Ferries, Fox and Freedom

July 04, 2019

Ferries, Fox and Freedom

First of all: Happy 4th of July! It is one of my favorite holidays, though I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it boils down to lightheartedness. If it is raining and there are no chance of fireworks for you tonight, content yourself with a little happy blog.

In the spirit of lightheartedness here are some things we have been up to and enjoying this summer: taking ferries down the Chesapeake Bay, little fox dens under our deck and freedom to think about freedom and analyze it from a few angles.

This summer it is on our to-do list to get to know the little towns peppering the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Last Sunday we set out for a little town called La Plata and then kept heading down to St. Mary's City. We really enjoyed seeing how the people changed with the geography! We went from heavily politicized suburban DC, to Prince George's county (which is obviously underfunded) to St. Mary's county that seemed like it was picked out of the Louisiana countryside! I had never been to St. Mary's County so really enjoyed seeing it and being able to marvel and relax driving through the corn fields, woods and dirt roads along the Bay. We tucked into a nice little crab shack called Cap't Billy's and enjoyed a Chesapeake feast of crab cake sandwiches with baked potatoes and local grown corn, all the while country music played in the background and no one looked scandalized about it! Why should they be scandalized? Oh, well in DC everyone would give snooty glances at each other. It felt like listening to and eating adulterated food in the best kind of way! We enjoyed sitting in the crab shack so much that we decided to keep driving to see St. Mary's City. After an hour of driving through the country and seeing nothing but cornfields and the big blue sky, we passed a few historic buildings. The Chef exclaimed that we must be close to St. Mary's City while I declared that we just passed it. He couldn't believe me so we kept driving and discovered that those few buildings were in fact St. Mary's City. Poor guy, he was expecting a real city! Otherwise why call it a city?! We got out to check out the grand city of St. Mary's and walked past the three buildings to the shore, there were some crabs along the water, some fisherman enjoying the day and that was about that. So much for big city excitement!

Where is the city?!

I really enjoy the water...

Back at home, we have a new little neighbor. He is a sweet little fox. We met him about two months ago when he was the size of an avocado and learning to walk. Bentley had been screaming for weeks and we thought he was deaf and senile. Alas, Bentley is smarter than us and could smell the little fellow. This little guy has really been enjoying life under our deck and on sunny afternoons he has no shame and enjoys life of the deck. We had thought he left but the other night there was a strong thunderstorm with hail and we saw a dash of a little red figure with a red and white tail dart under the deck, which preceded adamant wailing from Bentley. I really like him though and don't mind if he stays around a bit longer.

Bentley guarding our house!

Lastly: freedom! Oh boy is that a loaded word. It is so much more than what I thought the 4th was as a child: Popsicles, patriotic songs sung with gusto at Army cook outs, and fireworks which I hated because they were so loud. My dad always promised me when I was little that I would grow up and love fireworks: sorry but they still scare me. I never grew into liking fireworks, roller coasters or high heels. I guess that is why I picked the quietest profession of all: a librarian. "Please, keep it down" should be my middle name. Vows of silence are very appealing to me. Anyway, on freedom in the spirit of lightheartedness: the neighborhood we live in has an annual 4th of July parade for the families. All the little kids prepare in advance and get their bicycles decorated, all adults dress in red, white and blue. It isn't for nationalism as much as it is for fun. Some even wear "fun pants" the kind of patchwork pants you can only wear on the east coast when it is hot and a "fun" event. My favorite part of the day was lounging on the couch with the cats for a few minutes after running around in the morning and being happy to be free to be me.