BRUNELL OUTDOORS

Nowhere to go, but categories

Perfect Day was a blue spring sky-presidential, the pleasant wind of 10 knots straight the heart of Dixie, the comfort temperature in the 70-porch swing. In fact, had all the ingredients to embark on their dream cruise in January to produce the ideal first of the year. Of course, he had brought to its temperate climate like this. A thick fog had saved us, my fellow cruise ship's dog Skippy Hal and I cooled our heels from morning for the first time at the mouth of Yeocomico then at the mouth of the Potomac River, for until visibility improves before launching his nose into the bay. But our patience has been rewarded in the end, and we were in the middle Chesapeake Bay, with the rear point Mirador and front-Smith Island on our way to Crisfield for the first time.

However, among the sailors of the Chesapeake Bay, which had never been in Crisfield is like a Frenchman who had never been to Paris. No, this is not fair. Annapolis I have to be in Paris for a Chesapeake sailor, so you would most like Crisfield Marseille. Crisfield, like Marseilles, was built on sea trade is at the southern end of Maryland, in this case, instead of France. Well, and what is not in the Mediterranean, whatever. Look, I have to forget.

Crisfield, which is known throughout the bay, "the city that were once known as the seafood capital of the world," was built on the triumvirate oysters, crabs and turtles. Only crabs that Julius Caesar and seafood, have survived in useful numbers. But Crisfield, has also survived but has long since been degraded to the seafood capital of the seafood capital of the ancient and picturesque. But cases has dropped its appeal to sailors at bay. In fact, landscape and the easy access to the city, a marina very well, people of us with some more eccentric habits of charm and plenty of places to meet national sailors have a favorite destination Crisfield Bay.

Therefore, Skippy, Hal and I were quite lively in anticipation. (In fact, Skippy is sufficient to be ringing in their way everywhere, so it does not count.) Was just one problem that has cast a shadow over our project successfully. We too late? Crisfield had already left the picturesque condominium wall to wall? This was undoubtedly the speech he had heard of Solomon in Salisbury do: they said, they are building condominiums in Crisfield! Or, alternatively: all these condominiums are based in Crisfield, but I wonder who will live there? If you do not blue cheese or a dry cleaner right around the city, may not be able to sell condos.

This last comment came in a roundabout way of Whitey Schmidt, of Crisfield came here 10 years and author with a book of recipes for its part, the Blue Crab Guru. I called when I decided to make my landing site Crisfield season. "They have begun construction of a skyscraper anywhere there facing the sea and see a few" he confirmed. "So begins.'s New Crisfield comes to life. "Crisfield is a quiet town now," he continued, but once there were a hundred or more houses stripped oysters on the platform, and is now one. soup aquatic turtle was found in all the restaurants in the United States, and now we do not eat turtle. The trains are gone, and much of the fishing industry is gone. So that, all things considered, "said Schmidt, condos can be a step in the right direction." Also, one day might even be bought Crisfield blue cheese.

But if boaters and other tourists will rejoice the Crisfield come-heres, or at least the outward and visible sign: the condos? I threw out that shadow that light right past Solomon flat and started to listen to the green bell "5." Very quickly we turn to head south on 17-ft Cutty Hal until we reached the entrance channel and Little Annemesex Crisfield Somers Cove Marina.

Somers Cove is definitely one of the main attractions Boaters visiting Crisfield. With over 400 pages and easy to maneuver around celebrities, there are usually plenty of room for everyone. The marina was built in the decade 1950, while the favorite son of Crisfield, J. Millard Tawes was governor of Maryland. The state still owns and maintains, and over the years has expanded its pages and facilities. The marina is now also the site of J. Museum Millard Tawes and Visitors Center. And where Hal and I made our first stop, after tying a sheet of step and the organization of the crew of cheeky dog heels with a big bowl of water and stick to a tyrant in the shade of a picnic pavilion nearby.

The museum is an ideal place to get a handle on the history of Crisfield. If you can do, be sure to do a walking tour of the Crisfield Heritage Foundation Conservative Tim Howard to leave the museum every morning at 10. Thanks to the fog, we could not do it, but will be a primary motivation for my next visit Crisfield. Howard, a native of Crisfield, has a passion for the city and the case history in the deep veins running. Like many men in Crisfield, its beginnings are inseparable from the Water and industry seafood, but like so many men in Crisfield was forced to look elsewhere for their livelihood. In the case of Howard, returned to school and discovered the story. He to Crisfield and volunteers at the museum. When the possibility of gainful employment in wine, jumped on him. Now he directs visitors, the foundation work of the new Cedar Marsh Wildlife, which will soon have a new golf course and kayaking bulbs necessary changes. It also works with hosts school groups come through the dozen Elderhostel programs the Foundation receives each year, and now the cruise.

"The cruise ships? Cried.

"Two years ago was not", Howard said, "last year there were a couple, and this summer there will be eight to ten cruises with stops in Crisfield." He stopped taking a call from the Mariners Museum Newport News, Virginia, as director of the Foundation entered Chris Tyler "They call to confirm arrangements for an Elderhostel cruise will leave from there and we stop here, "he said, before a call to come out in the field.

