How to Get to Smith Island, Maryland - Piece of History

How do you get to Smith Island?  Smith Island is one of the most unique places in the world.  It is one of the only places left where there is still a dialect from the Elizabethan Era.  The first time I went to this island I fell in love with it.  Everyone treats you like family, everyone knows each other and everyone cares for each other.  Within a month of going there I bought a house there.  My 4 year old daughter and 6 year old son just love spending time there.  We kayak, bicycle, boat, fish and crab there.  There is no ambient noise of traffic. Just the breeze of the wind coming off of the bay.

Watch the Smith Island Video!

We have our own little slice of paradise that doesn't require jumping on the plane and flying south or out of the country.  Smith Island, MD is one of the best kept secrets in the United States and one of only a few inhabited islands inside the Chesapeake Bay. We discovered this unique treasure about a year ago and immediately fell in love with it.  If you want to get away from the rat race, this is the place to do it!  Smith Island will take you 50 years back in time.  Survival on the island for the locals is almost entirely based on fishing, crabbing, oystering and other water based activities.

Being an island, the only way to get there is by ferry. There are no airports.  A quick ride from Crisfield, MD puts you on the shores of paradise. Its not uncommon to see dolphins escorting you accross the bay to the small town of Ewell where you'll be greeted by the locals and given a free ride to your final destination. Once on the island, you'll immediately fall in love. The Harbor Side Store offers friendly service and is the island's only outlet for bread, milk, food, soda, and other necessities.

Smith Island boasts dozens of activities for visiting adventurers like diving, fishing, hunting, kayaking, crabbing, historic tours, cycling, golf cart rides, progging (looking for artifacts in the marsh) or just sitting on the dock enjoying the water and wild life. You could spend an entire day just watching the ocean from the dock.  "Kayak Diving" is the norm on Smith Island. Just tie your gear to the back of a kayak and float it out to the dive site.  Or, dock at a white beach filled with beautiful birds and then walk right into the surf for a shore dive. Kayakers will love the miles of marked trails criss crossing through the Glenn Martin National Wildlife Refuge located on the north end of the island.  This rufuge is a well known "stopover" for a variety of birds and Ducks migrating both north and south. Or, you can just kayak right off of our dock to a white sandy beach and spend the day tanning!  Crabbing is probably the most popular things to do on the island.  Visitors can catch up to a bushel of crabs per day without a license. In fact, most of the world's crabs are caught within a 50 mile radius of Smith Island, MD.  And don't worry, if you need any lessons on crabbing the locals are always happy to give expert advice.  

Our location is a 3 bedroom, newly remodeled house with a wonderful view of the Chesapeake Bay.  Your time at our location will include lodging, snacks and use of kayaks, bicycles, crab pots, grill and private dock. Then spend the evening relaxing outside the house in our beautiful gazebo.  Smith Island is one of the most unique places in the world and offers one of the most memorable experiences of your life.  Make sure you bring your camera!

The bed and breakfast style house has just been renovated inside!  It has 3 bedrooms, a full kitchen, living room, dining room, gazebo, and beautiful views of the water.  The beds are brand new, so they are extremely clean and comfortable.  The house also has AC for those hot summer days.  Here are some of the pictures of our Smith Island house rental!

Our location is available for daily, weekend, and weekly rentals. Call 814.502.5052 or email michael16m@gmail.com for rental rates.

Our Private Dock

Our location is available for daily, weekend, and weekly rentals. Call 814.502.5052 or email michael16m@gmail.com for rental rates.

Places to Stay on Smith Island / House - Cottage Rental

Where are Places to stay on Smith Island?

You won't find Hotels or Motels on the island.

Checkout this beautiful Cottage / House Rental with 

its own PRIVATE DOCK!

We have our own little slice of paradise that doesn't require jumping on the plane and flying south or out of the country.  Smith Island, MD is one of the best kept secrets in the United States and one of only a few inhabited islands inside the Chesapeake Bay. We discovered this unique treasure about a year ago and immediately fell in love with it.  If you want to get away from the rat race, this is the place to do it!  Smith Island will take you 50 years back in time.  Survival on the island for the locals is almost entirely based on fishing, crabbing, oystering and other water based activities.

Being an island, the only way to get there is by ferry. There are no airports.  A quick ride from Crisfield, MD puts you on the shores of paradise. Its not uncommon to see dolphins escorting you accross the bay to the small town of Ewell where you'll be greeted by the locals and given a free ride to your final destination. Once on the island, you'll immediately fall in love. The Harbor Side Store offers friendly service and is the island's only outlet for bread, milk, food, soda, and other necessities.

Smith Island boasts dozens of activities for visiting adventurers like diving, fishing, hunting, kayaking, crabbing, historic tours, cycling, golf cart rides, progging (looking for artifacts in the marsh) or just sitting on the dock enjoying the water and wild life. You could spend an entire day just watching the ocean from the dock.  "Kayak Diving" is the norm on Smith Island. Just tie your gear to the back of a kayak and float it out to the dive site.  Or, dock at a white beach filled with beautiful birds and then walk right into the surf for a shore dive. Kayakers will love the miles of marked trails criss crossing through the Glenn Martin National Wildlife Refuge located on the north end of the island.  This rufuge is a well known "stopover" for a variety of birds and Ducks migrating both north and south. Or, you can just kayak right off of our dock to a white sandy beach and spend the day tanning!  Crabbing is probably the most popular things to do on the island.  Visitors can catch up to a bushel of crabs per day without a license. In fact, most of the world's crabs are caught within a 50 mile radius of Smith Island, MD.  And don't worry, if you need any lessons on crabbing the locals are always happy to give expert advice.  

