Chesapeake Bay

Where?

mid-Atlantic coast of USA: essentially bounded by eastern Maryland and below that northeastern Virginia.

Why?

Years ago I drove a seemingly endless narrow bridge just above the waterline, then up ahead the bridge disappeared with land nowhere in sight. The highway dropped down below the water into a long tunnel. A couple minutes later it rose back above with land still nowhere in sight. It then again dropped below, and finally once again rose above reaching

land after a total of 28km. I knew right then that the area required further exploration. JC's brother's being in Baltimore, the largest city on the Bay, provided the opportunity. His wife's having just accepted a job in Chicago made the future of that opportunity uncertain- so the time was now. Also it is the setting/title of another Michener 1000 page epic which I am now reading.

I thought you don't write about your North American trips?

I generally don't and wasn't planning to this time either, however as the trip went on I realized that the geography and history of this off-the-beaten track place really warranted it.

Formed by a sunken river bed draining retreating ice age glaciers over the largest meteor impact crater in the USA, Chesapeake Bay has a stunning geography (please google map it)-it is the country's largest estuary, 320km long (north-south), it is never more than 48km wide, but with its total shoreline stretches an amazing 18 800 km with its tree-like branching and multiple rivers including the mainland-sided Potomac, York, James, Patuxent and Rappahannock. From its eastern shore to the Atlantic is the narrow Delmarva peninsula (DELaware MARyland VirginiA), a picturesque crab, oyster and unfortunately tobacco-based maritime backwater which has suffered politically from having been divided btw 3 states when by a glance it is clearly one smallish region.

Driving south from Philly We spent the first few days exploring quaint historical Maryland towns including Elkton (slept there the first nite, and soon after noticed linear clusters of bites on my arms=bedbugs! They got progressively more swollen and itchy the next few days until I was regularly applying beclomethasone cream, and the scars remain visible 3wks later. Last had them in 2006 in water or air access only Amazon city of Manaus, Brazil, Dx confirmed by 1sec consult of my then dermatologist neighbour, Dr McLeod. We are taking full precautions not to bring any home in our luggage- fortunately eggs hatch after ~10d, long before we get back and it takes a couple of months and blood meals before egg-laying adulthood is reached by the new generation), Chesapeake City, Chestertown, Easton, St. Michael's, and Cambridge (didn't make it to Oxford- but not kidding, there is one!).

After crossing the state line to Virginia the peninsula narrows and tobacco billboards welcome you while the population drops further and the towns become scruffier. Our first rental (10d) was at Ginger Power's superb oasis next to a mosquito-infested (even in sept- tho the weather was about 10F warmer than usual our entire month: we would literally run from car to front door) but wildlife- filled ocean-side swamp, next to the appropriately named Modest Town, Va, where the church is the only commercial building in town and the cemetery honestly has more bodies than there are above ground. However once in her kayaks on the water the bugs were not a problem.

The nearby channel through the periwinkle-snailed reeds leads into a small bay across which is Assawoman Island (surveillable by telescope/binocs from Ginger's screened-in patio), one of Virginia's string of Barrier Islands. Totalling dozens of miles in length but only about 100m in width, they were deserted about a century ago and landing on it we had an endless private Atlantic beach! Some of them and the intervening marshes are designated National Wildlife Refuge- loads of turtles, shorebirds, blue herons and Canadian Geese (both much more skittish than my Stanley Park neighbours), cormorants, cranes, green herons and kingfishers, and most impressively large flocks of white and mostly glossy ibis with their long curved bills to which we were able to get quite close! (Marshall- let me know if you want Ginger's contact info!) Also the beach was littered with huge helmet-like horseshoe crabs. Other sightings included a couple of fox, a praying mantis up close, a water snake crossing a partly flooded road, a few bunches of wild turkeys, and many osprey nests, but only one lone juvenile bird (wrong season). Looking northward the next island contained the only man-made structures in view: the towers of NASA'a Wallops Island rocket launching site! Neighbors told us of their houses shaking, but unfortunately we missed the next launch by a week.

Sound like a bad place to be in a hurricane? I certainly thought so. I became a regular and expert at NOAA's site: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Irma was heading in a different direction, but Jose lingered circling in potential range for 2-3wks before making up his mind for a near miss- lots of rain and moderate winds on the day of our drive down (we kept a full tank of gas and escape plans ready), and when we visited ocean barrier island Chincoteague Island (famed for wild ponies roaming its swamps, which we did see) the next day the parking lot was sanded over and closed. Then Maria started to threaten, but also ended up being a near miss causing only very high tides and a partially submerged boat launch, tho its winds did prevent us from visiting the Bay's fascinating Tangier Island by stopping the small ferry.

The alphabetical list of hurricane names recur every six years and my family has been quite dangerous. Until 1979 all were named after women, since then they rotate M-F. In 1981,1987,1993,1999,2005 and 2011 my grandmother Gert, was followed in order by my Dad Harvey, and my Auntie Irene, who was retired in 2011. Unbeknownst to us, Grandma had a fairly quiet visit to Massachusetts and Newfoundland earlier this summer. My Dad of course finally hit his "homerun" down in Texas and will now be retiring, but the ghost of Grandma will be back in 2023-watch out!

