St. Michaels, MD - My 5 Days

9-26-14 – St. Michaels, MD – My 5 Days

Sydney taking a break at the gas station on the way.

It’s tough to be the new guy.  Mostly because you don’t get much vacation, and after coming off a year long perpetual vaca.  Having the privilege of getting 10 whole days to myself seems somewhat pathetic.   I know it’s been about a year and a half since we returned to the work a day life, but the trip still haunts me, especially in these situations.  Like the high school football player who won the state championship, someday I’ll stop talking about “the trip”, forgive me if its 20 years from now.

So we have 5 days, a 8 month old baby and the desire to do something interesting.  The west coast is a long way away, we like the water; at least we like to be near big water because your dreams seem to reflect the size of the body of water you are near.  I guess that leaves the East coast.  In all honesty I don’t really know how we came up with St. Michaels as a destination.  In the end Elizabeth said this place looks cool, we can get a cottage overlooking the boat  yard and harbor and the price was reasonable.  I’m in, oh yea….where is this place? That’s irrelevant, ocean is ocean, boats are boats and not at home is not at home.  It’s mellow enough to take Sydney, new enough to be adventurous, not a “once in a lifetime” trip, and not overly active that a baby couldn’t tag along.

Roberts Cottage.  Not big, but perfect

Hanging out in the front yard

It turned out great.  I’ve never really been to the Chesapeake Bay area.  Apparently, everything was built in the early 1800’s out there, so there is a lot of history if you’re into that sort of thing.  I can’t say enough about the 2 Swan Inn and the little cottage we stayed at, Roberts Cottage.  Maybe it’s because we lived on a boat for a year or because somehow we are just ok with simple things especially when we have time, but the little cottage fit us perfectly.  It’s not big, and it seems that most people had spent a long week end there, not a whole week.  But we did fine and enjoyed it all.

We had lots of oysters at the Crab Claw?!

What do you do in St. Michales for a week?  In reality, not much.  Especially with an 8 month old baby.  We ate at some good places, had oysters (a couple of times)  Kept the brewery and coffee shop in business, and searched aimlessly for little pieces of hidden trash, strategically placed around the area.  I guess this is called geocaching.  While Sydney took naps in her car seat, we would pull out the red Solo cups and sit behind the car and look out at the water from some public park or another.  The lawn of the Two Swann Inn looks out over the harbor, and it’s hard not to enjoy a bottle of wine and some play time with your baby there.  We even spent a few hours shopping at the tourist shops, and there are a bunch of them.  In reality it was a little weird to transition to actually being a tourist and not a traveler.  But we managed to do so and ate at the popular restaurants, bought souvenirs and generally spent money like we were on vacation.  We even took Syd for a couple of jogs around the neighbor hoods that look out over the Chesapeake. 

   

E & S hanging out on the law

Daddy I want a boat.

So that was my 5 days.  Pretty Cool.

View from the lawn at the Two Swan Inn