Sat Oct 3: Exploring Solomons

 In which we have the perfect day.....

We couldn't have had a calmer, quieter night and we awoke to a cool morning, refreshed and ready to explore.   It was my favorite weather - shorts and a sweater!

 

Our cul-de-sac during the day.

Since we had a functioning dinghy (!!!) we were ready to go and decided to call the harbor hosts for a recommendation for a restaurant to have breakfast.

 

On the way in to town we saw this boat getting a tow.  We hope to never be in this situation.  But if we are...that's what tow insurance is for.

How cute is my co-captain!

We motored over to the Anglers' Seafood Bar and Grill, tied the dinghy up to the seawall in front of the restaurant and had a great breakfast, complete with Scrapple.   Scrapple - you're not sure exactly what it is, but it is good!

Rick had heard that Solomons has a wonderful maritime museum showing history and culture of the area. That didn't sound like something I would be into, but the price was right so I was willing to stick my nose in.  We ended up basically spending most of the day there!  It was open for two hours intervals, followed by 1/2 hour of cleaning, so we could wonder around the rest of Solomons during the breaks.  It was one of the better museums I have experienced - SO much cool info and artifacts.  Their curator now works for the Smithsonian, and I can see why.

The Meg.

Find the hidden scorpion fish.

I felt badly looking this guy in the eye knowing how much crab we have been eating...

Baby ray - doesn't he look like a cartoon character?!

 

Am I the only one startled to find out that whales come from a mammal that went BACK into the water???  I missed that memo.  Or with my ADHD I just read to the part where fish came out of the water and then got distracted. My mind is blown.

 

We enjoyed the otters just as much as all the little kids.

 

The Drum Point screw-pile lighthouse is now at the museum.  This type of lighthouse used to be common, but they are mostly now gone.  I had been wanting to see one.

 

During one break we walked down the main street of the town to the end of the peninsula.  Being Saturday there were a lot of people around and most of the restaurants were open and doing good business.   Every spare scrap of space is devoted to boats out of the water for the winter.  It looked to us like they were even putting them in people's back yards.

 

The usual loons were out.

But the 'other side' was represented.

 

Back at the museum we enjoyed the whole section on the Calvert Cliffs, which are amazing fossil beds to the north and east of this area.   This is one of the most productive areas for fossil hunting and archeology in the US and many interesting aquatic animal fossils have been found.   There were also exhibits on the history of the Patuxent River and Chesapeake Bay, wood boat carving through to modern engines, fishing, steamboats and tourism, and military activities up to today.  Outside there were a ton of different boats to examine. Eventually I had to go find the exhibit called 'The Gift Shop'.

After our marathon museum visit we were hungry and went back to Anglers Bar and Grill for a bowl of Crab Chowder Soup (we thought it was better then Clam Chowder) and a beer.  Then we got back in the dinghy that had waited for us patiently all day and motored back to the boat where Rick managed to find yet another project.

 

Pumping up the dingy.

 

 It was another lovely, calm night...