Heading south the peninsula connects to the Virginia mainland (btw touristy Virginia Beach and very close-by Norfolk- headquarters of NOAA and the world's largest naval base- I counted 31 destroyers/ aircraft carriers/ oilers etc on our impressive boat tour) at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay via the previously mentioned endless Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel designated “One of Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World” after completion in 1964. Since I first saw it, it has gotten twinned (in 1999) so that traffic is 2 lanes 1-way except thru the tunnels for which twinning is still underway. The bridge also essentially marks the site of the little known but decisive 1781 battle in the USA's war of independence from Britain -A defeat of the British Navy at the hands of France's Navy (not one American participated; the USA owes its independence to France!!) preventing the Brits from providing available reinforcements to Lord Charles Cornwallis' troops about to face General Washington at Yorktown in the better known final victory [same Cornwallis after whom Penang's fort is named, younger relative of Halifax's now controversial founder, Edward].

If going, don't mix up directions with Chesapeake's "Bay Bridge", 200km further north, connecting Annapolis/Balt/Wash east-west with the upper peninsula near Easton. That one is, however, almost as impressive, and was the world's longest over water steel structure at ~7km when completed in 1952. Also since twinned, it essentially marks the site of the Sept 18, 2017 culmination of my "xiao mimi" lone deception of Jiak Chin when her brother surprised her meeting up with us for dinner on her birthday (she thought he would still be in Chicago helping his wife move in there)!

Our middle rental was to have been a wk in a huge rural home with kayaks and bikes in a small town an hour north on the mainland side, but got squashed by the curse of the region (and the rest of the planet): tobacco. Altho listed as non-smoking only and having prominent signage inside, the place had the very omnipresent smell to it (unclear if from a recent guest or years of having previously been lived in by the smoking owner, but 24hrs of all windows open and fans on didn't make much difference). Ironically this unfortunate event led to our true "southern hospitality" experience as despite it being late evening, and his own skepticism, the owner, Frank, called a friend, his EMT colleague, retired marine Capt Bob Cerullo who in a modified rescue mission met us at the nearby gas station and led us to his much smaller and rustic but very interesting and clean-aired "Watermen's Cottage (the termed used for Chesapeake's many fisher/crab/oyster-men). He also right away offered us a full refund if an attempt at airing the place out were to fail (which it did), and use of his kayaks while at Bob's (his neighbor Mary Ellen ended up lending us hers). Frank was very clearly a true southern gentleman- albeit a strongly accented and smoking one!

Tobacco, of course, has been central to the area's history. Its need for cheap laborers was a (and maybe even the) major driver behind the area's perceived "need" for importing slaves from Africa (biblical quotations regarding master-slave relations after conversion to Christianity did much to justify/propagate slavery over the following centuries). Furthermore its need for ever-expanding land (it rapidly depletes soil, and of course due to its addictiveness European demand was rising) played a major role in creating conflict with Native Americans, and ultimately their loss of their lands. The colonies were even using it as currency for generations as coins were restricted by the Brits. The Europeans and their descendants of course only had to deal with its health impacts- the prevalence of smoking here remains very high- I've never seen so many otherwise reasonable-looking women smoking out of their car windows!

The mouth of Chesapeake Bay also was the entrypoint for the first permanent English settlement in NA at Jamestown in 1607 -site of exaggeration-prone Capt John Smith and Pocahantas, and the starving time winter of 1609/10 when only ~60/500 settlers survived (the museum shows skulls with clear markings of cannibalism). It, along with nearby Yorktown and the later colonial capital Williamsburg (today an unrivaled outdoor living museum, we had an 18th century dinner at the King's Arms tavern) make up Virginia's Historic Triangle. Virginia's role in colonial/ early US history can not be overstated- it was the largest of the 3 colonies, and 4 of first 5, and 7/first11 presidents came from it.

We also visited 2 of the historic James River plantations: Berkeley- home of 2 president Harrisons (the earlier, William Henry, was the first president to die in office in 1841- the on-site museum dramatically quotes earlier battle of Tippecanoe-defeated native prophet Tenskwatawa as pronouncing a curse that starting with him every president elected in a yr ending in "0" will die in office-as did occur right up to Kennedy's assassination (7 in a row!) and only broken by Ronald Reagan's survived shooting! Eerie- but not nearly enough to change my worldview!) and Sherwood Forest (so named by owner/president John Tyler -the 1st vice-president successor in 1841 as a journalist accused him of acting like Robin Hood), where we met and helped the gardeners clean up large osage oranges -which they throw out- they suggested we use them as a dinner table centerpiece, which we did at rental #3.

We then spent a couple days at picturesque Piney Point/ St George's Island- the region has many of these narrow elongated peninsulas. Nearby historic St. Mary's City- now really just an outdoor museum, was founded in 1634 as the capital of Maryland and the birthplace of religious freedom (tho this didn't last in the colony)- with the whole territory of Maryland having been given as a royal charter by King Charles to the Catholic Lord Baltimore (=he owned the whole colony!) (Jun/Zhen/Jing: Choo Choo will also answer to this name!) who thanked him by naming it after the queen. Altho Catholics were a minority from the start the idea was to give them a territory were they wouldn't be subject to the discrimination from Protestants, usually gov't-sanctioned, that was occurring in European Britain at the time.

