71. Sit in at Open Air Concerts
Bask in the glow of summer sun or evening moon while melodies tickle your ears amid your choice of Chesapeake scenery.
Downs Park, off Mountain Road in Pasadena, hosts the free 2001 Bayside Concert Series, featuring acts ranging from Celtic to country/bluegrass to blues to jazz. Music plays each Sunday as you picnic in full view of the Chesapeake (concerts begin 6pm thru August 5; 5pm thru September 9: 410/222-6230).
Annapolis' City Dock is venue for the Summer Serenade Concert Series, resounding with the sounds of the Naval Academy Band on Tuesdays (see Way 51) and special guests on Wednesdays. Bring your own seats and listen in. The Wednesday half of the series features teen rock bands, Andes folk music bluegrass, local folk and more from July 11 through August 15 (7pm; free: 410/263-1183).
Charles Carroll House entertains with picnicking and concerts on the lawn complemented by free tours of the historic home. Entertainment includes a gala concert with baritone Jerome Barry capped by fireworks on July 4; cellist Rupert Thompson on July 21; and pan-Celtic group Iona on September 15 (8pm @ 107 Duke of Gloucester St., Annapolis; $20 w/discounts; rsvp: 410/269-1737).
On the second Thursdays of summer months through September, get musically refreshed in Chesapeake Beach Railway Museum's free Bay Breeze summer concert series. Guest artists make music on the porch while you sit back and enjoy lemonade and cookies (7:30pm: 410/257-3892).
North Beach hosts three concerts en plein air at its Boardwalk pavilion, featuring the U.S. Air Force Band's Silver Wings (6:30-9:30pm July 14), an open mike night (7-9pm July 24) and Kevin Kline (6:30-9:30pm August 11). All concerts are free (301/855-6681).
Watkins Regional Park makes music with a free concert series running June 28 through August 23. Performances range from reggae to Cajun to show tunes to jazz (7-8:30pm @ Upper Marlboro: 301/218-6700 www.pgparks.com).
These regular concerts are perennial favorites, but as summer heats up you'll find ever more outdoor concerts and festivals at which to shake your groove thang. Come Labor Day weekend, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra brings summer revs up for its new season in a pair free concerts at Downs and Quiet Waters parks. "Eight Days a Week" will keep you updated as more outdoor music pops up.
72. Camp Out with Ghosts
If camping is your family's next adventure, try bunking with the ghosts at Point Lookout State Park in St. Mary's County. For years campers, visitors and park rangers alike have shared stories of unexplained apparition sightings at the Point.
With the Point's history of human tragedy, it's not so shocking to think you may find a lost soul or two wandering the grounds.
Point Lookout has been the site of Indian massacres, colonial duels, shipwrecks and an infamous Civil War hospital and prison camp.
Thousands of people have died in misery on and around Point Lookout. Some estimate 4,000 to 14,000 deaths in the prison camp alone.
So if you've got the fortitude, spend the night at Point Lookout and maybe you'll bring back a ghost story of your own. For reservations: 888/432-camp.
73. Save a Turtle
The Eastern box turtle is a beauty: four to six inches long with a high, domed shell that is usually dark brown with orange or reddish blotches of various size and shape that form an eye-catching pattern. Unfortunately, we see them most often when they're headed for trouble.
Crossing roads is natural for turtles. Nobody told this ancient, slow-growing species that roads were coming to fragment their habitat.
It's also deadly. Road kills are one reason North American box turtles are listed as a threatened species by The Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora. Threatened means that the loss - by traffic, pet collection and so on - of just one adult box turtle from a population each year or two will doom that population to eradication in the not too distant future.
If you are lucky enough to see a box turtle wandering the woods or on your property, please leave it untouched. Simply enjoy it - and realize that nowadays fewer and fewer people have such an opportunity.
If you find one crossing a road, simply help it to the side toward to which it's headed. Many researchers feel that moving them to a distant site simply dooms the animal to begin searching for its former home, multiplying its likelihood of encountering highways and other hazardous areas.
Most importantly, exercise caution when driving along rural, wooded areas particularly in the mornings, evenings and after rainstorms. By this simple act, you will contribute greatly to the future of this remarkable species.
74. Get Flighty
Have you been dreaming of flying your own plane up in the cloudless sky on a beautiful summer day? It's easier than you think to get started. A & G Aviation at Lee Airport in Edgewater will show you how.
Your instructor will take you from your very first flight in a Cesna 152, a two-person, single-engine plane, through the 15 to 20 hours of flying required until you can go solo. To be licensed, you must also pass required written and flying tests.
