A Weekend's Visit to the Chesapeake

1879 Hooper Strait Lighthouse

The Chesapeake Bay is a big-ass body of water. With it's rivers, streams, islands and meandering coast, it has an enormous amount of coastline, and an even bigger watershed.  And then there's the Chesapeake Bay Land Area, part sprawling metropolis, part remote farm/fisherman wilderness.  Layered over that is an amazingly rich history...and then there are oysters. And as different as some aspects of it may be from another, they are all connected.

At least that is my excuse. A few months ago S.D. and I visited  friends there for 3 days and I've been writing and deleting posts about it ever since. Trying to get a handle on the whole thing, or even a tiny part, and failing miserably.

This then, is attempt 312.

S.D.as the pensive Lighthouse Keeper

When traveling my biggest hope is that I can somehow get a sense of the area. Doing and seeing stuff that will give me a taste of the people, history and outdoors there are like.  So when our friends asked what we wanted to do during our visit I wasn't sure. What can you do in 3 days to get the feel of the this ginormous area? Luckily our hosts had a much better idea that I did.

Our first stop, and an excellent choice by our friends was Lures Bar and Grille.

The fish was excellent and then there was this thing called cheesy grits. I don't know how they make those, and considering the carbohydrates involved, I don't want to, but those were awesome.

The next day we went to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. A Museum with the unenviable task of telling the

Best stairway ever! (in the lighthouse)

story of the aforementioned giant watershed that is the Chesapeake Bay in 18 acres, 15 buildings and even more boats. And they do try. Some of the exhibits, like the signature 1879 Hooper Strait Lighthouse, are pretty impressive. Some, like the "At Play on the Bay" exhibit try to cover too much and confuse the message.  Sometimes it was about recreation, and sometimes it seemed to be about the forces in conflict with recreation. The potential for the exhibit to act as a catalyst to conversation about those many conflicts were hinted at, but never fully realized. If it ever is, that would be an amazing exhibit.

Of course there was also lots of great stuff about oysters. Oyster boats, oyster processing, and some really great Oyster Advertising.

It was only fitting that after the museum we stopped at the Fisherman's Inn Restaurant.  With it's extensive collection of oyster plates, it was only natural to ordered oysters, and they were good. However, it was the butternut squash and lobster bisque that made the meal. Wow, that was really good! Even better than the cheesy grits.

The next day we were booked on an afternoon flight home, leaving a few morning hours for more exploration and our host, and expert tour guide wound around some back roads to Jackson's Landing.

Patuxent River marsh

The Landing is a small park on the Patuxent River, a tributary of the Chesapeake.  We took the trail from the parking lot and wound up through a small, random Henry Ford-ish type collection of buildings called the Patuxent Rural Life Museum .  The trail then dropped  down a switchback to a boardwalk.  Along the walk were interpretive signs of the nature-type.  The first one described the area as a Swamp, and half a mile later, another described this area as a Marsh. As a lover of salt marshes, I don't think I'd ever contemplated, or even realized the difference before.  But here for your edification and mine are the definitions:

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A marsh is a type of wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.[1] Marshes can often be found at the edges of lakes and streams, where they form a transition between the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They are often dominated by grasses, rushes or reeds.[2] If woody plants are present they tend to be low-growing shrubs. This form of vegetation is what differentiates marshes from other types of wetland such as swamps, which are dominated by trees, and mires, which are wetlands that have accumulated deposits of acidic peat.

A swamp is a wetland that is forested.[1] Many swamps occur along large rivers where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations.[2] Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes.[3] Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation.


A salt marsh is a marshy area found near estuaries and sounds. The water in salt marshes varies from completely saturated with salt to freshwater. Estuaries are partly sheltered areas found near river mouths where freshwater mixes with seawater. Both salt marshes and estuaries are affected by high and low tides.

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Salt Swamp (w Cypress Tree)

And now I know! or do I?

The Patuxent is tidal, and therefore slightly salty,  the area of the boardwalk that fronted the river and was identified as a swamp had some lovely cypress trees.  So is it technically a salt swamp?

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And after three days in the Chesapeake did I have any better understanding of the area? Well our friends certainly helped, and I now know just enough to know that it would take years of biking, kayaking and exploring to get a solid handle on it.  Thanks B and P!