Welcome to Chesapeake Bay summer, where the livin' is easy, the fish are jumpin' and the sweet corn is high. Summer on the Bay is magic, the time when rewards come our way for work and perseverance all year long.
Summer is the time to grab hold of life's great offerings. Once more this millennial summer, Bay Weekly's "Indispensable Guide to Summer on the Bay" brings you 101 ways to harvest the delicious pleasures of summer. We've not only enumerated the positives but also wrung fun from the negatives, so even the bugs of summer have their place on our list.
As you will see, you don't have to travel far and spend big to enjoy the Bay. So read on, make your plans and plunge ahead into the wonders that await you along the beautiful and beckoning Chesapeake.
1. Read Bay Weekly
Look for new installments of Bay life, lore and pleasures every Thursday in Bay Weekly, the newspaper for people committed to the Chesapeake. Pick up your copy, free, at any of over 400 distribution points, throughout Anne Arundel and Calvert counties from Severna Park to Annapolis to Solomons.
Subscriptions are available, $50 for 1 year, $75 for 2 years or 2 subscriptions. Send check, Mastercard, Visa or American Express to Bay Weekly: P.O. Box 358; Deale, MD 20751. 410/867-0304 or 800/579-0304.
2. Greet a Sunrise
Sunrise to sunset, your summer days should be filled with all that is wonderful. However, there are times when you could just use a quiet moment to reflect. One morning try getting up before the sun. Grab a cup of coffee or juice and sneak away.
Sunrise on the Bay is always impressive. The sky glows with color and the silhouettes of the crab boats pull your thoughts out on the water with them. Take in some deep breaths and relax. Don't think about the workday, or all that you have to do. Think about the water and the sun and how lucky you are to be a part of it this morning.
Water is not the only canvas for a sunrise. Your own back yard at daybreak can awaken your soul too. You may find spiderwebs glistening with dew in places that afternoon hides. You also will be surprised to see how much of Mother Nature's world is already up and chirping. No wonder bird watchers are out at this time of day.
Anyone can be up at sunrise, but that does not mean they are taking the time to enjoy it.
3. Get Outdoors
Just as plants get potbound, people get housebound and - worse - officebound. Getting outdoors puts us back in our element, for we are children of nature. Remember the myth of Antaeus? This ancient Greek hero was an unbeatable wrestler, because every time an opponent threw him down, the earth recharged him.
Use this millennial summer to rediscover how wind and water, sun and sky recharge you. Many of these 101 Ways lead the way.
4. Discover a Bay Beach
Bay beaches lack the great sweep of their ocean cousins. Cut to a human scale, most can be measured in footsteps. They're scarce, too, for nowadays development has closed up most Western Shore waterfront. So when you've found a Chesapeake beach, you've found a treasure.
Bay beaches are most accessible by water. Cruise the shore till you find a sandy, deserted strip. If your boat is big then swim, raft or dinghy in. In kayak or canoe, where you're already close in, help yourself. Beaches belong to all of us up to median high tide line, but be a gentle, considerate beachgoer.
By land, at the head of the Bay, Elk Neck State Park offers gorgeous beaches. So does Sandy Point State Park, right under the Bay Bridge (you'll pay park admission).
Many mid-Bay beaches are in Calvert County. North Beach boasts what may be the last free public beach on the Bay. Farther south, visit Calvert County's Breezy Point Park (six miles south of Chesapeake Beach on Route 261) or Flag Ponds Nature Park or private Matoaka Beach Cabins (Calvert Beach Road), where you'll pay a small admission fee. The lovely Flag Ponds Nature Park has not only a substantial beach but also a fishing pier.
Or take a longer walk to Calvert Cliffs State Park, passing from the woods to the wide-open spaces of a Bay beach. Hike 1.8 miles through woods, walk the boardwalk and look down on the work of the busy beavers. Mountain laurel, tulip poplar and sassafras rim the trail that leads you out to the magnificence of the Bay. But don't walk on or beneath the fossil-laden cliffs. They're very unstable.
Adventuresome beach-goers can trek to the southern extremes of the Western Shore in St. Mary's County. At Point Lookout State Park, you'll find tall pines, fishing areas, campsites, Civil War historic sites and the still-active lighthouse in addition to sandy shores.
If you like what you find on your daytrip, you can pitch your tent at Breezy Point or Elk Neck or Point Lookout State parks. Or you can rent a primitive Matoaka Beach cabin.
Where ever you find it, treat your treasure with loving care. Leave no litter behind!
5. Do a Lap Around the Bay
Faraway places are fine, but there's no tour we enjoy more than an auto trip 'round the Bay.
Get a map and plot your blend of quaint villages, Bay cities and water spots. Use this Bay Weekly list for ideas or get a couple of guidebooks in the Regional/Traveling section of your library or bookstore. Two we always take are Whitey Schmidt's Bay Tripper in two volumes for Eastern and Western Shores.
In a few days, you can do a leg. Try Annapolis to Point Lookout and up the Potomac. Or Stevensville to Chincoteague (we admit it; we can't resist crossing to the ocean down there where Delmarva thins out). Allow yourself a week to make a full circuit, which will take you through one of the wonders of Chesapeake Country - the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
Wherever we've traveled, following side roads to their ends has always given us some of our best discoveries. We found Elk Neck State Park, in the north, that way, and in the south the Crisfield ferry to the Bay's islands out of time - Tangier or Smith, the latter of which is the subject of Tom Horton's island encounter, Island out of Time. Another Chesapeake Country writer, John Sherwood, perfected that strategy for his book Maryland's Vanishing Lives, which is another fine traveling companion.
Give yourself time to get out, take a look around, smell the air, maybe stay awhile. Bringing a sketch pad gives you reason to linger.
