NARRATOR: "Destination Maryland" is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism.

In Maryland, you're welcome.

♪ ♪ TONY: Welcome to Maryland's Eastern Shore.

There's more than 600 miles of shoreline that connect the towns along the Chesapeake Bay.

So, we're going to show you the most amazing ways we spent our time here.

My name is Tony.

For the past ten years I've been a travel videographer, now I'm back home in Maryland and I'm showing my girlfriend Sara everything I love about this state.

SARA: So, a little about us, we love to eat.

That is one of the juiciest oysters I've ever eaten.

We love trying new things, even when it might scare us.

Okay.

We're fine.

And we are so excited to explore Maryland with you.

(theme music playing).

TONY: We're starting our journey in the beautiful town of St. Michaels.

St. Michaels is one of the oldest towns in Talbot County and has a long tradition of oystering and shipbuilding that date back to the 1830s.

So, what better way to explore this town then from the deck of an old sailboat.

So, Sara, you know what we're doing today?

SARA: We are sailing today.

TONY: Have you ever been sailing before?

SARA: I have been sailing once before but it was a long time ago and I'm really excited to get out on the Bay today.

St. Michaels looks beautiful just from the streets we've been on, so I'm really excited to see it from another perspective.

TONY: Yea, I uh, used to go out in Annapolis all the time and just watch the sailboats come in and out of the Bay but, like this is like only the second time I've ever been on a sailboat, so this ought to be a really good experience for both of us.

But we're not here to just cruise around, we're gonna learn the ropes too.

SARA: Hello.

IRIS: Hi, welcome Sara, we're looking forward to having you aboard Sail Selina today.

SARA: We're very excited to hop on board.

IRIS: Well, we're gonna welcome you aboard, my first mate Colin becomes the wrist rail, instead of shaking hands with him, if you would shake wrists with him that works pretty well to keep you safe as you're boarding.

TONY: With Sail Selina we're getting a hands-on sailing experience on the Chesapeake Bay.

IRIS: Alright.

TONY: Starting with learning an interesting way to push the boat away from the dock.

IRIS: You won't see this done very many places where I've asked him to use his legs.

Most people make the mistake of pushing off with their hands.

TONY: I never really thought about it, but this makes a lot of sense.

Your body weight stays over the boat instead of over the water in case you fall.

IRIS: I inherited my grandfather's yacht and when I got her, I asked my father a life-changing question, I said, "Pops," I said, "How much do you spend every year to maintain the boat?"

And when he told me.

(gasps).

I sucked air, it was a big number.

I literally needed to figure out how to float the boat and I did what many people before me have done, you hang out a shingle and it says, "Sailboat rides" and you cut a deal with the boat, you say, "I'll keep you spiffy if you make nice with the guests."

♪ ♪ You see the way he's running his fingers up the inside of that handrail.

SARA: Yea.

IRIS: Yea, you wanna do that so that if we get a wake that rocks the boat that you stay aboard.

Staying aboard is a good thing.

COLIN: At the very end of the boom there's a line that goes all the way up to the mast.

SARA: Colin is giving me a quick lesson on raising the sail.

COLIN: It lets us lift 600 pounds.

(laughing).

SARA: I'm very impressed he does this as a one-person job, I don't think I have the upper body strength.

COLIN: Because rest of those are connected to pulleys and I'll tell you when to go ahead and haul, I'm waiting for a signal from the captain here, she's gonna nod real obviously.

Alright, you can pull down, just like that, perfect.

And now she'll get it over and we can let it back up.

Nice.

So, what you're gonna do is you're just gonna, we're gonna try to pull together.

SARA: Okay.

COLIN: In sync.

IRIS: Pull away.

COLIN: Alright.

And it'll get heavier as... SARA: Okay.

COLIN: It goes up.

There's less pulleys this time.

SARA: Sorry.

COLIN: That's fine, there's less pulleys this time, so.

When it gets heavier, we can start throwing our weight into it and that makes it a lot easier to haul.

If a tall beanpole like me can lift this thing by myself... (laughing) Alright.

Alright.

SARA: That was a shoulder workout.

