
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 17, 1994                   TAG: 9404200001
SECTION: TRAVEL                    PAGE: F-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A SPLENDID EASTERN SHORE

The Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay captures your attention, your emotions, your senses: spectacular sunsets over sailboat-flecked coves; strolls through historic small towns lovingly restored to their 18th- and 19th-century beauty; seafood so fresh that if it were fresher, it would flip off the plate; quaint fishing villages so artfully disheveled in appearance, they seem to be posing for pictures.

And always the water - both fresh water and salt water. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It stretches for 200 miles north to south. Counting the nine major rivers and 150 creeks that feed it, the bay has a shoreline at least 5,000 miles long.

The Eastern Shore, also called the Delmarva Peninsula, looks like a witch's hand extending south from Pennsylvania, pointing one bony finger toward Norfolk.

Going west from Easton, the colonial capital of the Eastern Shore, on Maryland 33 takes you to the port of St. Michaels. Dating from the 1600s, St. Michaels is an intriguing mix of historic buildings, seafood restaurants, clothing and gift shops and a harbor stuffed with sailboats, with the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum thrown in.

West and south on Maryland 33 about 15 miles from St. Michaels is Tilghman Island, one of the few remaining homes of the skipjack, one of the bay's traditional oyster-fishing boats. The skipjack fleet, once numbering more than 1,000 but now reduced to about a dozen working boats, still sails into the icy waters of the Chesapeake each October to April.

Seven miles south of St. Michaels off Maryland 329 is the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry over the Tred Avon River. There has been ferry service here continuously since 1683, with the exception of a few years following the American Revolution. The ferry is a fitting introduction to Oxford, which was an international shipping center before the American Revolution.

Today Oxford is a sleepy fishing village with some special treats for visitors. The Robert Morris Inn was constructed in 1710 by ships carpenters, using wooden pegged paneling and hand-hewn beams. Despite several additions, the inn maintains its 18th-century charm. Lodging and meals are available.

The tiny customs house at the harbor is a replica of the first federal customs house built after the Revolution. It is open weekends through late autumn, as is the Oxford Museum at Morris and Market streets.

South of Oxford on U.S. 50 is Cambridge. A walk down High Street in the heart of old Cambridge reveals more than a dozen graceful 18th- and 19th-century buildings.Today Oxford is a sleepy fishing village with some special treats for visitors. The Robert Morris Inn was constructed in 1710 by ships carpenters, using wooden pegged paneling and hand-hewn beams.

About nine miles south of Cambridge by way of Maryland 16 and 335 are the marshes and woodlands of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. Its position on the Atlantic Flyway, an avian interstate stretching from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, makes it a popular fall and spring rest stop for migrating waterfowl, notably Canada geese, snow geese, ducks and tundra swans. It also is the year-round home of a large group of nesting bald eagles. Pick up a map of the auto trail and two walking trails, plus a list of the more than 275 species of birds that live in or visit Blackwater, at the visitor center on Key Wallace Drive. Open dawn to dusk; nominal entrance fee charged.

by CNB