Solomon's Island, MD

Finally a day without rain! We were up at the crack of dawn and on our way by 6:30 am just rearing to get somewhere other than Reedville. Solomon's Island is a town just off the Patuxent River. (I think whoever named all the places in the Chesapeake did it to maximize their scrabble score. Lots of x's, k's, and q's.) We went ashore (because we could! no rain, yay!) and visited the Calvert Museum, where they had exhibits on: the local wildlife (including real live otters!), the fossils found in the cliffs nearby (massive pre-historic whales and sharks), and an actual screwpile lighthouse that was built in the 1880's and then relocated to the museum in the 1970's when it (and the lightkeeper that ran it) became obsolete. (They were replaced by a solar-powered electric light.) Unlike the tall land-based lighthouses we are all familiar with, the Drum Point light was located a little ways out on the water, reachable only by boat. It looked like a hexagonal-shaped cottage on stilts. We toured it and were surprised at how many rooms it had -- the lightkeeper and his family used to live in it, so even though they were isolated there was lots of space, much bigger than most homes built at that time. Kevin was enthralled with the idea of living in a lighthouse like that and I think he's now actively searching on monster.com to see if there are any opportunities available in that field. (That's the lighthouse behind Kevin in the photo.)

Afterwards we walked around town a little -- we love this place since everything we could ever need is within a short walk from the water: post office, grocery, West Marine, and the liquor store all in a row. Can't beat that.