COLIN: Yep.

♪ ♪ SARA: Now actually steering the boat it really felt like a subtle art.

You have to keep a close eye on the wind direction and the way that the sails are maneuvering.

I think it really calls for a trained eye, because Captain Iris was able to see things with the wind direction that I was completely missing.

IRIS: Hold steady up here, maybe four more towards you.

♪ ♪ SARA: I think by the end of our sailing lesson we at least had a pretty good understanding of how to find a good heading.

You're doing great.

But Tony looks like he wasn't made for this.

IRIS: Pull them towards ya, go, go, go, go, go.

SARA: Well, maybe not.

IRIS: Make like a sporting event, your dad's yelling at ya, "Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!"

There we go, alright.

♪ ♪ (Sara gasps).

SARA: Is that a dolphin?

There's dolphins!

IRIS: Oh my goodness, they're all around us, they're coming to the boat.

Oh my goodness.

There we go, oh, wow, tons of dolphins.

SARA: Wow.

IRIS: They're huge, huge number of them.

♪ ♪ SARA: Seeing the dolphins was the highlight of our sailing trip, but it was time to lower the sail and return to port.

♪ ♪ TONY: Thank you, Captain Iris.

IRIS: Tony, you're welcome.

TONY: Appreciate that.

So, we just wrapped up our trip with Sail Selina and Captain Iris recommended Blu Miles to us on our way in to port, so we're gonna check it out.

SARA: Let's get some food.

TONY: Let's get some food!

Blu Miles is situated right on the marina and specializes in great seafood.

SARA: Thank you.

TONY: Unable to decide on one thing, we just got some fried oysters and the seafood platter, which came with scallops and shrimp drenched in butter, and a crab cake.

SARA: Oh, she toasty.

Oh!

That is one of the juiciest oysters I've ever eaten.

TONY: It's like fried and breaded, it's light enough so it's not overwhelming you still kind of taste the oyster in it.

♪ ♪ SARA: Mmm.

Alright, you're from Maryland, but where I grew up, and this I don't think is very inclusive to my state, but for some reason on holidays we would always have like shrimp, drenched in butter and that's what this tastes like.

But that crab cake, now Tony is the real judge of crab cakes, Tony is very picky about his crab cakes because he is from Baltimore.

TONY: I've had crab cakes pretty much in every state I've been to, none of them hold up.

Well, I won't say none of them, there's been one or two places that I've been like, "Okay, this is a decent crab cake," but, they just skimp on the crabmeat everywhere else.

Yea, that's home.

I just love how easy it is to walk around the Main Street of St. Michaels, so to burn off some of our lunch we went for a bit of a walk.

SARA: St. Michaels has a great Main Street to walk around and I love how quiet it is during the weekdays.

TONY: So, what do we think of St. Michaels so far?

SARA: St. Michaels is super cute, it's a very like, quaint, coastal town vibes which I love.

TONY: Mm-hm.

SARA: This is also definitely a little town where you can just like park in one spot and walk to so many shops and restaurants, just within walking distance, which is always preferred.

♪ ♪ Our time on St. Michaels was short but we need to check into our hotel before continuing on.

♪ Feels like sunshine.

♪ ♪ Sunshine.

♪ ♪ Dance like, sunshine.

♪ ♪ ♪ TONY: You can easily bike the entire length of Tilghman Island because it's only three miles long, but what makes this part of the state so unique is that this is where a lot of the crab fishing happens.

And the town takes pride in that fact by recognizing the many boats on the island, so this morning we're hopping on a boat to catch some crabs of our own.

This is The Riley Kat and Captain Russell is taking us along for a one-of-a-kind experience on the Chesapeake Bay.

Captain Russell told us he's been a fisherman for most of his life, but he came out of retirement and started crabbing a little over a decade ago.

And he has explained to us that we will be hauling in lines called "trotlines" which are basically lines set on the Bay floor with bait attached to them.

Watermen have crabbed the Chesapeake Bay using a trotline for hundreds of years.

And it remains one of the most efficient methods of crabbing.

