Southern Maryland Lighthouses

Sep. 20: As part of the annual Maryland Lighthouse Challenge, we toured 2 lighthouses on the Potomac River and one on the Chesapeake Bay.

BLACKISTONE ISLAND LIGHT: In 1634 on the Feast of the Annunciation, the Ark and Dove landed on St. Clement's Island in the Potomac River bringing the first Marylanders to Lord Baltimore's proprietorship and, in thanksgiving, Father Andrew White, S.J., there celebrated the first Roman Catholic Mass in English America. The Maryland capital was soon moved to St. Mary's City in the nearby St. Mary's River, which provided a more sheltered port. The island became known as Blackistone Island after the family that owned and farmed it.
In 1848 the U.S. Congress appropriated money for a lighthouse and in 1851 Blackistone Island Light began operation. The lighthouse burned in 1956 and a replica was constructed in 2008 based on the original plans. One reaches St. Clement's Island by taking a boat from the St. Clement's Island-Potomac River Museum in Colton Point, MD.



















































PINEY POINT LIGHT: The Piney Point Light is the oldest lighthouse on the Potomac River. Congress appropriated the moneys in 1835 and the lighthouse was built in 1836. It sits on the shoreline at Piney Point, MD.






















































View of St. George's Island from Piney Point:









COVE POINT LIGHT: Just south of the Calvert Cliffs on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay stands Cove Point Light, the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Chesapeake. The lighthouse was built in 1828 with an appropriation from Congress.





















We ended the afternoon at Vera's White Sands on St. 's Creek:

Alleycats

Two kittens have been frequenting our yard. One we call Tortoise and the other Little Maggie as she's the spittin' image of our own Maggie.

Mushroom Festival

Kennett Square, PA, Sep. 7: Millions of mushrooms are grown in southeastern Pennsylvania and thus Kennett Square celebrates with a Mushroom Festival each September. Saturday's hurricane may have forced much of the two-day festival into Sunday, resulting into a mob scene in downtown Kennett Square. The result was a festival that was none too festive and seemed insufficiently mushroom. You go to gay pride and it's gay; you go to Songkran and it's Thai; you go to Honfest and it's Bawlmer, Hon; but you go to the Mushroom Festival and its a lot of cheese fries, root beer and unrelated arts and crafts and mushrooms not so much.

We did find mushroom spring rolls and fried mushrooms (though they don't compare to those in the Baltimore farmers market).

































We took refuge in the Half Moon Restaurant, which had a table for two on the roof--far above the madding crowd.