Barb and I take a 3-night mini-break to the Hyatt Chesapeake Resort in Cambridge, MD.
Barb expressed interest in having a beach break this summer, so we kicked around various options. Larry and Ashley went to Avalon, NJ earlier in July, so I scoped out places there, in Ocean City, Rehoboth, Lewes, etc. Everything was pretty expensive (like $300-400/night) and nothing really excited me. I remembered the Hyatt Chesapeake Resort in Cambridge. We had never stayed there, but drove past often. We knew it must have some nice swimming pools and even a little beach on the Choptank River for Barb’s sunning purposes. I checked their prices and availability and, while expensive, was not greatly out of line with prices on the coast. So I booked it, including an option for bed and breakfast.
Thursday, July 25
In the afternoon, we head to Chesapeake Hyatt in Cambridge for a little “beach” break for Barb. Our drive to the hotel starts late, of course, because Barb is late getting home from her “half day” at work. The drive takes about 2 hours with 20+ minutes of traffic at NSA and Annapolis and we arrive around 6pm.
The hotel is nice, very like a cruise ship docked on the Choptank River in Cambridge. We explore, then have dinner at Blue Point Provision Company, the hotel’s seafood restaurant. It’s actually quite good. I get a grilled whole porgy/bream with potatoes and asparagus, a meal I wish I could make more easily myself. Barb has two appetizers: peel and eat shrimp and mussels, both tasty. A good start, even though Barb gave me a hard time about paying for my drinks.
Friday, July 26
Barb all set at pool
The buffet breakfast, which I included each day on the bed and breakfast plan, also feels like a cruise ship. Barb was inordinately happy with it. No one is more pleased to see endless bacon. We could choose from omelettes, bacon and sausage, fruit, cheese, toasts and bagels, smoked salmon, waffles and pancakes, and more. Barb made a little PB&J lunch after I went back to the room for her baggies. Around 9am when the adult infinity pool opened, we claimed a pool chair for her and she was set for the day.
I drove into Cambridge, checked out the very nice Visitor Center then the town itself, scoping out our restaurant for the next day. Cambridge is a small town but it’s surprisingly easy to get lost or take a wrong turn. I went to the end of High Street (did Michener really call this one of the most beautiful streets in America?) to Long Wharf Park where I contemplated taking a sail on the skipjack Nathan the next day; it seemed like a popular thing to do, but I ultimately decided against it…maybe some other time. I walked out on the wharf around the lighthouse and was surprised to find that it’s a floating wharf that rocks noticeably when a boat’s wake hits it. It makes for an interesting little walk.
Wobbly wharf 
Skipjack Nathan
After a while, I pointed the car in the general direction of Blackwater Wildlife Refuge, perhaps my favorite place on the Eastern Shore. I followed what seem to be main roads and try to use the navigation system in Barb’s car — but found that if I zoomed out far enough to get geographically oriented I lost all definition on the roads. As a result, I navigated my way out a dead end peninsula but I didn’t really mind. The drive was pretty, and there were a few good water views toward the end, even if it was not where I wanted to be. I found that I needed to track back nearly to Cambridge to get on the right road.
Around midday, I made it to Blackwater and checked in with the ranger at the Visitor Center to see what birds were in season this time of year. Not many, it seems. Mainly osprey. I headed up to the observation deck and found a nice place to sit in the shade. I stayed for the better part of an hour, just watching the comings and goings of small song birds, butterflies, a few osprey and buzzards. It was quite calming and peaceful, and there were few other visitors at the Center to disturb my reverie. I began to wonder about how to identify the songs of various birds but didn’t get much further than idle wondering. There must be an app for that.
I decided against taking the drive through the refuge, choosing instead to head out to Hooper’s Island, the end of the road for Dorchester County that juts out into Chesapeake Bay, which had been recommended by the lady in the Visitor’s Center. I’d been there several years before and remembered it was a pretty drive. I’d forgotten, though, about the two bridges that make it seem like an island-hopping drive in the Florida Keys. I seemed to be pretty much the only one on the roads other than a few fisherman and postmen. At the end of the line, I found a little picnic shed and couple of tables with a nice view of the Bay. I settled there in the shade and listened to a long podcast I had downloaded about a recent book about Warren Zevon. It was a good listen, recounting Zevon’s story-filled life. I would have liked to listen to his songs on the way back, but cell coverage was very poor.
I drove back to the hotel by 5pm and gathered Barb by the pool. We headed back to the room where Barb checked emails and she decided to do a workout in the fitness center. Good for her! I had some wine.
I’d made a dinner reservation at Pope’s Tavern at the Oxford Inn, so we headed there, about 25 minutes away. We didn’t need a reservation as we were one of only a couple of tables for dinner, though the bar was inordinately loud and busy. Dinner was very good, a variety of small plates including mussels, succotash, rockfish, mushroom flatbread, popcorn shrimp. Afterwards, Barb met the chef and had a discussion about what makes a butterbean. His answer, that several different kinds of beans, including favas, can be butterbeans may be accurate but it’s not very helpful. My answer, that it’s basically a lima bean with butter on it, may be too simplistic but I still think it’s closer to the truth. The internet’s consensus seems to be that lima beans and butterbeans are the same, just called different names in different places.
Saturday, July 27
View from my reading place
We had another bountiful buffet breakfast after which I sweated in the 9am heat saving a seat at the pool until Barb came down. I headed back upstairs, cooled off and found several air conditioned places to read, trying to finish A People’s History of the United States before it was due back at the library. In the afternoon, I went to the movie theater across the street to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
For dinner, we drove into Cambridge a little early for our reservation at Bistro Poplar. We stopped by the Harriet Tubman mural that had been unveiled earlier this year to some viral acclaim. It is a fine piece of street art, though a little smaller than I’d imagined and a little hard to find.
The Bistro was quite small and busy, but with our reservation we were seated right away and treated to another meal of small plates, this time a Bibb lettuce salad with gorgonzola (Barb liked the lettuce, I liked the cheese), mussels (again), roasted oysters, green and white beans, and duck confit with orecchiette. All were winners. So was Dairy Queen for dessert.
Sunday, July 28
One final breakfast, after which I talked Barb into working out one more time while I kept reading. We checked out at 11am and headed home, stopping at the Queenstown Outlets for some shopping: shoes and belts for me, sunglasses and Yankee Candles for Barb. We were almost to Columbia when we realized we left Barb’s work computer in the room. After a frantic series of calls to the hotel we were very relieved they found it. I got Barb home then drove four more hours there and back to retrieve it.
I got back to Columbia in time to pick up Chinese food for dinner. While waiting at Hunan Legend, I contemplated their very complete collection of Chinese good luck memorabilia, including lots of fat gold cats. I noticed one of the cats had the Chinese character “fu” upside down. I asked why and was told it had to do with “good fortune coming to you.” I looked it up a sure enough, it’s a thing. Now I want to have a picture of Barb (Fu) upside down for good luck.
A full and complete day, and a decent little mini-break.
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