SARA: It's cool because when the line starts to come up, you can see if there's a crab attached and then it'll take the basket and the crab, when it realizes it's caught will start to drop and then he scoops it up, with the basket and eats it off the boat.

So, after we dump the net, we have to quickly place it back in the water before too many crabs escape.

You really have to get good at this quickly and it's not easy work, pulling a net full of crabs out of moving water is actually quite heavy, but speed is everything here.

(laughing).

Okay.

TONY: How do you feel about your first haul?

SARA: Pretty good.

It's you gotta, it's a lot of anticipation and I think my technique was bad, it's why my back hurts.

♪ ♪ TONY: Catching crabs was new to both of us, it felt good getting our hands dirty doing something so iconic to Maryland.

More of a workout than I thought it would be.

So, as we struggle it's a bit humbling to know that Captain Russell is doing this daily at 82 years old.

Not that crabbing's easy but it was a bit of a workout, my forearms are burning right now.

I think I did pretty well, at one point it was like crab, crab, crab, crab.

RUSSELL: Crab!

TONY: One simple way to tell crabs apart is that male crab aprons look like the Washington Monument while female crab aprons look like the Capitol building.

SARA: You have to separate the males and the females because you can only bring back a certain amount of females which makes sense.

and the females are separated right here.

Significantly less females than males.

catch them and fish them out.

SARA: Captain Russell is sorting the crabs because there are strict rules to the size and number of crabs that you can keep.

You're only allowed to keep crabs that are five inches long, measured from tip to tip of the spikes.

SARA: So when you're holding it you got to make sure you're catching the ones that are still clamped to the net then you also have to keep an eye out for the ones that drop because then you have to shove your basket in the water SARA: And try and catch them and fish them out.

♪ ♪ TONY: You don't need us to tell you that Captain Russell is a seasoned professional, but let's compare hauls.

Here's what Sara and I caught.

And here's how many Captain Russell caught this morning.

This was an incredible experience.

But after giving crabbing a try, I don't think we'll be changing careers any time soon.

So, we learned how to catch the crabs, now I'm going to teach Sara how to eat them.

♪ ♪ Also, for all you locals out there who are watching this, don't judge me, it's been like 10, maybe even 15 years since I've had crabs so my technique's a little off, luckily, they do give you these little things, so this is gonna help Sara out and may even help me out a little bit, because it's been a while.

Have you ever had crabs like this before?

SARA: I have not, I grew up in the Northwest, so I grew up eating snow crabs and Alaskan King Crab.

Wait are these crabs gonna be blue?

TONY: Yea, they're blue crabs.

SARA: Why does the picture show them as red?

TONY: Because when you steam them, they turn red.

SARA: What?

Really?

Oh, I always imagine when you talk about your holidays, like a table full of like blue, they're like blue, like blue crab.

SERVER: And here are the crabs.

SARA: Yay!

TONY: There we go!

SERVER: Did you guys want any... SARA: Not gonna lie, it always takes me like a second to get over the mental hump when it still looks like the animal, I feel like when I eat fish that still has the face and the eyeballs it takes me a second to like amp myself up and this still looks like a crab.

TONY: Get up in there.

There you go.

SARA: Oh, okay, okay, the tab.

TONY: And then rip that open, crack it out.

SARA: Yep.

TONY: And then grab it from here, and just pull the, this tab open.

So, stick your thumb in there and this one there, crank it open, like split it, there you go, get in there.

(shell cracks).

There you go.

SARA: Is that poop?

TONY: No, it's not poop.

The mustard is basically the crab's pancreas, the organ responsible for filtering impurities from the crab's blood.

SARA: Do crabs poop?

TONY: Lungs.

(laughing).

SARA: Do crabs poop?

TONY: So, you can eat it and in fact many people find it delicious, but it's probably best to scrape off what you can.

(laughing).

Take out the guts.

SARA: Pretty good.

What would you guys eat as like sides to crabs?

TONY: You can think of it like a, a broil, so like potatoes, corn on the cob usually.

Lots of butter.

Sara eating crabs for the first time, look at her go.

♪ ♪ The thing about crabs is that you need to eat at least a half a dozen to feel satisfied, so we order more food.

