13 August 2008 - 20:41Calvert Cliffs

I took a day off in the middle of the week to go on a nature hike with Lynda at Calvert Cliffs State Park. We both find our jobs stressful, and this was a welcome relief. We asked each other a couple of times during this lovely day, “Why don’t we do this more often?”

There’s a 1.8 mile hike from the parking lot to the beach between the cliffs. It took us four hours to make it to the beach and back. That’s just a little over a mile an hour. There was so much to see on the way. The highlight was the wetland area halfway through the trail where there are nesting red-headed woodpeckers. If you don’t know what one looks like, check it out in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bird Guide. They’re gorgeous. The red in the picture isn’t as vibrant as they are in reality, but you’ll get the idea. We watched a battle between a pair of adult woodpeckers, and a squirrel who was trying to raid their nest hole.

I searched in vain on the beach for shark’s teeth, but I wasn’t disappointed. It was pretty out there.

After our hike, we tried to visit the famous Vera’s White Sands Beach Club and Marina, but found that it is only open Thursday through Sunday. We ended up driving a little farther south to Solomons, and had a great crab cake lunch at the Captain’s Table. While searching for an alternative for Vera’s, Lynda demonstrated for me how cool GPS technology has become. She searched for restaurants near our location, and even dialed the restaurant for her so that she could make sure they were open. We’ll have to come back another day to experience Vera’s.

There are more photos from this trip in a set called Calvert Cliffs State Park on my Flickr site.