So Long, Summer

Summer on the Chesapeake is not a perfect season, but I sure hate to see it go. Summer 2011 showed us its terrible temper in plenty of ways: weeks in the stew pot, torrential rains, gale-force winds or none at all, stink bugs on the peaches, mosquitoes on me. But such moods don’t overshadow my love for the thrill of a breeze, the exuberance of the leaves, the moment to seize.
    For summer does not stay. The pool where I swim opens only one more day, inviting humans in for a few hours, then going to the dogs. The sun sets not long after 7pm. Stinkbugs are already scratching at my screens to come in.
    I’d be pretty sad were not autumn awaiting with its own overflowing cornucopia.
    I’ll have time on my hands with no more pool. Getting out on autumn’s gorgeous Chesapeake is high on my list, and my husband is eager to keep after top-water fish following his success with Sporting Life columnist Dennis Doyle.
    But the news I read in our own Bay Weekly, especially in 8 Days a Week and our advertisements, keeps distracting me.
    This weekend and last compete with the early weeks of December for the fullest of the year. I suspect that if you knock on any door in Chesapeake Country, you’d find somebody in the household — director, dancer, actor, artist, musician, gardener, yogi, restaurateur — who has a hand in creating this cultural whirl.
    So these weekends could be your busiest. Last weekend, I managed only nine events. This weekend, more are tugging at me.
    My favorites are events that draw us into the history and culture of Chesapeake Country.
    Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon, you can step back a century in time to hear concerts in Chesapeake Beach Resort’s all-new band shell, modeled on the 1910 original.
    Thursday through Sunday, you can help celebrate the opening of the new Old Stein, reborn into its 28th year after its New Year’s Eve Fire.
    Ah, but conflicts abound. So you’ll have to make tough choices among pleasures.
    On Saturday, September 17, living in the historic present might as easily call you to Annapolis to the Taste of Ireland fundraiser for the historic Charles Carroll House.
    Or to the 7th annual Boatyard Beach Bash to eat, drink and dance out summer in support of the historic Annapolis Maritime Museum. From Boatyard Bar and Grill, you could hike over to City Dock to see the classic wooden sailboats rendezvous-ed for racing the next day.
    While in Solomons, you can Cruise on Calvert Marine Museum’s historic buyboat Wm. B. Tennison.
    On the other hand, you just might have to spend all weekend driving the Lighthouse Challenge, visiting 10 lighthouses and one light ship up and down the Bay from Havre de Grace to the Potomac.
    Maritime history lovers have tough choices among autumn’s early pleasures.
    So do dancers. Saturday night, you can dance at the Annapolis Traditional Dance Society’s monthly contra dance … or a country dance hosted by the American Legion in Chesapeake Beach. Or you could watch as the dancers of Ballet Theatre of Maryland lure you to their art. Or wait until Tuesday to foxtrot and samba with the Davidsonville Dance Club.
    Yogis will also be twisted with indecision this weekend, when you’re invite to stretch at United Nations’ International Peace Day Saturday morning at the Leonardtown Wharf in St. Mary’s County … at sunrise Sunday on the North Beach Boardwalk … and at sunset Tuesday at Jonas Green Park in Annapolis.
    Festival lovers may have the hardest choices of all, with Crownsville drawing you to return to the Renaissance or to the farm life at the Anne Arundel County Fair, both running Saturday and Sunday. And on Sunday, you’ve just got to get to our state capital for the Annapolis Fall Festival on State Circle and Maryland Avenue.
    Meanwhile, art lovers are divided by their own conflicts, with Muddy Creek Artists Guild, at Greenstreet Gardens for the first time, and Annmarie Garden’s Artsfest at Solomons competing for your attention both days.
    Theater-goers have an added conflict. You’ll have to make time Friday, Saturday or Sunday to figure out who done it (even the actors don’t know) in Colonial Players’ Annapolis production of Agatha Christie’s The Unexpected Guest.
    And that’s just the half of it. Turn or log onto 8 Days a Week for as much and more.
    I hope your summer was restful. Keeping up with autumn’s schedule is going to take some get up and go.
    Find full particulars in 8 Days and Week and, on Chesapeake Beach Resort Band Shell and on The Old Stein Inn, in our feature stories.