The adjacent peninsula ends at Point Lookout were 52k Confederate Soldiers were held in a prison camp during the Civil War with over 3k dying. Maryland was a major battleground in the war- altho part of Lincoln's Union it was/is a functionally southern state- below the Mason-Dixon Line, and then slave-owning with Lincoln receiving only 3 of 92k votes in his 1860 election. Given that Washington DC is squeezed btw it and Virginia- it was crucial that Maryland remain part of the Union and strong-arm tactics were used to prevent any possibility of it joining the Confederacy. Soreness over this still remains 150 yrs later: private land was purchased for a memorial here (the adjacent State-sponsored one deemed inadequate) which we visited.

A police car was sitting at the deserted State memorial- and somehow I knew this wasn't just one of the innumerable troopers out to catch speeders- so I engaged the officer in conversation: sure enough it was about recent events regarding Charlottesville/ Trump etc with a nearby liberal arts college white female having been recently thrown in jail for trying to deface the monument. Feigning Canadian ignorance, he surprisingly rapidly showed himself to have Confederate sympathies (he also mentioned that he was a decendant of General Robert E. Lee), telling me that the civil war was about taxes (here I voiced my complaints about Trudeau and Horgan) and not slavery with the winners re-writing history to suit their purposes- and providing numbers regarding slave / free black numbers in the North vs South to back his views up. While my superficial standard sources all seem clear that slavery truly was the ultimate and primary cause of the south's secession, they also make clear that Lincoln's primary rationale in forbidding separation (compare to our referendums: maudite estie- Vive Le Quebec Libre!, and keep an eye on Catalonia of last fall's email who just voted in favor of such- functional meaning of the vote still uncertain) was not a moral crusade in support of the South's enslaved blacks, but instead a much more today nebulous-appearing need to preserve the full American Union intact.

Our last rental was further north at North Beach, close to the Calvert Cliffs were one can find fossilized shark teeth on the beach- and the 4 of us (joined by Teng and Saranthip, who flew in from Chicago for the weekend) found several and a ray dental plate. We also visited beautiful bay-side Annapolis, USA's first peacetime capital (the bldg is still Maryland's State House and contains exhibits in the room where General Washington resigned his commission, truly starting what they state was the world's first experiment in democracy- some expected him to be declared king after the revolution), and home of the Naval Academy which we visited.

No discussion of Chesapeake Bay would be complete without mentioning the crabs and oysters for which the area is famed, and we/I had plenty of both prepared many diff ways. The soft shell crabs and JC's big lump crab cakes (purchased at JM Clayton Co in Cambridge- world's oldest working crab house) were the best of the near-daily varieties tried. Even better- the crabs did not attack her! (out west she spends the night with abdominal pains but refuses to avoid them). Over-harvesting and pollution unfortunately has reduced the oyster numbers by 99%. Finally got crabbed-out after gorging at all-u-can-eat seafood buffett at Buddy's Crabs and Ribs in Annapolis. Did lots of swimming in the still warm waters despite becoming somewhat spooked by stories of flesh-eating vibrio vulnificus, especially after swimming next to oyster beds.

Well that pretty much summarizes it. Head back to Philly tomorrow completing the loop after driving 3000km (2yrs worth of driving our geriatric Volvo back home). Will have dinner with my cousin Janet, then lunch with my parents saturday at Pearson Int'l.

Stu

post-script: Two Asian Shining Cities

back in May we spent most of 2wks back in Malaysia, but did visit Macau and Shanghai on the way in/out. Macau is only a 1hr fast ferry ride from Hong Kong (a bridge further upland will be opening soon), and is a worthwhile alternative. While most visitors are Chinese coming for the casinos (gambling is forbidden in China proper) in the mostly autonomous region (signs still have Portuguese on them), there also is some very interesting history in the old town, and great fusion Portuguese/Macanese cuisine. The gaudy casino area has been completely redone over the past decade plus as a full-sized Vegas replica- actually a replica of a replica complete with Eiffel Tower, Venetian etc.

Altho Shanghai does have the lights to rival Macau lighting up the Colonial riverside Bund (we had our anniversary dinner at M on the Bund atop one of the old bldgs), the reason why I have termed Shanghai a "shining city" and wanted to write this post-script is figurative. In the years leading up to the Holocaust Shanghai was the only place in the world accepting Jewish refugees. Canada's disgraceful behavior turning back the St. Louis, "none is too many", is now back in news with Trudeau considering an official apology. The USA did the same. But Shanghai accepted 20k refugees- not sure why Bialik HS didn't see fit to cover this rare good holocaust-related history- I only became aware of it (I think) via St Paul's ER doctor Dan Kalla's novels set there. Almost all the Jews left in the late 40s, but a small museum now exists. Thank you Shanghai.