My daughter is home on her Spring Break, so we took a little overnight mother/daughter jaunt. Our quest was a bit of history, a shop or two, and a nice B&B. We ended up on the western shore of Maryland, on the finger that is west of Solomons, and reaches farther south. We did some antique shopping in Leonardtown, then visited a strange pet store. There were lots of big birds in small cages, and in the back, some absolutely enormous tortoises. We’re talking zoo-sized tortoises, maybe 3 feet in diameter, three of them trying to fit under a single heat lamp. We felt like we were looking at someone’s personal collection of animals, one that had gone unfettered, and we got a bit creeped out and left.
We headed farther south to St. Mary’s City, arriving around 4:30 with golden late afternoon light. We walked through Historic St. Mary’s City, the first capital of Maryland (1634-95). There’s a lot of research and reconstruction going on, with a small museum almost ready to open. We’ll need to return when they’re in full swing. I’d love to go aboard the Dove, a recreation of one of the two boats that brought the English settlers to these shores.
It’s interesting to realize that the settlers were searching for a place to be Catholic in peace, and established Maryland as a place of religious tolerance. Also interesting that the settlers were welcomed by the Yaocomoco Indians, which is a really fun word to say (yah-COM-a-co). When the capital was moved to Annapolis, Maryland’s religious freedom disappeared for a while. We take religious freedom for granted so should notice its starts and stops and realize how controversial it was, once upon a time.
I don’t believe it’s an overstatement to say that the arc of history bends to the left.
Before we left, Clara and I spent some time in the more recent (1829) small but beautiful Trinity Episcopal church. Somebody is taking good care of that physical plant, that was my main thought. I’m speaking as someone who automatically notes the condition of a church’s roof as I pull into the parking lot. It’s what a couple decades of ministry does to your eyes.
On the way back to the car, a “swamp walk” turned into some bushwhacking that was more adventurous than we anticipated. To avoid a huge puddle of mud, we headed straight up a hill into an amazing amount of bramble.
Then we drove farther south to stay at a B&B called Woodlawn, in Ridge. It was a plantation, and haven’t you always wanted to pretend you lived on a plantation? Our room was the former kitchen, a stone’s throw from the main house, and nicely updated with a jacuzzi.
For supper we drove a mile down the road to a dive called Courtneys, which was decked out entirely in Bud Light decor. We were the only people in the place, but the owner, a small Filipino woman named Julie said that sometimes the place is packed, you can never tell. She was eager to chat when our meal was over, so we had a conversation over the sound of Fox News in a bar with bad paneling, ripped barstools, and bowls of empty peanut shells. The good news is that the fried oysters she fixed for us were the best I’ve ever had in my life. The crab chowder was sweet, and there was crab salad on the salad bar. I’d return in a heartbeat.
In the morning we got up early and took kayaks out on the wide and placid Calvert Creek, paddling to a sandbar which separates the creek from the Potomac River. I peeled off my shoes to wade through the frigid water and explore the sand bar. Along the way we saw a pair of swans, a Great Blue Heron, and some white and black ducks I couldn’t identify. Overhead there were lots of geese on the move, in enormous Vs.
The proprietor of Woodlawn, Jim Grube, helped us get the kayaks out of the water when we returned. As we had our breakfast (quiche, ham, muffins), he told us how he and his wife came to own and operate the place. They were mainly looking for an outlet for wine since they were established as grape-growers (on a different property) and wanted to have their own label. They needed the B&B to sell the wine. He commented, “We didn’t have a background in the hospitality industry, but did some research and realized we needed to have a wedding venue.”
I love a salient fact.
(grapes leads to wine leads to a B&B leads to weddings)
This made me think about churches (because I always think about churches) and how we do or don’t discover salient facts which lead to logical chains.
In general, I don’t think churches are smart about doing a bit of research and discovering the one salient fact that will feed into a chain and allow us financial stability. If we did, wouldn’t that free us up to implement our mission the rest of the time? Nope, instead we get stuck noticing that our roof needs replacing and we can’t quite afford to get to it this year.