All it takes is a phone call to Rob Argentieri at 410/263-9073 and $90/hour.
75. NJFK: Put on a Play
Bored this summer? Here is a great solution: Get some friends together and put on a play. Getting dressed up and acting out all of the different characters is so much fun.
Pick any play you like: musicals, drama, comedy, Shakespeare. Or write the script yourself. It doesn't have to be complicated.
My sister and our friends put on a play every year. We've done Grease, Guys and Dolls and The Wizard of Oz. This year we've chosen A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.
Studying and practicing your lines at rehearsal, deciding on makeup, creating scenery and finding the right props make for a lot of hard work, but you'll have so much fun it won't seem like work at all.
For costumes, you can always find lots of good stuff at thrift stores that doesn't cost much.
When opening night comes, you may be surprised at how large an audience you have - if you've remembered to tell everybody you know and put up signs. Putting on a play is fun not only for you but for everyone who watches it, too.
76. Thrill to Theater under the Stars
Nestled between City Dock and Eastport along Conduit Street is a small building painted black to blend in with the night. Within, you'll find the open courtyard and stage of Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, performing under the stars for its 36th year. The theater produces three plays each summer, and this season is already well under way.
Shakespeare returns to Annapolis in midsummer with Much Ado About Nothing. The Bard's mischievous comedy of love, mistaken identity, deceit and death runs under twinkling stars June 29 through July 28.
The season wraps up with one of the biggest hits of the Roaring Twenties, Good News. This stageplay of love, college and football runs August 4 through September 1 (All shows 8:30pm Th-Su @ Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, 143 Compromise St.; $12 w/discounts: 410/268-9212 www.summergarden.com).
Should you prefer silver screen to open stage, Kinder Farm Park will please with its Free Friday Flicks on July 20. Family fun includes carnival games, contests and entertainment as prelude to a screening of the movie Stuart Little at dusk (fun starts 6:30pm @ Kinder Farm Park, Millersville: 410/222-6115).
Charm a date as Baltimore's Little Italy Restaurant Association hosts the Little Italy Open Air Film Festival. Each Friday through August 24 at the corner of High and Styles Streets you'll find free Italian and Italian-American cinema shown on a screen draped over a restaurant wall. Evenings open with live Italian music by Otto and the Composers (7pm) as prelude to the feature (9pm). Bring your own chairs and arrive at the parking lot at least one hour early - the shows are quite popular (410/528-1096). Ci vediamo al cinema! [See you at the movies!]
77. Duck Indoors If it Rains
Should it rain, duck indoors to one of our area's myriad other performance troupes:
2nd Star Productions: American history turns passionate and humorous in the troupe's production of 1776, a musical portrait of the men who made a nation. Act quickly; the show wraps up June 30. 8pm FSa; 3pm Su @ Bowie Playhouse, Whitemarsh Park, Bowie. $15 w/discounts; rsvp: 410/757-5700 www.2ndstarproductions.com.
Colonial Players: Come July this popular Annapolis group reprises Square Pegs, its festival of unusual theater first conjured two summers ago. Short plays ranging from hilarious to mystifying are performed in two series - Soup du Jour (July 6, 8, and 14) and Just Desserts (July 7, 13 & 15) - on alternating nights. 8pm FSa; 2:30pm Su @ Colonial Players, 108 East St., Annapolis. $6; $10/series combo: 410/268-7373 www.cplayers.com.
Chesapeake Music Hall: Follow the Yellow Brick Road to the summer musical Wizard of Oz, set to run July 6 through September 9. Curtains part 8pm ThSa; 8:30pm F; 2:30pm Su; 1pm W @ Chesapeake Music Hall, 339 Busch's Frontage Rd., Annapolis. $32.50 FSa; $29.50 ThSuW: 800/406-0306 www.chesapeakemusichall.com.
Twin Beach Players: The thespians of twin towns North Beach and Chesapeake Beach perform the southern drama Steel Magnolias on two weekends in mid-August. Times & location tba: 301/855-6755.
The Talent Machine Company: See the Annapolis area's rising young talent in The Talent Machine, a vibrant musical production of the troupe's own legacy of nurturing theatrical kids. Plays June 28 through July 22. (7:30pm ThF, 6:30pm Su, 2pm July 15 & 22 @ Francis Scott Key Auditorium, St. John's College, Annapolis. $9: 410/956-0512.
These and other local groups may have more shows waiting in the wings; keep an eye on "Eight Days a Week" for the latest.