"Many of these cruises are American Cruise Line and usually ships have been built near Salisbury, "said Tim Howard on his return. The foundation, he explained, organizes programs for cruise passengers, including trips to nearby islands Smith and Tangier. Some cruises birdwatching trips and some are oriented toward history.

After learning of the museum and its exhibits, ranging from arrowheads to all sorts of marine objects (including some of Crisfield fishing attracts internationally renowned artists in wood, the brothers Ward), Hal and I and the dog recovered ship were walking in the city. Settlement through the suburbs, we saw elegant relic after relic oyster Prosperity: dozens of Victorian homes in several states of decay and restoration times. "They represent money oysters 1920 and thirty years," Howard said. Breeders brick outside of the city, he said, were built by money crab in the 1950s and 60s.

Howard's voice continued to echo in our ears as we made our first stop in the middle, falling into Goodsell alley near the waterfront for ice cream and a practical approach to history. "If you really get your hands on the house of older oysters, you can feel the gross [ash] was built with blocks of "Howard said he had told us about the visit we were not going to get." Then you can get your hands on the building next door, where the glacier is, and feel the soft blocks. You can feel the difference in time. "So Hal and I did, so Patron was anything but want to be too specific about. Then ship's dog tied to a position outside and get some ice cream. The supplier of ice cream is back with us, carrying a water bowl for dogs. With all the happy hands, we decided to get a better look at the home of old oysters. MeTompkins is a fish and seafood at home is still operating in some Crisfield. We walked between two buildings, the largest of which is in the shadow of a block of condominiums. On the left, the former dock, sat a wrecked car, with an oyster boat tied to her side. I have asked, but saw no one to tell me the story.

Goodsell same alley could tell some stories. Towards the end of the 19th century, during the height Trade Crisfield oyster and when was the second largest city in Maryland, Goodsell Alley is home to bars and brothels, glaciers not wise. To cope with the ramifications of this new lifestyle lush Crisfield established its first police force in 1872. Mention in particular I can share the chief of police of the city the second named John S. "Colette" Sterling. His third: Isaac T. "Scappi" Powell. Things have calmed down after that, because of the nicknames seem to stop there. (You can find the names of all police chiefs and many other information in Crisfield, Maryland, 1676-1976, a fascinating book and obstinate regarding 1977 and Woodrow T. Wilson, no. Wilson, a native of Crisfield and retired career military officer, has written three books about his beloved hometown, the latter to celebrate its bicentennial.)

Hal, Skippy and I returned on our steps and turned right on the waterfront, with the center activity Crisfield residents and visitors. Is There you will find the boat to Tangier and Smith islands. It is also where you find people waiting for ships, boats observation, catching up with the news. What was the main attraction of the day? A cruise ship! Yes, moored along spring is a passenger ship of three floors of approximately 200 feet. And it was creating a stir among some Crisfielders calm, which in any case, keep an eye on all maritime matters. It's hard to tell who was more curious cruise passengers Crisfield, Crisfield or curiosity for them. I was very interested in both, I same. I stopped to chat with a woman sitting in a parked car in the place where the platform becomes a stand at two levels of the city or the Pier sunset view, as he called Whitey Schmidt. She said her husband had sent to the dock to find that the ship was. In the time it took to confirm that she was born Crisfield, she and her husband come regularly to watch the boats returned with a brochure. Line American Canadian Caribbean. Two towers and three weeks over the bay and the east coast. He ready to sign, his wife was not. Getting on a boat to visit his sister in the Tangier Island was more than enough sailors, she says. What think of the condo, I asked. "Crisfield is changing," he said. "We natives do not see it yet, but will in the end."

Crisfield is changing everything seems to be accepted wisdom. British Pound Son of hardware and is a good example. The company, which started in the Century 19 as a tin shop, has already made plans to move in time. Skippy was the idea that we stopped in. We had just spent several minutes admiring the beautiful blue waters of Tangier sunset from your dock and started walking when the door opened Uptown Store, the cool shade and the smell happy Equipment & Supplies Marine inches Skippy "He is invited to join Susan Sterling and Karin Schneider shouted, encouraging their intrusion. I have followed the movement, Hal as he wandered down the street. The store, in fact, two stores and one in particular equipment and marine supplies, plans to address changes that should be a wider market on the boat, Sterling has told us. "We carry more supplies by boat, "he said." Maybe the store is divided into a part of the boatmen and some for sailors. (The need to protect the boatmen is a counterpoint to the Crisfield specific recognition of the need for change, or at least this is inevitable.) In hardware, Sterling said, is expected to add shirts and leisure items, so the softness of the material. "

Skippy was willing to spend more time with his new friends, but there was always something up before reaching the main section Crifield sectors of activity. When most of the city, as it exists today was built, the houses of oysters and other seafood plants crowded around the docks, many built on stilts in the marshes between the land of water so that ships can be downloaded directly to plants. With time, tons of oyster shells plants thrown into the swamp to dry land. It remained the main part of the city dotted with a diagonal road, much more important at that time, the railroad, which ran to the docks.

