This part of Maryland is not at all what I expected - hilly, covered with trees. I guess the fact that it is on a bay and not a seacoast makes the difference, but I was expecting a flatter, more barren landscape for some reason. It is beautiful here and a pretty prosperous area - even tho it is 60 miles from DC and Baltimore, we think there are a lot of commuters living here from the looks of the southbound traffic this afternoon.

Lots of nice and very nice houses - I'm sure Great-Great Grandpa Samuel Tydings would not recognize Calvert County at all. We did look up a couple of places today that I know he would have been familiar with because they're old enough and right in the area where he lived. The Bay is the same as it was 150 years ago, tho - he would be right at home sitting where we are sitting tonight looking out at the water.

We also visited the Calvert County Historical Society and met the archivist (also a Karen) that I have been emailing with about the family. The CCHS doesn't have much to help me - this is one of those counties where a courthouse fire destroyed all the records - but she had a few documents I was interested in and I had some information to share with her.

Stopped at a grocery store on our way back home - that's always fun to see the different food items in a "foreign" location. Got some frozen shrimp burgers and red crab soup - there's dinner tomorrow. We are going up to Annapolis tomorrow - spend a little time in the State Archives and walk around downtown. Annapolis apparently has more original 18th century buildings than any place else in the country - we'll be sure to take our cameras!

I don't know if the Tydings' worshipped here but they definitely would have known this beautiful little 260-year-old chapel and I'm sure the old cemetery includes many of their neighbors.

This is the Cove Point lighthouse - it was closed today so we had to take this photo thru a chain link fence. Again, it was very close to where the ancestors lived and I know that Samuel Tydings and our great-grandfather Lloyd Tydings, who both captained ships on the Bay, would have been very familiar with it.