6. Go Boating
There may be no better way to spend a summer's day than cruising the Bay. Here's one reason: No matter how oppressively hot it may be, there's always a breeze out on the water.
Here's another: With each spot in competition to outdo the beauty of the last, you know you're going to find something wonderful at every turn.
Here's a third: When you're on the water, you always seem to find that you've left your cares behind on shore.
Here's the clincher: If not this summer, when is that someday when we're finally going to take time out to be in, with and surrounded by this beautiful place we live?
In our estuarine environment, you'll find a multitude of ways (in the real world and in these 101 Ways) to go about boating, from rowboating, canoeing and kayaking to powerboating and sailing. If you don't have your own boat, you can rent or charter, from a kayak to the sail- or powerboat of your dreams - bareboat or captained - to the Pauline, an 87-foot floating wooden inn run by Capt. Ted and cook Samantha Jaggers (Chesapeake Yacht Charters: 410/266-9060).
Chesapeake Bay is the easiest place in the world to combine your boating with fishing on a fishing charter (see Way 18). Or - if fishing's not your thing - charter Capt. Jeff Sander's rasa, whose motto is "anything but fishing" (301/261-5857).
7. Take a 360-Degree View
Feel hemmed in by the demands of daily life? There's no better relief for that complaint than stepping back to see the big picture.
A boat's a fine place to get that distance. Unless you're fishing at a favorite hole or docked in a busy marina, there's little to break your view. The sky's above, the water below and the horizon circles a full 360 degrees around you. It's a great big universe out there, and you're but one point on the compass. What a relief.
Without a boat, you can get the same effect at the end of a pier or the top of a tall tree or building. Go for it.
8. Stock Up at a Farm Market
Farm markets are brimming with the harvests of summer, with new bounty coming in weekly: cherries, strawberries, corn (see Way 72, Shuck an Ear of Corn) with tomatoes, squash, peaches on the near horizon. Field sides are flush with stands - from truck tailgates to covered arenas - offering locally grown crops. Stop in for your share: They're everywhere, and every day's menu is new.
Anne Arundel County has five formal farmers' markets and Calvert County has one, so you won't have to go far to shop fresh.
Annapolis Farmers' Market: Truman Parkway and Riva Road in Annapolis: Saturdays 7am-noon, 410/798-5083.
Village Green North: Across Crofton Parkway from the Crofton Country Club in Crofton Saturdays 8-11am, 410/721-2301;
Severna Park Market: MTA Park & Ride Lot on Jones Station Road: Saturdays 7am-noon, 410/841-5770;
Piney Orchard: Community Center parking lot off Stream Valley Drive off Route 170: Wednesdays 2-6pm, 410/841-5770.
Calvert County's market opens July 1 on Route 2/4, south of Prince Frederick at the barn beside Adam's the Place for Ribs, on Saturdays 9-5pm and Sundays 11am-5pm. Open thru Dec., 410/535-4583.
July 1 marks the opening of many independent produce stands, and many close after Halloween. You'll find an amazing array of fresh fruits and vegetables.
"Maryland Farmers' Market Directory" (pick up your copy of the brochure at local libraries) lists the big ones.
9. Get Cracking
Bet you can't eat just one! In Bay country, steamed crabs demand a feast. Start by gathering all the friends you'd love to spend a couple of hours with, then head on down to one of the many crab houses that pepper the Chesapeake landscape.
Whatever your crab cracking style, we guarantee a good time. In the bargain, you'll typically get a nice view of Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries.
Who serves up the biggest ''jimmies" around? Are "whites" -recently shed crabs - actually sweeter and easier to pick? Are some crabs meatier? Tastier? Where do you find the best bushels? Are Wye River crabs really the biggest and the best?
Those are tough questions. Every crab lover has a different answer. We often reconsider our own opinions on these matters, especially later in the season when crabs are more abundant.
Above Annapolis, Cantler's Riverside Inn looks out over Mill Creek and the Chesapeake Bay. Farther south in Edgewater, Surfside 7 boasts a wonderful view from their deck overlooking the South River.
Chesapeake Beach is home to a trio of crab houses with a view. Abner's Crab House is situated back in Fishing Creek, while Smokey Joe's Grill and Buckmaster Seafood are right at the bustling Rod 'n' Reel charter fishing port.
Down south, Stoney's Seafood House at Broomes Island hovers on Island Creek and the Patuxent River. Across the Bay, Harrison's Chesapeake House shows you the Choptank River, complete with skipjacks.
10. Paddle The Bay
Haul your boat to the water. Pick up your paddle and PFD, load in your safety gear and slide in. Now you're ready for a great Bay boating adventure.
Unlike bigger and more obtrusive vessels, canoes and kayaks glide into inviting waters without disturbing wildlife or the environment. You're down in the water, about as intimate as you can be without being in the swim, in harmony with the Bay and its creatures. Slow down your pace as you get in touch with the rhythms of paddling. Learn to be quiet and listen. See how smooth, slow or fast you can go. Get to places most everyone else can only dream about.
Creep into the Bay's nurseries. In these creeks, marshes and rivers, red-winged blackbirds should make the only sounds as herons fish, crabs scuttle, marsh mallow blooms and cattails swell. Paddle quietly and, especially if you enter from the big water of the Bay, skillfully.
Need a canoe or kayak to paddle? Rent kayaks from Amphibious Horizons at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis every day but Tuesday, or let them take you on an instructional trip (888/I Luv Sun).
Or rent a boat from East of Maui (410/573-9463) and chart your own course. Getting serious? You can buy as well as rent. Or, as other Bay Weekly paddlers have, shop at Eastern Mountain Sports, REI or most outdoor stores.
