May Roadtrip: The Eastern Shore

At this point in the road trip we had planned to do something like my birthday roadtrip in reverse. Travelling from the historic triangle area we drive down to Newport News and took the amazing bridges to gain the Eastern shore. This peninsula, east of the Chesapeake, is split between Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, which meant we drove through three states in just a few hours. The Eastern Shore is the main holiday destination for people living in DC and the surrounding area, and lots of people have holiday homes there; apparently in high season there are queues hours long on the bridge from Annapolis. Though we had visited Ocean City before, we had visited in the winter, and we were now keen to experience this area in the summer.

Unfortunately, May in 2016 was not very warm, and the bad weather we had experienced in Shenandoah continued as we drove up to Chincoteague island… We stopped here briefly for a snack of oysters, but then drove straight through to our destination – Bethany Beach – as it really wasn’t the weather for sightseeing.

Happily the next morning dawned bright and sunny, and a sighting of dolphins made for an exciting first day at the beach. Though none too warm, it was certainly a day for windy walks on the beach and playing in the waves. We relaxed in Bethany that day, enjoying our beach-side hotel, the short but sweet boardwalk and the holiday-feel of the place. We drove up to Rehoboth, just to see what we might be missing, but on balance decided we preferred Bethany – and we definitely preferred both to the rather soulless strip that is Ocean City.

As with all my nature photos – you really have to zoom in!

Our full day of relaxing by the sea, the sea-air and an excellent meal of seafood combined to make sure we woke the next morning refreshed and rested, ready for the (relatively) short drive home.

Related post: Birthday Road Trip: Dogfish Head and Ocean City

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March-April 2016

As Spring gradually came to DC, R and I got the chance to explore more of North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. First there was a conference in Asheville I just had to go to, and this time it was R to tag along. I wrote about this road trip, and the craft beer, at the time: Conference in Asheville? Roadtrip!

Then in April we finally made it to Great Falls Park, which is so close to DC that I don’t know why we didn’t go sooner.

We walked along the Virginia side of the Potomac. The Billy Goat trail on the Maryland side is apparently the better hike, but from where we were standing it looked rather like a long, stationary queue of people, so we were pleased with our choice.

Apart from the breath-taking scenery, there’s also a lot of interesting history in the park. It was the site of one of Washington’s pet projects – a canal to bypass the falls and make the Potomac navigable all the way to the Ohio River Valley, which began construction in 1785. The remains of a lockkeeper’s cottage and various earthworks can still be seen.

The Park is also home to an abandoned village, which was part of the reason I wanted to visit. I’d read an article on ghost towns in the US (there’s an idea for a road trip!) and discovered that were some close to home in Virginia (see http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/virginia/va-ghost-towns/ for a list). There’s not much left of this town, which declined in 1828 after the company building the canal went out of business. But the remains – foundations here, a hearthstone and chimney remnants there – as they appear in the undergrowth take you back to another time.

We also made it to Harpers Ferry in West Virginia – another town that was significant in Washington’s plan to use the Potomac to improve transport and trade with the more western parts of America (it was also connected to DC by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in 1833). We marvelled at the awesome natural beauty of this confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah river, which had in turn inspired Harper, Washington and Jefferson.

This was also the place that Lewis and Clark kitted themselves out for their mission to map the United States; they bought weapons and had a collapsible iron boat constructed at the US Armory and Arsenal. And as if that wasn’t enough history for one little town, this was also the place that John Brown, the radical abolitionist, was captured and executed after his raid on the arsenal. The John Brown museum trod a careful line, posing the question, was John Brown a terrorist, but never really condemning him as such. There was also some interesting treatment of his daughter who accompanied him to Harpers Ferry and looked after him and his men as he planned his attack.

Our visits in April were made even easier as it was National Parks Week, which meant that both weekends we benefited from free entry. So if you’re planning a trip to the States this year, you might like to aim for the weekends of 15-16 and 22-23 April.

Related posts: Asheville roadtrip

January-February 2016

2016 started well enough. We got back from my birthday road trip, and January saw both a snow-day in DC, and a trip to New Orleans.

Our trip to the ‘Big Easy’ wasn’t planned very far in advance, as it was just a case of us taking advantage of one of R’s work trips, so the whole experience had an element of surprise to it. We hadn’t realised how much warmer it would be at this time of year further south, and we hadn’t realised that Mardi Gras goes on for a number of weeks, and we hadn’t realised how much we had been missing drinking outdoors… These things combined to make us go a little crazy in New Orleans. If you have never been, I would highly recommend it. It felt like all of America had decided to go on an early spring break; people were drinking in the street from at least lunchtime, there were parades, and bands, and bars with their doors open to the balmy January air. We had at least done some research into food in New Orleans, so even though we only had two full days we managed to fit in plenty of pralines, beignets, muffuletta and po boy sandwiches, and, of course, gumbo.

At a Mardi Gras parade in the French Quarter. Not just your typical parade, this one was the Krew of Barkus – if you look to the right of the picture you’ll see one of the themed floats.

Nothing to see here. Just a man out for the day with his parrot.

Relaxing by the river.

Back in DC I was pretty sociable, having established myself in a reading group and a choir and taken on some responsibility for organising social events for these. This was useful, as R was away quite a bit with work. When he was home, R and I became pretty well known in our local sports bar, where we watched pretty much all the Green Bay Packers games, and I enjoyed watching Peyton Manning and the Broncos win the Super Bowl.

Related posts:

Birthday roadtrip

Is it the end of the world? No, just snow.

 

My 2016 in pictures

All of a Sudden it’s Spring!

When we moved here two years ago we arrived in DC to snow, rain, and cold. It wasn’t until the middle of April that the cherry trees blossomed. Last year was pretty much the same. This year, however, spring took us by surprise; starting while we were in Asheville with the magnolias, cherry-blossom season transformed DC into a vision in white and pink, and the glades around the Tidal Basin became a fairy-land once more.

Because of the colder weather at this time of year, though, the blooming period is shorter, and the blossom seems more ephemeral than ever. But the rest of the DC flora is catching up to Spring now, and DC is on the way to turning a vibrant green again.

It’s official. Spring is here.