SARA: Tilghman Island is a gorgeous coastal town on the eastern shore of Maryland.

It was kind of hard to say goodbye, but Tony promised me a very cute surprise on this trip.

TONY: In order to get to my surprise, we took a detour on the oldest privately owned and operating ferry in the country.

♪ ♪ In 1683 Talbot County authorized the establishment of a ferry service for horse and men, ownership of the ferry has changed multiple times but the service has operated continuously since 1836.

The ferry isn't going to save you any time, but it was a nice way to take in some scenic views on our way to the town of Easton.

Easton is a beautiful community.

It's actually considered one of the best small towns in America, and it's known for two things, good food and deep roots.

So, Easton has a lot of history and that includes a lot of Black history, one of the things you can do here is a guided or self-guided walking tour which we can see a lot of the historical Black landmarks.

One of those stops is the statue of Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist and a monumental figure that helped end slavery in America.

So, what is Frederick Douglass' relationship to Easton?

Douglass once said, "It is always a fact of some importance to know where a man is born, if, indeed it be important to know anything about him."

And while Douglass was born into slavery within a few miles of Easton, right here in Talbot County.

Learning more about Frederick Douglass has lead us to the Hill Community to see a recently unveiled mural depicting moments of his life and legacy and to explain the mural we met with Tarence Bailey.

Hey Tarence.

TARENCE: How you doin' man?

TONY: Nice to meet you man, I'm Tony.

TARENCE: Tarence.

TONY: So this uh, this mural is incredible.

What can you tell me about it?

TARENCE: This project took about two years to get done.

Where this mural stands we used to play as kids.

TONY: You have a little bit of a tie to this as well, right?

TARENCE: Yeah, I am, I'm from this community, it's the Hill Community, oldest freed Black community still in existence.

And I'm also the five, uh the fifth generation grandson of Frederick Douglass's brother, Perry Bailey.

TONY: The mural includes a chronological timeline of Douglass's life, his legacy, and includes his descendants as well.

In the middle, Frederick Douglass is front and center with his first wife, Anna Murray, at the US Capitol.

TARENCE: It's about a 400 year timeline from the slave ships to military service.

We have some firsts in this mural, like Annie Douglass, you will never see her anywhere else in the world in public art.

The plan is to build an African-American cultural center, and to tell the story of everything you see in this mural.

From the transatlantic slave trade, all the way to the White House.

I think it's a story that should be told and most of all, should not be forgotten.

TONY: After meeting with Tarence and learning a little bit more of the Black history in Easton, we decided to head back down to Main Street.

♪ ♪ Since we're eating out a lot on this trip, we decided to look for a healthy alternative.

And honestly, I don't think we could've found a better choice than Sunflowers And Greens.

This is the most delicious-looking salad I've ever seen.

We got the Mediterranean mixed salad with baby spinach, arugula, and Napa cabbage, all with grilled shrimp, olives, avocado, and lemon juice.

And the green goddess salad, with spinach, kale, sun-dried tomatoes, grilled salmon, and green goddess dressing.

SARA: Mm.

I got just what I needed.

And it's nice to have a healthy option with all of the traveling that we've been doing.

TONY: And even when we try to do things right, it's hard to pass up dessert.

So, we got strawberry shortcake and a lemon shortbread cookie.

SARA: I always thought I didn't like cheesecake, maybe I just have never had good cheesecake.

♪ ♪ TONY: We're back on the road again, headed a little further east this time.

Now we're on our way to Preston, and it's here we find ourselves on a farm.

This is Outstanding Dreams alpaca farm.

We were invited to visit this farm to meet these guys.

♪ ♪ Outstanding Dreams offers tours of the farm making this a great activity for the whole family.

♪ ♪ Hi Phil, Vicki, nice to meet you.

BOTH: Nice to meet you.

TONY: Well, two questions right off the bat.

How did an alpaca farm come about, and how do we get one?

PHIL: How do you get one?

Well, I know a guy.

We can hook you up.

I came upon alpacas on the internet, you know, it was a big business move, I mean we literally sold our house and bought the farm.

