May 17: Rock Hall, MD

Tom and I had a rush around day on Friday getting ready to meet my brother and sister-in-law for their weekend visit. We had a flash back to when we were first married by going to the laundry to wash clothes and dashed out to get a pizza before putting the clothes in the dryer. With the props newly tuned, the boat back in the water and the frig full of food, we were ready. Bob and Penny Friday made it over the high bridge into Grasonville and we set off to Rock Hall just north on the Eastern Shore. We tied up at Rock Hill Landing and had a great dinner overlooking the bay at the Waterman’s Crab House.

What a lovely day we had in Rock Hall on Saturday. We visited the Waterman’s museum – a restored waterman’s house, and the Rock Hall Museum which was two rooms in their Municipal Building, filled with interesting relics from the watermen’s life and work collected by a local family. The museums really showed off the evidence of hard work and ingenuity of this working life style, including the little house barges that the men would tow behind their fishing boats when they were too far away to go home at the end of the day. There were pictures of their families coming to visit them on the water but also the picture of loneliness and grueling days.

We wandered through various shops, and finished off the afternoon with a visit to the soda fountain at Durding’s Store. This store has been in continuous operation since the early 1900’s, and they served cokes and sodas all hand mixed from syrups and seltzer water. The walls were the original beaded paneling and the ceiling was old timey pressed tin. It was a luscious step back in time and we all sat on the red topped stools at the marble counter and sipped wonderful concoctions. We found a nearby church, Rock Hall United Methodist, built in 1835 which is in walking distance where we will worship tomorrow. We got back to the boat in time to set up the GPS on my laptop for our back up navigation system and grill chicken out for dinner. Wasn't it fun to watch the Preakness horse race on TV? We celebrated "Big Brown"s amazing victory.

The sunset was a beautiful end to the great day.