The Bay

A few weeks ago I took a weekend trip to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland with some friends. Here’s the recap:

We went to stay at a friend's parent's house. They are retired and currently living on a boat, sailing around the world. They only return home about every 18 months so their house is vacant most of the time. They live in a private community that has an interesting history and some unique rules. It's called Scientists' Cliffs. It was founded in the 1930s by wealthy professors. It is essentially a liberal utopia. You must have a college degree to own property in the 280 home community. 

It was an incredibly relaxing weekend. We spent the days walking on the beach, going for hikes in the woods and walking around the area.  I don’t have many crazy stories to share (that would defeat the purpose of a relaxing weekend) but it was a really great time.

I was amazed out how ‘rural’ it was, even though it was just an hour outside of DC. People (myself included) tend to think of areas and states by their major cities. All of New York is New York City, all of Pennsylvania is Philly and Pittsburg…or all of the East coast is black turtle neck wearing liberals, the Midwest is all dumb farmers, the West coast is all yoga practicing hippies, etc. etc. However, by and large, when you get out of the major cities people and towns are pretty similar everywhere.  The broader town we stayed in (not Scientists’ Cliffs) reminded me very much of suburban/rural Iowa. It’s a slower pace of life.

One night we wanted to do “local” things so we went to a great seafood place that our friend worked at as a kid. Then we went to one of the local bars. When the 4 of us walked in we doubled the number of people there. As you can see in the picture we were very happy to be there- judging by the death stares we were receiving, the regulars were less happy to see us. The bartender did teach me how to play Keno, which for some reason I thought was the greatest game ever. Keno is a bar/casino type game where you pick a bunch of numbers on a score card and then wait and see if your numbers come up. My back of the envelope statistics told me it was essentially an impossible game to win, but that did not stop me from having everyone help me pick my numbers 

and losing 8 straight games ($8 well spent).

I wish I took more pictures to share but I’m terrible at remembering to do so. Oh well. Excellent weekend with excellent people.

NOTE: Sorry for the delay in posting. I’m struggling to find the time. I’ve been up to a lot of interesting things that I wish I could tell everyone about!