”. At the foot of the dock is the town police boat which looks like a small day runabout, nothing fast or slick and even has a crab trap on the back lazarette! A friendly police woman runs the boat and one day brought her parents down to look at our boat. We were here on Labor Day Weekend and it was quiet as a church mouse. This was the only place we could get in on this busy holiday as St. Michaels and Oxford were reserved or booked. Too bad the weather was so bad the whole weekend for everyone. At the conclusion of the holiday, there was the mass exodus. You could see everyone packing up and leaving, and boat after boat going by on the Choptank heading home towards Annapolis or Baltimore. It was like the Interstate on the Choptank watching them all go back. TIDE There is an amazing phenomenon about the Chesapeake. When the winds blow a certain direction they will actually affect the tides and depths of the bay! Having sat here at Cambridge for a few days in semi stormy or windy conditions, we saw the tide rise beyond what is normal and it has stayed at this height because the winds have been constant. During these conditions you do not see the normal up and down cycle or the tides. The winds have blown more water in to the Chesapeake and are keeping it there until the winds settle or change direction. If they were blowing a different direction we would have less depth and water. It’s truly amazing! DOWNTOWN The more we went downtown the more we discovered. There are several shops that don’t really have signs out front but that are open. We found a really nice restaurant hidden in the back of a restaurant supply store. They have some wonderful antique shops and we as were exploring the antique shops we noticed a store that actually makes guitars and other musical instruments by hand. You could watch this craftsman at his work through the store front window. We did find a gourmet food shops where we went every afternoon for cappuccinos. We’d enjoy sitting out on their outside benches and drink coffee. Everyone would stop and say “hello”. This town has some really friendly wonderful people. It’s a real mix of people, blacks and whites. The store keepers are very friendly by talking to one storekeeper, she told us about a little coffee shop on the corner that doesn’t even have a sign out front. The locals say it’s really great food, like an old diner and hasn’t changed since the 50’s. You’d never know it was there unless someone told you about it. We loved it. I spoke with one shopkeeper who is on the town design committee and she says there is a real renaissance going on. Many of the stores that look like they are vacant are all “spoken for”. The Hyatt has brought in many new visitors and there seems to be a renovation going on. The buildings have great potential as the architecture is stunning. It just needs some loving care. I’m sure this place will look totally different in the next few years. Many people are coming in and buying up the beautiful old homes and beginning restoration projects. I’m so glad to hear this because this town truly has some great bones to work with and some really nice people. ON to Heading South & ONANCOCK
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Just
an hour and a half, hop, skip and jump from Oxford on the Choptank River and we
are tied up at the Cambridge Municipal Dock. We are by far the biggest boat in
here and possibly the only power boat. The bow of the boat is hanging out
beyond the end of the T-dock but they don’t seem to mind. It ‘s a nice marina
with good sturdy wooden docks, good power and water and a nice big tree lined
park along the water front which is great for Ziggy to run on. Nearby on the
point by the marina is a circle drive where their token