It was the railroad which gave its name Crisfield, it has now and has secured position as the seafood capital of the world, he has been able to shake the fresh oysters, crabs and for a brief period, the turtles to the main markets of Baltimore beyond the nation. John W. Crisfield, an agent of the railroad on the east coast, had given the importance of the project and lobbied for the extension line. The fungus was named in honor of Crisfield, and soon, so it was in the city. Its European name was first Annemesex neck, the local Indian tribe, and was founded English as a city in 1666 by Benjamin Summers. The port was called Somers Cove (spelling is an inexact science at the time), and finally, as almost all his movements were Marina, who became the city until the name-Crisfield come. Somers Cove on the life, of course, as the marina, and the word survives in India and Great Little mesex Anne Rivers. The tribe, unfortunately, does not work.

Uptown Center or would it be? "Crisfield is an energetic mix of historic architecture, the empty windows, the long-standing companies, discount stores and intriguing newcomers. It is also home to one of the new local favorite restaurants, Mi Pueblito Grill ("This is not only in Mexico. Really cooking here," Sterling said Susan. "I even served as a quail.")

quail Mexican-style one might expect, I had an appointment with the mayor. So Hal and Skippy left to their fate, and I went to the village offices, which are near the Upper Main Street. Two years ago, Mayor Percy Purnell came to power in a wave of public outrage has a record number of voters to the poles, the overthrow of the current mayor and the majority of the Council. As expected, he had to do with the change. Purnell and his allies opposed to a public / private project revitilization was funded privately, but also, "said Purnell, gave too much control of private interests. And, yes, condominiums have been an underlying. Four years ago the first condominiums were built, Purnell, and before the election, more than 400 new units were approved. Not that the new mayor is opposed condominiums. "Condos not a bad thing, "he said," improve the tax base and allow the city to do things that would otherwise not be able to. Had they done? Perhaps a little different. "

Purnell is one of many Crisfield been here before. Twenty years ago, was mayor. Then he went to work. Recently turned and ran to the panel. "All my best memories are centered in Crisfield. I think it must be protected. Times change, but we must do for the people here do not go" Purnell said. With an average annual income of less than $ 18,000, soon Crisfield residents stay behind "he said. The city is currently completing a plan integral and seeking tenders for the development of their own recovery plan, to find that delicate balance between promoting growth, preserving style of life (fishing) is becoming increasingly untenable. There are also plans to try to help boaters in the legislation. One of them is to ensure that small boats in the harbor is in your hands. If approved, the ordinance would allow boaters who dock at the port to keep them, but when sold, should be someone in the shipping industry.

Skippy and Hal just returned on the main street where he came from the office of mayor. "Go Scout the perfect place for dinner while I make one last stop, "I cried, in the heart evasion Food Home Arts. Whitey Schmidt suggested that speak to the owner, Susan LINY. "It's part of a good change to come," said Schmidt. The store seemed a change of Crisfield. Coffees, teas, specialty foods. cheese. Hmmm I thought, I think I see what's coming.

Crisfield LINY is definitely a got here. Before she saw an Internet ad shops, he had never heard talk about the place. "I had been a personal chef and catering service for many years, and I was looking for some Washington area to open my own store," LINY said. "Crisfield saw the ad and went to get hit one eye. I loved the atmosphere of the city, and I loved the price." She opened her heart home this March. With the weather has heated, together with his company. "People are asking for specific things, like apple or vanilla tea or seasoning barbecue in particular, and this is my juices going, think about things. "And the cruise. In the morning, she and the owner of the chocolate shop next door and Debbi, and the owner of captain of the galley had done a show for cruise passengers had seen before. Passengers learned oysters oysters. Local businesses made some sales. Everyone was happy.
"It's a small business that will grow Crisfield" LINY said. "A new floor will not open." Then she and other local business owners have formed a marketing group to Crisfield and their enterprises to increase the awareness of seafarers and other potential tourists.

And the cheese? (I had to ask.) "I will bring a new variety of cheeses from next month as feta, goat cheese, blue cheese." Say no more, he said, and ran for Hal and Skippy. I felt a sudden urge to check a price of condominiums just before we were to dine.

Only a building to change a horizon line, and act Crisfield this is already done. More than a dozen additional buildings are on the drawing board, but if you ever end, depends on whether offers spectacular views, great fishing, a town with charm. . . and blue cheese. . . be sufficient to draw the come-heres there. So far, the dozen people who came were had little impact on the city itself. So how could I answer to my question: Have you broken Crisfield condos? Just let down and judge for yourself.

About the Author

By Jody Schroath, Senior Editor for Chesapeake Bay Magazine. For more great articles and photos on boating, sailing, fishing, and cruising, visit http://www.ChesapeakeBoating.net