A Tale of Two Chemists: Solomon's Island and the Tiki Bar

Solomon's Island and the Tiki Bar … Sunday 14th October

Solomon's Island is a popular destination for cruisers in the Chesapeake Bay. it has a lot of boating facilities and well protected anchorages. During my quick tour in the dinghy yesterday evening I met John and Cookie who live on their large catamaran at a marina. A lovely couple, I hadn't known them for 5 minutes and they were offering me the use of their car! Can you imagine that happening in Massachusetts or the UK? They told me all about the attractions of the area, impressing on me that the most renowned attraction was the Tiki Bar, which they said was a "dive" but shouldn't be missed. This rang a bell as the Waterways guide also mentions that the biggest annual event in Solomon's Island is the opening of the Tiki Bar in April, which thousands attend. This morning when we took the dinghy in to shore we met a friendly family at the dock who also gave us a run down on what to do in the area. I recall two specifics from the conversation, the "rock fish bites" at Stoney's restaurant were outstanding and rock fish was in season (what's a rock fish?), and no one should drink more than one Mai Tai at the Tiki Bar. I was intrigued - but it was only 11 am ! The wether was absolutely beautiful, cloudless blue skies and warm, in short a perfect day. We walked around for a while and noticed how friendly everyone seemed to be and also how we are starting to see plants that would not survive in New England. It turned out that today the renowned Tiki Bar were hosting their "Doggone Pets festival" (or something like that) and we walked round stalls featuring various animal themes, met lots of people with dogs and chatted to the lady from FOF (friends of Felines). Then it was 1 o'clock and we found ourselves miraculously at Stoney's restaurant where we ate and watched some football. The "Rock fish bites" were fantastic - lightly breaded fish cubes, fried and served with buffalo sauce - the marine equivalent of boneless buffalo wings. The crab cakes were also excellent. We then headed out for the AnnMarie Gardens, which looked quite close on the illustrative map, but turned out to be about 3 miles away. In the end we turned back before getting there and in the late afternoon headed back to the Tiki Bar. This turned out to be all that we could have imagined - excellent Mai Tai's with all the ambiance of a good bikers bar. The seating is on a deck with plastic tables and chairs, the drinks served in plastic cups. Every so often conversation would be drowned by a deafening roar as Harley owners thrilled the crowd with their exhausts and wheelies. One guy tried to impress with his "cigar boat" parked at the dock across the road, but I don't think he really pulled it off. The place was crawling with dogs as the Pets festival wound down and the owners hit the bar for refreshment. Our take on social interactions in Solomon - if you want a date get a bike or a dog! Seriously, it was a lot of fun and we saw some of the Washington Redskins Game. We decided that if we weren't Patriots supporters, Gloria was going to be a Redskins fan and I was going to be a "SufraJet" - i.e. someone who supports whoever the Jets are playing. I can confirm that you (I) can drink two Mai Tai and remain fairly coherent - but after that it was definitly time to head home. All in all a great day. Tomorrow, if the weather develops as forecast we plan to head over to the east side of the Bay to make some progress south using a south south west wind.

Mike