Donna and I took our first of hopefully many post-retirement trips right before the Independence Day weekend. Our destination was one of my favorite places, Maryland’s Eastern Shore. I went to college at Washington College (the Shoremen), in Chestertown, in the northern portion. It was my first real exposure to the region, and I fell in love with the slow pace, rural landscape, small, ancient (by U.S. standards) towns, and ubiquity of water. In many ways, it is similar to another of my favorite places – Ireland. The Eastern Shore is bounded by the Chesapeake Bay to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. The wide rivers, creeks and inlets dominate the land. In the North, the Chester River, Wye River and Miles River all flow to the Bay between St. Michaels and Kent Island. To the south, the Choptank River, Island Creek, Tred Avon River, Broad Creek and Harris Creek enter the Bay from the north and south of Tilghman Island. For centuries the water and the life it supports has be