A Patuxent River Cruise

Yesterday, some friends with a house on the the Patuxent River, at a cove in  Hellen Creek, and asked if we would like to go out on a cruise around the river with them. Of course, we said yes. This is the view looking up the cove 

Georgia looking sharp in her shades and automatic life jacket on the upper deck of their twin diesel trawler. A slow boat, with an upper speed of about 9, it's suitable for long hauls and living aboard, and not fishing. Not my kind of boat, but nice when someone else is driving.

There's a lot of wealth located on the banks of the Patuxent. This is a small estate out on a small Island.

Our first destination was St. Leonard's Creek, another, much larger side branch of the Patuxent, in which a naval battle was fought back in the war of 1812.  A small estate overlooking the creek.

The dock at Morgan State University's Patuxent Environmental and Aquatic Research Laboratory (PEARL), and the R/V Leidy. I worked at this lab when it was the Academy of Natural Sciences Estuarine Research Laboratory. I spent a lot of hours on that boat, and was even a back up skipper on occasion.

Looking up Saint Leonard Creek.

Vera's White Sands restaurant and marina. It has an interesting history. It's not far from home by road, and it can be a decent place to go for a drink. As for eating? Well, we're ready to try again.

A big Chinook helicopter, probably from the nearby Patuxent River Naval Air Center. A V22 Osprey flew over too, but my photo come out focused.

A real Osprey. It seems like almost every post over there has a nest on it.

After turning around near Vera's we left the Creek, and set off across the river to Cuckold Creek, on the Saint Mary's County side. This is the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge, which has connected the counties since 1977.

Another tough luck case over in Cuckold Creek.

And another.

A Great Blue Heron in it's natural habitat, a boat slip.