Day Trip - St. Michaels, MD
My daughter and I recently spent the day in St. Michael's, MD. This cute town located on the Chesapeake Bay has a little something for everyone.
We started our adventure at the Maritime Museum. This seaside location was the perfect way to get acquainted! They have packed this place full of history and real life exhibits. Currently, they are building The Dove, a recreation of the vessel that brought the first colonists to Maryland in the 1600's.
Leaving the shipbuilding we next arrived at the light house that was utilized until the early 1950's. What a solitary life is described within it's walls.
The site of the museum was built on the former docks that housed seafood packing plants. I had much more appreciation for those workers after dinner when I had to pick my own crabs!
After getting an ice cream made from the cream of a local dairy, we walked through town and ventured into a wine tasting room to taste some local wines. Unfortunately, Maryland "wines" are not going to win any awards.
We had a much more entertaining and FREE tasting at the Lyon Distillery around the corner. Founded by two lovely sisters, this place just makes you feel HIP! They are changing from distilling whiskey to rum and they share the space with a couple who own Grey Wolf Spirits and are distilling some additional spirits like vodka, gin and agave.
If you are in town on the weekend, they give tours at 2pm on Saturdays. Stop by and try their unique blends of rum and liqueurs too!
Next, we decided that we would finish the day on the water eating dinner at St. Michaels Crab and Steakhouse. Although right on the water, the view is a little obstructed by the dock and marina office in front. There are a few more restaurants down a little ways with better views, but they were NOT as crowded as our restaurant.
I ordered Maryland crabs of course. After watching a quick Youtube video depicting the proper way to pick crabs while waiting for our food and a lesson from the waiter I was ready. I ordered 6...
It didn't look that hard when other people were breaking them down, but it took me several tries before I was getting mouthfuls without pieces of shell. My daughter finished her dinner and I was only on crab #2!! She had to start helping me or we would have been there all night. My appreciation for those professional crab pickers went up exponentially. I could not imagine doing this everyday for years! There was not a whole lot of meat on those crabs, but it took soooo long to get all the meat, I was full when I finished.
To be honest I would rather spend $25 for someone else to crack the crabs. Next time I will be ordering the crab cakes and thanking the chef for his efforts!
Walking back to our car we passed the cutest park with a gazebo. There was a local band of gentleman playing swing music with residents sitting around in lawn chairs and on blankets enjoying a night out on the town.
Only two hours from Fairfax, I will definitely be going back again to St. Michaels.