Vicki fell in love with the animals right off the bat so after we visited the first farm she's like, "oh yeah we need to do this".

(laughing).

And I still needed convincing on the business side of things.

TONY: Right.

PHIL: But if you really look at their faces, I mean they... now watch your step because they're... SARA: Okay.

PHIL: So my daily routine is that we, we clean the fields every day, we clean the barn every day, we clean the fields every day, but then throughout the day they replenish the supply.

SARA: Sure.

PHIL: So alpacas in general, the one word I use to describe their disposition is that they're docile.

Except for that one, she's getting ready to attack you.

(laughing) TONY: Okay the alpacas are obviously very cute to look at, but I'm really most excited about feeding them.

PHIL: You want to feed her?

SARA: Here they come, here they come!

So what are these?

PHIL: This is alpaca feed.

SARA: Okay.

Ooh my gosh!

Oh!

PHIL: So the one time where they are prone to spit is over food, at each other.

SARA: Okay, okay.

PHIL: And you might get caught in the crossfire.

(spitting).

(laughing).

TONY: right in the face!

Yep that's me getting spit on by an alpaca.

Getting spit on is definitely a first.

Maybe she thinks I'm trying to steal her food, can't be mad at that.

SARA: Who wants some snacks?

PHIL: So she'll let you pet her.

SARA: You want some food?

♪ ♪ Slobbery.

(laughing).

VICKI: Yeah, it gets a little slobbery after a while.

TONY: By now if you're like us this probably one question on the back of your mind: what's the difference between alpacas and llamas?

PHIL: Number one most frequently asked question, the difference between alpacas and llamas.

So there's several differences, llamas are about twice the size of an alpaca, they've got a longer snout, they have distinctive banana shaped ears, they don't have the hair coverage on their legs like alpacas do.

To me the most important difference between alpacas and llamas is their purpose.

So llamas are basically a beast of burden, they've been bred for carrying packs and pulling carts, where alpacas are raised strictly for their fleece.

SARA: Being with a huge group of these alpacas it was really cool to see the differences in their personalities.

Some were very curious, some were more playful, some wanted absolutely nothing to do with you.

TONY: But while their personalities all differ, they do have one thing in common: they were all so much fun to hang around for an afternoon.

♪ ♪ (chewing) Can I stand up without getting eatten at?

(laughing) This one behind me is just like... SARA: Aside from being cute, there are so many reasons why these are truly amazing animals.

Their fur for instance makes amazingly soft and warm wool and it's hypoallergenic.

♪ ♪ Add petting a bunch of alpacas to a list of things that I never knew that I needed in my life.

These are just such sweet animals, and aside from being a little bit feisty over their food once in a while, which I can definitely relate to that, they are so amazing to be around.

You can tell a lot of love goes into each one of these animals and the farm.

Phil has them all memorized, their names, their personalities, and it's really cool to be surrounded by these animals that get so much love and attention.

You can tell they're so well cared for, so this is a really great experience, and I think this was just the sweetest way to end our trip here exploring Eastern Maryland.

♪ ♪ TONY: Might know the answer to this but what was your favorite part of the trip?

SARA: It's gotta be these little guys!

TONY: Yeah.

♪ ♪ SARA: To be totally honest this was a great trip.

I've never explored this part of Maryland before so it was so cool to be on the water all week, but then to come 30 minutes inland and play with alpacas.

Who can beat that?

So, sailing was a highlight, crabbing was so unique, I've never done anything like that, obviously playing with these guys was so much fun too.

TONY: There's so much to love about this part of the state.

And it's just nice to do something so relaxing after a few busy days of crabbing, sailing, and biking along the Eastern Shore.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (laughing).

SARA: Maryland!

Maryland!

Is that poop?

Is that poop?

That's a little strong!

Just the way I like it.

TONY: I'm a sailor.

SARA: Ooh!

Don't use that.

TONY: I think I did pretty well.

At one point it was like, crab, crab, crab, crab, and I was like "ah, I got it!"

(claps).

(snaps).

(clap).

NARRATOR: "Destination Maryland" was produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Commerce Office of Tourism.

In Maryland, you're welcome.