50th Birthday

Once upon a time, a girl named Glenda decided to celebrate her foray into a foreign age known as 50 by inviting friends to a beach-side party on an island just off New Point.

As usual, Chesapeake Bay Woman was thrilled to be invited but relied on the kindness of others to deliver her from shore to the destination, since a boat is required.  The last two times she joined this group on beach adventures, there were all sorts of misadventures, such as tires falling off trailers and other assorted boat trailer structural issues.

(Click here and here for those stories.)

The point is, CBW knows there is never a guarantee that just because one has received an invitation to such an unusual event as a birthday party on a deserted island that one is ever going to make it there due to Murphy's Law, weather, and/or the syndrome known as Tire, Boat and Other Structural Issues Preventing Maritime Mirth.

Therefore, everyone was relieved when at least the majority of the people and boats scheduled to show 

up at New Point actually did.

Above, Alda and Lawrence start unloading their boat, which they took from Horn Harbor Marina to New Point.

They followed the boat I was in which belongs to Billy and Birthday Girl Glenda.

Coming "around the horn" there was--evidently--lots of wind.  I say evidently because all was lost on me, the kid in the candy shop.  Thrilled to be out there, I took every bounce on a wave like a ride at Busch Gardens.  Throwing my hands up in the air, fists clenched,  I yelled directly into the sea spray coming off the side of the boat that drenched our faces and plastered our hair down. "BRING IT!"

It's hard to notice that there might be reason to be worried or concerned or careful when one is so caught up in having fun.  But it happens.

While CBW was busy being oblivious, Captain Billy carefully navigated slowly and methodically so that Alda and Lawrence, in a smaller boat behind us, were able to safely negotiate the incoming wind and waves.

The sun was shining, the temperature was perfect, and, aside from a choppy ride over that took a little longer than anyone expected, everyone was happy.

(The passengers on Alda and Lawrence's boat may have had other opinions.  But it was all good. Everybody made it without incident.)

(Well, almost everybody made it.)

After hearing how choppy the bay was, the rest of the birthday party--that included Catherine, Willie B. and Laura Lane--were told to please participate in Plan B, which did not involve taking a small craft out into the bay but rather entailed driving to the dock at Davis Creek and merely stepping aboard Craig's boat. Craig then safely delivered them to the island.

Everybody made it to the destination safe and sound.

The unloading of the boats began.

When these people set up shop on a deserted beach out in the middle of nowhere, they come well-prepared, let me tell you.  We had everything from cocktail wieners to 65 pieces of Best Value's delectable fried chicken, deviled eggs, baked beans and a one-of-a-kind birthday cake.

And that's just the start of what came off these boats. You'd have thought we were setting up for a wedding reception.

Absolute strangers came over to our area because they could smell the food and couldn't believe the spread.

These are no amateur party throwers, these friends of mine.

Here Chip delivers the box of Best Value fried chicken off the boat.  If he wasn't telling
himself, "Please Lord  don't let me drop this," I guarantee you every single one of us
drooling starving on shore was thinking--or maybe even shouting-- it.
That was some GOOD fried chicken.  And every piece did make it ashore without incident.

This was our main base of operations, before the buffet line food was set up.

Carol Ann and Lisa

Here the buffet stations food area started taking shape.
There was everything you could possibly imagine.

Glenda's cake.  

Willie B., Craig and Lawrence 

Here Alda poses innocently (?) with Birthday Girl Glenda's boyfriend

Birthday Girl Glenda and Alda's husband Lawrence
appear to be oblivious to what is going on in the photo above.

Carol Ann, who is indeed irresistible.  Or irresistable.
No matter how it's spelled, that's what she is.

Laura Lane

Catherine and Laura Lane.
(With lots of hand gestures to accompany the story.)

Lawrence

Craig

Willie B

Chip

Dear Chip, I know we've gone over this before, but I truly am sorry for stabbing
you in the hand with a pencil in Whatever Early Grade at Gloucester Day School.
Also, thanks for not dropping that box of Best Value chicken into the Chesapeake Bay.
We all greatly appreciate that. Truly.

Dear Billy, Thank you for delivering us safely to and from shore even
if one of your passengers was behaving like a teenager on a roller coaster
during the choppier moments. You have a great deal of patience.

