Lower Chesapeake Bay - Aug.28-Sept.4, 2008

Seven days around the lower Chesapeake Bay - Perfect weather! Our itinerary included:
Crisfield MD - the annual Hard Shell Crab Festival & workboat competion
Chicoteague Island - "Misty the Pony" fame
Across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, where the Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean
Through Norfolk, up the south bank of the James River
Jamestown VA - the first North American settlement by Europeans - 1620
Williamsburg VA - Colonial shops, including the famous Williamsburg Pottery outlet
Westmoreland State Park VA - on the banks of the Potomac River
About 600 miles in 6 days - just the right pace!

We stayed 3 days at Janes Island State Park, just outside of Crisfield. Easy bike ride to town and lots of time to paddle around in the Sea-Eagle...........Beautiful sunsets too!

What's a festival without crowning a Miss Crustacean?

Hard shell blue crabs, one for every state, race down an inclined ramp.........

It was so hot, even the crowd got hosed-down during the crab races.......

For Lee, Crisfield Crab Festival means crabs & beer !!

From the city docks in Crisfield, it's about an hour's boat trip to Tangier Island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. Home to a couple hundred families, they survive by fishing and crabbing. The island is so remote, the locals still speak an unusal version of the King's English.

Island citizens use golf carts to get around, so the streets are pretty narrow. We biked the whole island in about an hour, plus crabcakes at the famous Hilda Crockett's eatery.

Because Tangier Island is at sea level, burial is at ground level. Seems like everyone on the island shares one of about four family names......lot's of Pruitts & Crocketts........

Kiptopeke State Park, at the tip of Virginia's Eastern Shore. WWII concrete ships are used as a breakwater at the beach. The Bridge Tunnel is in the background.

The Bay Bridge-Tunnel....20 miles across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, including two tunnels....In another mile, we'll go under this ship.

Chippokes State Park, on the South bank of ther James River. Originally a large plantation, it was given to the state with the conditions that it remain a working farm and the original staff and their future children have jobs there. Generations later, it still is and they still do !

VA Rte 31 ends at the James River waterline.....Free state-run ferries take over from there.

The Barth on the ferry - about a 25 minute trip across the James River.

Capt. Kathy, on the bridge of the Pocahontas Ferry, enroute to Jamestown.

Once we cross the James River we'll be at the entrance to both the new Jamestown replica settlement and the original settlement site, about a mile apart from each other. We toured both sites.

Kathy learns the ropes of rope-making during our tour of Jamestown settlement.

The indian village exhibited all of the skills needed to survive in those times

The Jamestown replica includes the ships that brought the first settlers in 1620.

Jamestown's blacksmith at work

A "typical" Jamestown soldier & protector

The original Jamestown site is being researched on a full-time basis.

The "Hundred Mile Hill".....Rode our bikes around Westmoreland State Park, including the very L-O-N-G hill from the campsite to the water....Won't do THAT again!

Last night out was at Westmoreland State Park, on VA side of Potomac, about 85 miles from home. Known for its cliff banks, the area is filled with fossils, sharks' teeth and other prehistoric items.