The pride and joy of the Eastern Shore is the Chesapeake Bay village of St. Michaels, a colonial-era shipbuilding center turned yachting haven that’s home to the excellent Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (daily; $9; 410/745-2916). Located right on the waterfront at the center of town, the museum has extensive displays of skipjacks and other historic sailing vessels, which you can watch being restored in the museum workshops. There are also diverse pieces of fishing and hunting gear, plus a working lighthouse, all displayed to conjure up traditional Eastern Shore maritime life.
Though full of lovingly maintained old houses and commercial buildings as well as working wharves, chandlers, and sail lofts, St. Michaels, it has to be said, is definitely a major tourist trap, with the usual array of souvenir shops, overpriced restaurants, and overquaint B&Bs.
After seeing the museum and wandering around the town, if you want to get a feel for the unspoiled Chesapeake follow the signs southeast from St. Michaels to the historic ferry (daily 7 am–sunset; $6/car, $1.25/pedestrian each way) that shuttles across the Tred Avon River every half hour or so between Bellevue and Oxford. Oxford (pop. 700), a truly sleepy little Eastern Shore town, has hardly changed since the 1760s, when it was one of two authorized ports-of-entry into colonial-era Maryland. Wander along the waterfront or south along Morris Street to the village center, through what may be the best-preserved colonial townscape left in America. There are no museums or displays proclaiming Oxford a special place, though no less an authority than James Michener (who lived in St. Michaels for many years) did go so far as to say that the crab cakes served inside the circa 1710 Robert Morris Inn ($110 and up; 410/226-5111) opposite the ferry dock were among the best he’d ever tasted.
