Harve de Grace, MD
August 25- 30, 2017

Nestled at the mouth of the beautiful Susquehanna River and the northern Chesapeake Bay, Harve de Grace cherishes its rich history and small-town charm. This compact town with friendly people, neat shops and restaurants with beautiful views is not to be missed when traveling on the Chesapeake. When we arrived Friday afternoon, our neighbors tipped us off to the next day's Farmers' Market .They encouraged us to get there early before the much in demand homemade breakfast sandwiches were gone. We whiled away a couple of hours buying fresh produce to restock our gallery and listening to the vendors' stories. We felt connected to the community. Later we visited the Harve de Grace Maritime Museum which tells the area's story going back 400 years. It was one of the most comprehensive museums we have seen on this trip. A climb to the top of the Concord Point Lighthouse offered us the view of the Susquehanna River from the same vantage point as the villagers who saw the British invade 200 years ago.

Harve de Grace is the Decoy Capital of the World. Waterfowl carving is a highly respected regional art form. We watched as a 40 year-veteran carver at the Harve de Grace Decoy Museum put the final touches on a very realistic-looking duck.

Pete hiked the trail north of Harve de Grace along the Susquehanna River. An old long abandoned railway wound along the river side. The scenery was spectacular.

Only one of us is into shopping so we did not spend much time in the shops although we both enjoyed "taking a step back in time" and browsing in Baboukas Antique Mall and Beer MuZeum. For those born in the 50's, 60's, and 70's you can re-live your childhood here with the many vintage toys, comic books, and memorabilia from the past. If you are a beer connoisseur you are likely to find your favorites in the extensive beer can collection housed here.

While in HDG, we rented a car and took an overnight road trip to a few of the next destinations we were sailing to and checked out the marina facilities. This was helpful as we altered our schedule based on these "site" visits. Driving enabled us to enjoy quite a bit of the scenic Chesapeake Bay countryside. HDG is also where we were when Hurricane Harvey struck Houston. Typically as with most marinas, we had limited television access and were grateful for information relayed to us from friends and family in Houston regarding our home.

From Harve de Grace, we continued on to Rock Hall, MD.


Rock Hall, Maryland
August 30- Sept.4, 2017

Rock Hall is a quaint Eastern Shore community, home to boaters, crabbers, artists and other small business owners. In an earlier time it was an important tobacco port and later was a major fishing and crabbing center. The marina located on Swan Creek was very picturesque and full of local boaters celebrating Labor Day Weekend. We took the Rock Hall Trolley into town to check out the town and restaurants. We had a delicious meal at the famous Waterman's Crab House Restaurant and Dock Bar ending the meal with a piece of Smith Island Cake- the official dessert of Maryland.- nine thin layers of cake with icing in between the layers. Umm....

Laid-back Rock Island was a welcome break in our hectic schedule. It was a great opportunity for us to relax for a few days before cruising to Baltimore on Labor Day

Take care,
Barbara and Captain Pete