[Saint Michaels, MD]

It’s been a few days since I came back to California but I got caught in such a whirlwind of work, school and other commitments when I got back that I haven’t had a chance to chronicle our last day in Saint Michaels. So here it is!

On our last day in Saint Michaels, the sun came out as if to mock us. The weather was still cold – in the mid 40s – but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it would have been a beautiful day for sightseeing, if we had the time.

I started off the day with a run. I was proud of myself for having managed to go running twice on the trip (but slightly disappointed that I didn’t make it three). It was a really great way to burn some calories and not feel too bad about the mountains of food that one inevitably ingests while traveling – despite all intentions to eat healthy before the trip commences. The town of Saint Michaels seemed really small from the car, so I thought that I was going to have to zig-zag through the side streets to get in a 2-3 mile run, but I was pleasantly surprised. What seemed like a really short main street was just long enough for me to do an out-and-back loop.

After I came back, we had a breakfast in our inn. Did I mention that our inn it was the most adorable B&B ever? It’s a historical building that dates back to the 1880s and was restored into a Bed-and-Breakfast in the mid 1980s. The downstairs included a living room that had a wood fireplace, an amazing coffee/tea machine that we could use any time and a collection of DVDs that we could bring up to our room to watch. Breakfast was made by the innkeeper herself, and it was served by her assistant in the downstairs dining room. The entire experience felt like I was staying at grandma’s house! On the first night we stayed there, there were home-made cookies sitting out in the living room, as well as a Halloween basket full of candy. The second night, the fireplace was going when we came back so we spent the evening downstairs reading up on the history of the building, which was in a binder on the coffee table, and drinking peppermint tea. Our room was large and comfy, with a huge bed and a separate sitting area as well as direct access to the deck. The only tricky part was our bathroom, which was great except it lacked a door!

Our B&B, the Parsonage Inn

After breakfast, we checked out and decided to take a short walk around town as we had not had a chance to do that with all the rain the day before. We picked up a magnet for our fridge that had our B&B in it, grabbed a coffee at the Blue Crab Coffee company (every name here seems to something to do with seafood), and then we headed to the airport.

We allowed for an extra half hour to get to the airport and it came in quite handy as one of the two main highways out of the Eastern Shore was completely closed due to an accident, and the few small roads off of it that could serve as detours were quickly getting congested. I was stressing out quite a bit because in addition to the possibility of missing our flight, we were also facing the possibility of running out of gas – we had left Saint Michaels with a only quarter of a tank! Luckily, we made it to the airport (and a gas station) in time.

I really enjoyed my first visit to the East Coast since I moved to California over two years ago, and it was great catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in a long time. I hope Ramon and I get a chance to come back soon for a proper tour of Virginia and for a chance to experience Saint Michaels, MD without the rain! 🙂