Helga without the H

Okay, this one is a bit of a cheat. One of my new years’ resolutions was to visit (and hopefully write-up reviews about) as many museum as possible (you know, without getting weirdly obsessive about it.) Last week I visited the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (kind of), and I’m gonna go ahead and review it here, and I’m gonna count it as one of my museum visits (maybe with an asterisk.) Why all the shadiness? Well, while I technically went to the museum, I didn’t exactly engage with the museum. I was on the property and technically walked through an exhibit or two, but I didn’t pay admission, or stop to read and learn anything, or any of that museumy stuff people tend to do in museums. Instead, I was there to PARTY!!! Last week was the annual St. Michael’s Running Festival. Billed as one of the flattest (and therefore also fastest) courses in the US, it boasts three different race lengths and has become a recent tradition for me and my spouse. The afterparty is hosted as St. Michaels’ hottest club, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum! So, after waking up before dawn to run races that started around 7am, the rain-soaked exhausted runners walked 4 minutes to the museum, where they listened to (quite good!) live music, were served slices of local pizza, drank beer or hard seltzer, and sat around licking their wounds. The whole thing shut down around 12. Not 12 midnight- 12 noon. Technically we could walk in and out of at least some of the museum’s exhibits, but, frankly, my husband and I were in more of a “sit around and stare at the water while completely exhausted” type of mood.

HOWEVER… I will still review this museum, because I LOVE this museum and want to give it plenty of props. First of all, yeah, I think it’s an awesome venue for a running festival after-party, and I think it’s awesome that they open their doors for this event (and let racers park in their lot.) On another personal note, I have this museum to thank for introducing me and my husband to this tradition of ours in the first place. And I have some nasty weather and a poorly-organized sailing school (I won’t name names) to, in turn, thank me for discovering the museum. My siblings and I used to go on annual Sibling Adventure Weekends, where we’d camp out and do something active like white water rafting. One year we decided to change things up and go sailing, so we booked a sailing lesson and set up camp about an hour from the marina. The weather was terrible overnight and into the morning, but nobody was contacting us to cancel (nor were they responding to our calls, given that it was balls-ass early and they weren’t open yet). They finally called back as we were pulling into the parking lot, said they just arrived and heard the voicemail, admitted they’d entered our lesson on the wrong date in their system (but correct in their paper calendar), and apologized but said there’d be no sailing today given the weather. Well, we’d woken our asses up hella early to pack up our tent in the pouring rain, were itching for an activity, and needed to find something indoors. Trip advisor said there’s a maritime museum an hour away that opens in an hour, and… that was about it. Thankfully we’re big nerds, so this sounded great. Off we went! How fortuitous! I loved this museum so much that I dragged my husband to it a year or two later. “Let’s drive two hours away to see this random museum! It’s in a quaint town! It’ll be sweet!” He was in a generally bad mood and didn’t wan to go, which had me nervous. But turns out he loved it, too. Then we saw a sign for a running festival coming up in a few months, and we decided to come back then. And we loved it so much we go back every year. All thanks to this freaking awesome museum. So… on to the museum itself (whose review will likely be shorter than all this superfluous backstory, cuz I’m tired of writing now. Doh!)

This museum is AMAZING. I was honestly so surprised by how much I love it. Though I guess I just built it up too much, so… I take that back. This museum is good. (Whew!) First up is a shipbuilder’s barn, where you can watch them building and/or restoring replicas of old-timey historical ships. Cool stuff! Next up is my absolute favorite exhibit; a lighthouse. Now, growing up in a nerdy family who love to nerd out and visit every old building on the planet, I’ve been in my share of lighthouses. What I loved about this particular lighthouse was that it was decorated as it would have been at the time it was in use, and there were tons of really awesome interactive exhibits teaching what life was like for a lighthouse keeper. It was all interactive, with lots of stuff you can touch, so you could really imagine living the life. There was just soooo much to learn about this very unique job and all that came with it. (Sadly the lighthouse was in the VIP area during the running festival party, therefore one of the few off-limits areas last weekend.) My next favorite exhibit was all about the crabbing industry on the Chesapeake Bay. This is not what I had expected from a maritime museum (I was basically just expecting a bunch of boats.) It was interesting to learn about the people who have worked in the industry, and about how the industry has changed over time (which naturally includes a frank discussion about the delicate balance of environmental factors and economic realities.) This section showed some crabbing factory equipment, employee lockers, etc.

I’d totally forgotten about it until just now, but there’s also a fishing boat (I should remember what kind, but alas, it’s been a while) with little mannequins pretending to work. Just like the lighthouse, visitors can crawl all over and through that thing to really get a sense for life on a fishing boat. And there were even more interactive displays about… (shit, I can’t remember what… fishing industry? All I remember is that the displays were creative) around the boat. Being on the water, there’s of course some waterside animal fun for the kiddos (a touch tank, as well as the ability to pull up traps and try out some other fishing tools). There’s a bunch of boats of some sort (pictured above, behind the dude with the pizza). And there’s even an entire exhibit about duck hunting. Frankly that one wasn’t really my jam as it’s mostly just faux ducks, but I DID learn what a duck blind is, which is cool!

Look, I haven’t visited this museum for the exhibits in several years, but I can still tell you what most of the exhibits are. That’s really saying something. The museum itself is worth a trip, but the location is what makes it worth a weekend. The town of St Michaels is so freaking cute and charming. Come to learn some maritime history, sure. But also stay in a cute inn (Victoriana Inn is literally next door to the museum, or enjoy the seclusion of Wade’s Point Inn a couple miles past town). Grab a delicious dinner at Limoncello (we’ve gone twice in 2 nights, that’s how good it is), a latte from Blue Crab, or a cheap cocktail from a plastic cup at Foxy’s. Peruse the several dozen adorable shops full of antiques, coastal decor, or both. Or best yet, just walk around and relax. Don’t hesitate. Just go. You’ll thank me.