Alda's daughter Betsy

OK.

So before we move on to the next photo, there's a story to tell relating to the aforementioned choppy waves on the bay.

As the day was winding down, we noticed the wind had picked up even more. Enough that everyone started to get cold.

That was the sign for us to leave.

Everyone else went back to Chip and Carol Ann's dock which did not require a trip "around the horn" into the choppy bay.

Those of us in Billy and Glenda's boat--which is a substantial boat--ventured back the way we came, very slowly.

There were more waves than before, and it seemed to take way longer to move any sort of distance, but some of us were still viewing it as a thrill ride--even with water now splashing around our knees ankles due to the water splashing into the boat.

The long story short is Captain Billy made an executive decision to turn around and head back to Chip and Carol Ann's dock, where we were greeted by the slightly worried welcoming crew below.

This is a Before Shot of Kain, who, along with his girlfriend Ashley, rode in the boat with us.
See how he looks like a strong, confident football player here?  

Well, by the time the return boat trip was over, Kain looked like this.
To survive what felt like an episode of Deadliest Catch,
Kain had donned Ashley's purple strapless terry cloth cover-up to keep warm.

Kain was so traumatized, he didn't even care whether everything
was covered up by the purple cover-up.

There was a lot of stuff going on.  

Everyone was relieved to 
be on solid ground, safe and sound,
no matter what we were doing for warmth.

The calm here is in such stark contrast to the trip we had just survived endured.

Glenda and Carol Ann

Aside from a few bumpy boat rides, the day was filled with fun and laughter.

Happy birthday to Glenda, and my thanks to everyone there 

for allowing me to join along in the Deadliest Catch episode fun.

Adventures at Beachland

As I mentioned yesterday, this weekend an out-of-town friend (we'll call him Brooks to protect the innocent) visited Mathews for the first time, and one of our stops was the beautiful place known as Beachland.

Knowing the owner was going to be away this particular morning, I coordinated my visit with her sister.  She emailed me inquiring about the date and whether I still planned on going, and I emailed back confirming that indeed I was.

We were all set.

Brooks and I were amazed at the peace and tranquility of the beautiful estate. We admired the barn, walked by the beehives, took some photos of the creek, and then turned our attention to the house itself.

We loitered lingered in the back yard admiring the house.  Taking advantage of the gorgeous day, we decided to sit for just a spell on the back deck.

The sun beamed down, birds sang cheerfully, and all in all it was very serene, very relaxing.

All of a sudden, amid the roar of all this peace and tranquility, I heard a sound that my trained ear has come to recognize after trespassing taking photos for this blog for so many years.  A ghost! car was approaching.

I asked Brooks if he heard it, and he said no. Although I tried to resume the state of relaxation, any hope of that fell by the wayside when we heard footsteps ascending the stairs behind us.

Oh no. My worst fears were about to be realized.

Here we were, lounging casually in someone's back yard--doing absolutely no harm, though.  Plus I had told a family member I would be here, which you'd think would be enough to assuage my guilt fears.

Still.

Who was here, and what would they think of us loitering hanging out in the yard?

As my heart leaped into my throat I quickly scampered off the deck into the yard, held up my camera, and dove headfirst into my well-rehearsed  speech (for just this sort of occasion) before seeing who was there.

"Hey there! It's Chesapeake Bay Woman," as beads of sweat formed on my forehead.

Whirling around to see who was on the receiving end of this announcement, I was relieved to see someone I recognized as a family member. Someone I've met before.

 He looked understandably startled, at least for the first few seconds, until it all registered.

Waving my camera around as if it were some sort of Get Out of Trouble Free card, I continued. "Suzie said it would be OK if we stopped by to wander around and take some pictures. Did she tell you?"

The beads of sweat were as big as golf balls by this time.

"No," he said.

Crap, I thought.

Oh no, I thought.

As it turned out my fears, of course, were all for naught.  He not only very graciously welcomed us, but he invited us inside.

From this angle, the footsteps came up those stairs on the left.
We were sitting near the stairs on the right.

Many, many thanks to Gloria, Suzie and Bob for giving us the privilege of visiting this beautiful place.


Stay tuned for the next chapter of the Misadventures of CBW The Three Hour Tour, where CBW serves up a meal that included a complimentary post-dinner fire.