To the edge of the earth and beyond

A taste of paradise at Dunn Cove on Tilghman Island

You may think we fell off of the edge but
the past days have been full of adventure on both land and sea. Last Tuesday we ventured to Washington D. C. The evening started with dinner al fresco served at Union Station while watching folks run to catch their train. We took the Metro Rail and thanks to Laura's navagation we found our way to the Washington Monument grounds to hear the U.S. Army band perform a program ending with the 1812 overture replete with the Herald Trumpets, Army Chorus and Cannon Battery from Ft Meyer. Sitting within feet of the monument surrounded with American flags, hearing and seeing the band up close resplendent in dress uniforms was truly a memorable experience. We spent the next few days at our dock armor plating the bow of the boat with stainless steel. Our big anchor has been eating away the stem when we retrieve it so rather than try to repair all of the dings we just formed some heavy stainless plate and tube and screwed it on over the nicks.

We then shoved off Friday for the Choptank River, 5hrs north east of the Solomons, to spend Fri and Sat night anchored in a pristine cove just north of the village on the "Island" which is actually a peninsula. We explored ashore Saturday finding a nice lunch waterside (but isn't everything at Tilghman's waterside) and discovered perhaps the best nautical book store ever. Sunday late morning we weighed anchor and motored 12 miles east to Plaindealing Creek, a mile north of Oxford MD on the Tred Avon River. Oxford is the most charming town we have visited thus far. About the size of a big city block, it is populated with charming little houses, many dating from the 1700's, and not over two stories. A magnificent old Inn built in 1707, could be a movie set, serves the only breakfast in town. Guess where we are off to at 8:00 AM tomorrow.

Oxford deserves at least another day of exploration and then hope to run around the corner and up San Domingo to the south side of St Michaels, possibly the most popular stop on the Eastern Shore. Since we arrived in the bay there has been a shortage of crabs mainly thanks to Joan so I guess we should give St Michaels fair warning.

We have to be back to Solomons Friday as we are leaving Saturday for Hendersonville, NC for my Aunt Fern's 100th birthday party. Be back Monday or Tuesday to a long list of "want to do's". We will see which entries win out. Joan thinks Peach blossom Creek sounds like a good place to look for peach ice cream.

Again, pictures can be found on picasaweb.google.com/lropka in a folder called Choptank. Additional pictures in folder called Oxford St Michaels