AS our last actual “vacation” day, today’s goal was to find some fun stuff near us in Maryland. If you’ve been following this trip, you know that we camped in Callaway. “Why?” you might wonder. Well for the deciding reason that I could find a campsite with these two nights available. I planned this trip after we knew that Gillian would be performing in a summer show. She has a limited number of excused rehearsals, and we maximized this opportunity by combining her June and July days off. That also meant that we would be traveling over the 4th of July. A holiday weekend, with the holiday on the Sunday. And the summer when pandemic restrictions are letting up. And people seem to feel better driving. RV sales are UP and camping sites can be difficult to find. Hence, Callaway, MD. For Maryland, I actually reversed my usual planning and had to book a campsite first. THEN, I started looking for attractions to visit.
So, what did we see? Maryland continued to be a challenging state. I had initially hoped to camp near Annapolis, but that was an absolute no go finding a site. Post booking a spot at the “Take It Easy” RV park, I had 4 options. Option 1 was immediately scrapped, as the drive was unappealing at this state in the trip. Options 2, 3 and 4 were put to the vote. Winner, Option 2. Option 2 was to Point Lookout State Park. In confirming directions, times, and dog friendliness, Greg happened upon the MD State Park Twitter and discovered that they were closed (pretty much every state park) due to being “at capacity”. Yes, the park is 99% outside (there is a museum/ visitor area?) so I don’t know how they determine a safe number, but I had not anticipated Point Lookout State Park as being a hotbed of activity. Live and learn. We reflected on Options 3 (Historic Sotterly Plantation) and 4 (Historic St. Mary’s City). Option 4 won, as it was both close, and open.
But first, lunch! Maryland, why do you make things so hard? Where do people eat lunch? Ryan saved the day by finding Courtney’s Seafood Restaurant. Located in Ridge, MD at the end of a road, on what I think was a river, and possibly an RV park, Courtney’s has obviously been in the area for a long time. There was a steady stream of diners, and we joined in. If you end up at Courtney’s in Ridge, try the crab dip, and allow an ample time for dining. Also, if you are there on the weekend of July 4th, look for the manakin in the patriotic bikini. There must be a story there somewhere!
Quite a bit of time had passed since we check on Lookout, and we were close, so we drove by on the off chance they were letting more cars in. They were not. Back to Historic St. Mary’s we went. Thanks to lunching at 2:00, it was 3:00 when we arrived to purchase tickets. Their networks were down, so they could only take cash (which was ok, thank goodness!). They closed all indoor exhibits at 4:00 (also ok, ‘cause we can look fast when we need to!). And the notice about no photography without prior written permission only applied to professionals, so we were in the clear. We did get a reduced admission fee since we came so close to closing. We didn’t bring Kevin since it said no dogs, but then there were dogs, they just needed to be leashed. We know now.
We were able to see some interesting things nonetheless. St. Mary’s City was Maryland’s first European settlement and capital. They have period reenactments of various colonial things. The printing demonstration was neat, but we skimped on it so we could be sure to make it to a the Maryland Dove, a re-creation of Dove, one of the two ships that made the first trip to Maryland from England in the early 17th century. Dove was the smaller of the two. This re-creation still sails and is used regularly. Personally, I would not have enjoyed crossing the Atlantic in it. We were also able to see the State Building, Trinity Church, various other buildings, a deer in a field, and Richard and Margaret (a pair of osprey’s with 2 babies in their nest).
*Telling note: Audrey AND Greg were both hucking black walnuts at Gillian when she wasn’t looking.
Heading back to the RV and Kevin, we stopped for ices (thank you Greg). Bonus sighting! SpongeBob Ross! Of course we stopped again for another picture! Wouldn’t you? We ended up being out for quite awhile, so we opted to order dinner and stay in. We ended our last night Facetiming Elizabeth and having family game night with all 6 of us. I miss trips with all 6 of us, but at least they all feed themselves now. Well, mostly!
Tomorrow is our long drive home to Tennessee. New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland (plus we’ve visited Virginia and West Virginia on a previous trip)—done. Mid-Atlantic states? Check!
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