7/13/10 (Tuesday): We've been busy and haven't had a WiFi connection, so I have some catching up to do!
We decided that while we were on the Eastern Shore, we'd got the whole 10 yards and take the ferry over to Tangier Island. I'd wanted to do this since I was a kid.
This tiny island (about 1-1/2 miles wide and 3 miles long) has a population of about 600. The only industry on the island is crabbing and oystering. There is also some tourism, which is mostly run by women. There are several small gift shops and a couple of restaurants and bed and breakfasts.
We caught the ferry in Crisfield, which is the seafood capital of the world and an interesting place in itself.
The residents of Tangier Island are mostly fishermen and crabbers. The only access is by ferry. We saw a lot of the crabbing boats coming from Tangier into the processing plants in Crisfield. According to Wikipedia:
"Prior to the arrival of the American colonists to Tangier, it was a summer retreat to native Americans for centuries. Although not much is known about these people, their existence is evidenced by the thousands of stone arrow heads that have been found all over the island. Almost any morning after gale force winds have been blowing all night, new arrow heads can be found on the beach, uncovered by the blowing away of sand. The discovery of an ancient, oyster midden offshore, consisting of a huge pile of shells which could only have been deposited by humans, thousands of years old, is further evidence that there was a regular population on Tangier, at least in the warm part of the year, long before it had an English name and long before John Smith or John Crocket set foot on it. The enormous amounts of arrow heads and spear points found here suggest the island was probably a lot larger than recorded history can verify and home to many more species of animals.
The first known explorer of the island was John Smith. He named Tangier and the surrounding islands the "Russel Isles" after the doctor on board his ship."
The first settlers came to the island in 1604. Some other early settlers were named Crockett, Pruitt and Thomas, and those are still common names on the island.
These crab processing docks/shacks were dotted all over the Tangier Island harbor. They aren't connected to the island, but are accessed by boat. The crabbers use these islands to hold their crabs until they begin to molt because the soft shell crabs bring in more money than the hard ones.
The islanders get around on golf carts and leave their cars in Crisfield. We took a tour of the island in a golf cart for just $5!
It's a very peaceful island. Nobody seems in a hurry.
The marshes were very green and evidence of the Bay lifestyle were everywhere--old boats, new boats, crab traps piled everywhere.
Many of the homes had little family cemeteries right in their yards. There are two churches on the island and a school that houses all grades with about 10 children in each class.
After our golf cart tour, we walked around some and finished up with an ice cream in this cute little country store.
We're now in the D.C. area at Cherry Hill Campground in College Park, Maryland. Tomorrow and Thursday we're taking a bus tour to see all the sights, then Friday we'll have our White House tour. The campground is fantastic--two swimming pools, a game room, a big-screen TV lounge, a cafe and very large laundry room (which I had to make use of right away!). There are gardens all around and our large site has a brick patio and picnic table. I'll download some photos and try to post again tomorrow. Happy trails!
The lightship Chesapeake
and a submarine were both anchored right outside of the aquarium (wicked looking, eh?).
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