A Weekend in Chestertown

We had such a nice weekend with such nice friends! Chestertown is in Maryland, on the Chester River. We became acquainted with the town about five or six years ago when our friend Peggy moved there and bought the local coffee shop, Play It Again Sam. Herb and Elaine took a little trip down to check on her, fell in love with the town, and bought a little getaway house there. We've gone down about once a year, sometimes staying with Herb and Elaine and sometimes staying at a B&B. This year we stayed at The Widow's Walk, a very nice place within walking distance of everything. Our room was spacious and our host genial.
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This is the third consecutive year that we've gone to Chestertown for Downrigging Weekend. The town is home to the Sultana, a reproduction vintage schooner, that is used for environmental education purposes up and down the Chester River. The first weekend of November is when the ship is officially put to rest for the winter and a festival is held. Other tall ships from the East Coast are invited to come into port for the weekend. They are illuminated at night and on the weekend are open for tour one day for for two-hour cruises the other day. Each year we've ridden a different boat. This year it was the "When and If" a boat originally owned by General Patton. It is a beautiful vessel. It was supposed to hold 17 passengers for the cruise; when we showed up we learned that there had been an error in filing papers and the Coast Guard wouldn't allow more than six passengers and they were US! So we had this private yacht manned by a delightful crew. Joe had a good time helping with the sails, and the rest of us just enjoyed ourselves.
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Joe and I had dinner alone together on Friday night and I had rockfish for the first time. It was just wonderful! After dinner we met Elaine and Herb who had picked up tickets for a concert at the Prince Theatre, right in the heart of downtown. The concert was a fundraiser for Sultana and featured a fellow from the education department of Sultana who writes and performs songs about the area. Mosts of them were very funny and he was quite entertaining. The second act was a blue grass band. They were a little loud for our taste and so we didn't stay for very much of their performance.
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Herb and Elaine were wonderful, opening their home to us for a hot soup lunch after the sail. On Saturday night we all went out to dinner to a terrific place in Kennedyville, about a fifteen minute drive from C'town. I had rockfish for the second time! Yesterday afternoon and this morning we wandered in and out of the shops and I picked up a couple of Christmas gifts and oohed and aahed over some adorable but expensive baby clothes, size eighteen months, for a certain someone. There is a fair amount of money in Chestertown, and we visited a lot of art galleries with high prices. It occurred to me that if I were to ever want to make quilts to sell, C'town would be a good place to try to market them, since no one else seems to be doing it.
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On the way down we stopped at the L'il Country Shoppe, a darling quilt shop in Middletown, Delaware, that one of the quilt ring bloggers had mentioned http://www.lilcountryshoppe.com/ They have a whole room that is just about wool, and it was terrific. Their regular quilting fabrics room was lovely, too. Of course I felt compelled to support he Middletown economy, and bought a few things, including some adorable little wool scarves that they had planned for needle felting, but I intend to applique with wool scraps.
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So we're home again, home again, happy and relaxed. Of course each time we go, we walk around looking at the homes for sale, fantasizing about buying one. Joe would love to have a vacation place on the water. I've sort of resisted the idea (not that it is something we could afford at this point anyway) but this trip it dawned on me that with the L'il Country Shoppe about 20-30 minutes to the north and Cottonseed Glory (which I've pronounced the second best quilt shop I've ever been in) about 30 or 45 minutes away, Chestertown might be just the place!