78. Explore Soft Shells
If you've not eaten them, the eight wiggly legs and two claws sticking out of your sandwich may make you squeamish. If you have, you know few foods in the world are better.
But do you know who serves the tastiest of all?
Challenge yourself this summer to finding out.
You're in for enlightening experiences. You might discover gold in the least promising places.
Want to master softshells in your own kitchen? We like the simple, traditional recipes best, and the simplest is detailed by Whitey Schmidt in The Crab Cookbook. After you get the basics down (including how to trim them), you can consider his chapter of more sophisticated recipes.
For the last couple of years, we've been experimenting with a new, low-fat take on an old New Orleans recipe. We've now got it just about perfect. After you've cleaned them, soak the crabs in milk to plump them up (your cats will drink the milk). Toss in a bag with seasoned flour - we like whole wheat pastry flour seasoned with fresh lemon thyme. Shake, spray with olive oil and bake at 425 about four to five minutes on each side. Crisp and so delicious no one will know it's heart healthy.
If you still believe fatter is better, try Maryland Department of Agriculture's luscious recipe.
Clean and dredge in flower. Then fry, 1 T of butter per crab, in a hot, heavy skillet till reddish brown, about five minutes. Turn and brown underside.
Now, here's the grace note: For each four crabs, Add to pan 1 T butter, 1&Mac218;2 t lemon juice, 1&Mac218;2 t sherry vinegar, 1&Mac218;2 t chopped capers, 1 minced scallion, 1&Mac218;2 t minced fresh tarragon leaves, 3&Mac218;4 t minced fresh parsley, ground black pepper. Heat, swirl and garnish.
79. Savor a Seafood Festival
Summer seafood feasts have been a part of Chesapeake tradition for generations, so it's only natural that the Bay area hosts more than a dozen big seafood festivals before summer's end. Treat your palate to steamed crabs, soft-shell crabs, crab cakes, crab soup, crab balls, shrimp, fish, clams, pit BBQ, sausages, corn on the cob, French fries, watermelon and more.
July 18: Indulge in all-you-can-eat crabs, clams, clam strips, sweet potato fries, watermelon and more at the ever-popular J. Millard Tawes Crab & Clam Bake. 1-5pm @ Somers Cove Marina, Crisfield. $30; rsvp early: 800/782-3913 www.crisfield.org.
August 3: Enjoy heaps of all-you-can-eat steamed jumbo #1 crabs, crab soup and more in time-honored Annapolis fashion at the 56th Annual Annapolis Rotary Crab Feast, touted as the world's largest. 5-8pm @ U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Annapolis. $35; $12/kids 6-12: 410/841-2841 www.annapolisrotary.com.
August 4 & 5: Feast on the Bay's 'beautiful swimmers' at Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum's Crab Days 2001. Indulge in crab cakes and steamed crabs plus crab racing, chicken necking, trotlining, live music, kids' fun, boat rides and more. 10-5 @ the museum, St. Michaels. $7.50 w/discounts: 410/745-2916 www.cbmm.org.
August 25 & 26: Frolic at a beach party, enter a crab cake contest and treat the kids to a pony ride and more at the North Beach Bay Fest. Noon-8 Sa; noon-6:30 Su @ Boardwalk, North Beach: 301/855-6681.
August 31-September 2: Pick and feast at the 54th Annual National Hard Crab Derby & Fair. Includes crab races, beauty pageant, parade, boat racing/docking contests, carnival, fireworks and more. 10-5 @ Somer Cover Marina, Crisfield. $4; $2/kids 12 & under: 800/782-3913 www.crisfield.org.
September 7-9: Maryland Seafood Festival. 11-8 @ Sandy Point State Park, Annapolis. $: 410/268-7682 www.mdseafoodfestival.com.
Check Bay Weekly’s "Eight Days a Week" for listings of smaller or spur-of-the-moment feasts. For a more complete list of Maryland’s seafood festivals, log on to the Maryland Department of Agriculture’s 2001 Maryland Seafood Festivals calendar at www.mda.state.md.us/aqua/fests01.htm.
80. NJFK: Make Seaweed Soup
Grab a bucket, and hit the beach. Start with a pail full of Chesapeake Bay water. Collect seaweed and grasses, dried ones and slimy ones. Put them in your bucket and stir them up. Comb the beach for shells and stones. Look for beach glass. Find gull feathers, crab shells, horseshoe crab tails. Add them to your soup. Dig for sand crabs. Put them in alive. Stir it up. Yumm. Your seaweed soup is almost ready. Add some sand and serve it up.
Copyright 2001
Bay Weekly
ummergarden.com.
