Day Trippin'

Living in Northern Virginia is great, there is always something going on in the DC area, plenty to see and do. However, every once in awhile it is wonderful to escape the city and explore some of the great a places surrounding the DC metro area.  This past summer I treated S2H to a "day date" in Saint Michaels, MD.  St.Michaels is a gorgeous historic town on the Eastern Shores of Maryland.  On a good day it takes about two and a half hours to drive there, we won't talk about the summer traffic and the battle that is getting over the Bay Bridge!

I knew S2H would love this little town.  You can walk to a brewery, winery, and some awesome seafood restaurants all in a matter of minutes!  We started off our afternoon day date at St.Michaels winery.  The winery was super cute and rustic. I loved it!  We sat at the bar and each had the "staff favorites" wine sampler.  It was really fun chatting with the staff and hearing about how the winery was started and all the awards they have won.  The guy started the winery pretty much on a whim.  He was burnt out from his DC job (uuhh, I know the feeling) and loved St.Michaels and thought a winery would do well there.  Lucky for him it has been a huge success and become very popular!  All the wines were pretty tasty, and kept getting better with every sip! ;)  I'm not much of a wine expert so I'll just talk about the most unique wine they had.  They make a chocolate wine!  No joke, it is infused with dark chocolate...right up my ally.  This Chocolate Zinfandel is pretty sweet but I was sold when the wine lady told me it makes an awesome raspberry chocolate sauce...in the bag it went!  I can't wait to make a little creation to go on top of vanilla ice cream!

The whole day date was a surprise for S2H and the main part of the surprise was a massage at the Linden Spa of The Inn at Perry Cabin.  The Inn is gorgeous; set right on a little point on the shore with beautiful views and Adirondack chairs covering the lawn.  I left S2H at the spa for the "athlete's relief" massage and hung out at the Inn watching the sail boats go by...it was such a relaxing two hours!  S2H came out of the spa happy as a clam and ready to hit the brewery!

The Eastern Shore Brewing Company visit was a great way to end the day.  The brewery had a rustic/cozy tasting room and a crazy, eccentric bartender to boot.  Bartender Rusty had been pretty buzzed all day... I think since the night before as he told us he had gone to a huge rager.  We were the last customers of the day so Rusty decided he would drink with us.  He and S2H even shared the "Rusty Rocket."  A lovely shot of pale ale and hot sauce...yikes!  Needless to say Rusty provided some great entertainment and S2H left with the dream of running his own brewery!

We spent the rest of the day window shopping and I picked up a Christmas Ornament as a trip souvenir. I found a little sailboat ornament at an all things Christmas Shop...I could have spent hours in there!  You can tell by the pictures that we had a cloudy day which was perfect for walking around. The rain came just as we stopped for dinner...perfect timing!  Our seafood dinner was so so, definitely didn't leave an impression since I have no food photos!  Next time we will definitely have to search for a better dinner spot.   All in all it was a perfect day trip, I would highly recommend St.Michaels to anyone who can make the trip!