On Tuesday, August 25 Carrie and I headed out for a 6 day vacation - destination: Maryland!
Hitting the road! We left after I was finished work on Tuesday and drove 5 hours the first day. We stayed somewhere around Cleveland, OH the first night.
We drove the remaining 7.5 hours to Maryland on Wednesday. Here we are crossing the Bay Bridge over Chesapeake Bay. The bridge is 4.3 miles shore-to-shore and connects the mainland near Annapolis with the Delmarva Peninsula and the Eastern Shore.
Two secrets to a budget vacation - book your room in a hotel that is under renovation (they give you a good deal) and cook your own meals. We brought our own hotplate and utensils along! We stayed in Salisbury, MD for two nights.
Doing the dishes after our mac'n'cheese meal.
Thursday morning we headed to the beach and boardwalk at Ocean City, MD.
Miles of boardwalk.
Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum on the boardwalk at Ocean City. We didn't take in this particular attraction - there was too much stuff we wanted to see.
We soon realized that there was no possible way to see everything on foot so here we are on our Surrey. We rented it for 1 hour and didn't even get down the whole boardwalk.
Beach Evangelism - one amazing sand sculpture.
The beach at Ocean City.
Dipping my toes in the Atlantic Ocean.
Excited to be here.
Ocean City was too busy and crowded for our liking so after 2.5 hours we decided to be on our way. We had planned on going to Assateague Island on Friday but we decided to hit it on Thursday instead.
The beach at the Assateague National Park, Virginia - much quieter beach and much bigger waves.
We drove through the wildlife refuge on the island. These are the Snowy Egert.
We wanted to see the wild ponies that live on the island so we took a nature cruise.
Sunset from the boat.
We saw the ponies near the end of the cruise, but only from a distance.
Wild ponies of Assateague Island.
Lighthouse.
On the cruise.
On Friday we left the Eastern shore and headed out toward Garrett county on the west side of Maryland. We drove into a storm.
We pulled off the road to wait out the storm, as did most other motorists.
Waiting out the storm.
Watching an episode of Corner Gas (the latest Season 6 that Carrie got me for my birthday!) while waiting out the storm.
The rain eased up so we hit the road again.
The clouds were really low in the mountains.
Driving into the Appalachian Mountains. Wow!
We stayed at the Casselman Motor Inn in Grantsville, MD on Friday night.
The Casselman Inn is located right next to the motel we stayed in. This hotel was built in 1824 along the National Trail. Today it houses the historic hotel and a restaurant that we ate at twice - most wonderful food! (Note: The caution tape on the front porch is there because they were refinishing the wood - no other reason.)
On Saturday we ventured out to Casselman's bridge, a national historic site that's only a mile or two from the motel. Built in 1831, it was used by settlers who traveled the National Road.
With its 80 foot span, Casselman's Bridge was the longest single span stone arch bridge in the world during the era of the National Road. 
The Appalachian Mountains in Garrett County. MD.
We wandered around the Spruce Forest Artisan Village which is located right next to the historic bridge.
Our friend and fellow seminarian, Andrea, is from Accident, MD, just a few miles from Grantsville. Without her recommendations we probably would have never seen this beautiful part of the country.
Saturday afternoon we went to Swallow Falls State Park. We saw pictures of the falls on some cards in a gift shop so we asked around and managed to find our way there. I think that seeing these falls was one of the highlights of our trip!
Lots of huge rocks in the forest. The trees didn't seem to mind.
Proof that we were actually there.
We drove part way back to Indiana on Saturday evening and the reminader of the way on Sunday, arriving back in Elkhart around supper time. All in all, Carrie and I agree that it was a great vacation!
So that's a very brief overview of our trip to Maryland. Hope you enjoyed!
So that's a very brief overview of our trip to Maryland. Hope you enjoyed!
2 comments:
I did enjoy the pictures very much. You got them up so quickly! Nathan made a comment when he saw you with your feet in the Atlantic ocean...he said that you'll have to come visit this year so that you can say you put your feet in both the Atlantic and Pacific in one year. I like that idea...
Thanks for sharing about your trip! The pictures are beautiful! I had to look on a map to see where Maryland is. It looks like a really neat place to visit! An east coast trip is definitely on my list of dream vacations. I always thought I would just want to stick to Canada's east coast, but actually some of the mid-to-north-eastern states would be pretty cool to visit!
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