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Eastern Shore Or Bust...

I have been trying for the past month or so to get over to a section of Maryland that I have heard MUCH about... but never been to. It is referred to as the Eastern Shore... though I don't know why - because I would refer to Ocean City as the Eastern SHORE! LOL! But the area to which I refer is the St. Michaels / Tilghman Island area -- another peninsula / island along the Chesapeake Bay. I haven't been able to get there because other things have gotten in the way... birthdays and Mount Vernon and more birthdays and such... oh and the ever threatening - but never appearing weather! I can't tell you how many days I haven't taken this day trip due to it was SUPPOSED to rain all day - and indeed looked like it MIGHT! Yesterday it looked like it MIGHT too - but I decided to call it's bluff! I'm glad I did!

Before you get excited, you should know that this adventure was a BUST! Well... not entirely a bust... we did have fun! But it was NOT at all what I expected it to be! I wanted to go over and take pictures of watermen and fowl and dilapidated structures. And I was really HOPING to find and old abandoned gas station where I could get a picture of a real old timey gas pump for my Photo Hunt! Sometimes hearing too much about a place is bad... especially if you read it in a book or a magazine where the author is using poetic license to make a place sound like something with MUCH more character than it really has! NOT that these places don't have character... it's just that most of the character has been bought up by the rich and proclaimed "off limits" to the rest of the world now. It's sooooo sad. I'm not going to go there today - but this is an issue that I have had GREAT discussions with God about for a long long time... and I've blogged it before.

So what DID I find? Well, on Tilghman Island I found ... not much! I think I drove the entire island - every street that wasn't marked private, and there just really isn't much there! The far end of the island has mostly been demolished and rebuilt with brand new high end luxury housing. The near end is still quite quaint and has two restaurants -- we had dinner at one of them - it was good but not great and was disrupted toward the end by a party of 4 men who MUST have been watermen - cuz they certainly cussed like sailors and as loud as they pleased! They are probably the the four who keep the place in business, because on a Friday evening it wasn't well populated, and those of us who were there, and complaining about them, couldn't make them go away! Apparently their everyday money trumps our piddly little tourist money! Let's just say that I was not impressed with "the character" of Tilghman Island. (but I bet Jientje could make it look just like the infamous "they" say it is!) LOL!


St. Michael's on the other hand, was lovely! It was not what I thought - in that I really expected it to be much more run down too... but again - I guess it doesn't take long for Money to hear the same stuff I hear, and go gobble it up and "fix" it. However... it is ONLY being "fixed" -- and the character is being maintained. There were several pretty little B&B's off on the side streets. Talbot street - the "main street" is lined with adorable little shops and Mom and I really did enjoy looking around.

Coming out of one of the shops, I found my self smack dab in front of this very pretty church. I would like to go back and explore it a little further. It has it's own cemetery and just sits pretty as you please right there in the midst of all that shopping! I'm sure that gives the Pastor enough excuse to preach on tithing! LOL! It is interesting how often in these little old towns the church IS right there in the "town square" so to speak... I like that!

There is also a Museum on St. Michaels ... maybe a couple of them, and a historical society - which most likely accounts for the town being preserved rather than rebuilt! We often think of historical societies as being boring ho hum little elitest groups -- but they really DO serve a wonderful purpose! Without THEM our entire world would be chrome and glass... and vinyl siding... I didn't go into the museum... that wasn't what my agenda was about this day. Another day perhaps. I did walk past it though... and this lovely little park... with the darling little couple sitting enjoying the beautiful day...

posted by Melli at 9:11 AM