Our location is a 3 bedroom, newly remodeled house with a wonderful view of the Chesapeake Bay.  Your time at our location will include lodging, snacks and use of kayaks, bicycles, crab pots, grill and private dock. Then spend the evening relaxing outside the house in our beautiful gazebo.  Smith Island is one of the most unique places in the world and offers one of the most memorable experiences of your life.  Make sure you bring your camera!

The bed and breakfast style house has just been renovated inside!  It has 3 bedrooms, a full kitchen, living room, dining room, gazebo, and beautiful views of the water.  The beds are brand new, so they are extremely clean and comfortable.  The house also has AC for those hot summer days.  Here are some of the pictures of our Smith Island house rental!

Our location is available for daily, weekend, and weekly rentals.  email michael16m@gmail.com for rates.

Our Private Dock

Ice Cube Dilemna

Anyone who knows me should know by now how finicky I am about what I eat, drink, etc.  There are only about five things that I eat and only a couple things that I drink.  Idon't like my drinks watered down and I   don't like my drinks straight out of a can.  It has to have just a few ice cubes to make it just right.  Being a creature of habit, I always go to ice machine on the side of the refrigerator to put a few ice cubes in a glass before I open a can of Pepsi and fill it.  Nearly two weeks ago I started noticing that the Pepsi was tasting a little funny.  It definitely was NOT the way that I like it.  I spent some time looking at the cans of Pepsi wondering if they were out of date.  I would then taste the water out of the sink to make sure that nothing was wrong with it.  As usual, Tonya just thought I was out of my mind and that I was just finding something to complain about.  Yesterday, I went to the fridge with my empty glass, pressed it against the lever and out dropped a pleasant surprise.  I now had what looked like brown slush in the bottom of my glass.  This prompted me to open the door and see what was going on.  Nearly two weeks ago we had a birthday party for Dhylan which we bought small throwaway cups of chocolate ice cream.  Even after years of yelling about it, Tonya still insists that the ice cube container that the cubes drop into is great place to store frozen food.  When the lever is pushed to call for ice, it grinds up the cubes and pushes them into the glass.  This essentially turned our ice cube machine into a milkshake machine.  Although, this seems like a genius idea, chocolate ice cubes are definitely not recommended for enjoyment with a sizzling glass of Pepsi.  For now, I have removed all of these chopped up containers of chocolate ice cream.  I guess I will wait and see what the flavor for January will be...

Verizon Share Plan Fail

Verizon angers me so much. I see all these "unlimited talk and text" commercials. I guess we are supposed to forget about the fact that they are taking unlimited data away from people? For years we have had unlimited data on our phones, but suddenly they start taking it away and we pay the same price for service. In this day and age are we really expected to monitor how many pictures we downlo

ad and check every day that we aren't using too much data? If you want to "upgrade" your phone now they take you off of the unlimited data plan. I have chosen to pay full retail for my phones just for this reason. I have seriously considered Net10 (which uses AT&T towers) that covers you for unlimited data for only $45 a month. And YES, you can use an Iphone if it is unlocked which you can do for about $3. Verizon is such a powerhouse that people just put up with it. Do they give us money back if we use LESS data than they give us? No. If Verizon's defense, they are not the only ones. AT&T is now doing the same thing. I am really starting to wonder two phones on data plans are really worth nearly $200 a month when for a total of $90 I can have two phones on unlimited data and have as good of service as I do now.  “Share Everything” plan allows you to pool your minutes, text messages, and data with up to 10 devices. Oh, wait, no, you must buy unlimited voice and unlimited text messaging for each device so really the only thing you are sharing is your data plan.And, sharing your data plan is a bit silly to start with because it is priced based upon usage, so what really do you gain by sharing? The whole “Share Everything” is designed to "sound good" to customers who do not actually do the math themselves.  Soon they will be "upgrading" us to bagphones.

Oil Change Fail

So this is a story from back in 2001. Most of my close friends will remember this one. It was nearly 6 months after Tonya and I got married when she decided that we should "save money". Her idea of this was making me change the oil in her new Suzuki Vitara instead of paying someone to do it. Now, all of you who know me well already realize that I am not a handy individual. My tool shed consists of a swiss army knife, duck tape, and a clicky pencil. So anyhow, off to the store I went to buy oil. Not sure how I ended up with the right oil because there were too many kinds to pick from... Baby oil, massage oil, etc. I somehow managed to walk out with the right kind. To the garage I went. About 7 hours later, fluids were drained and oil was filled. Understand at that time my wife was driving 35 miles to the other side of Altoona for work every day. After driving to work and returning home she routinely stopped at the mailbox to grab the mail. As she puts the car back in drive she notices that it just revs up and does not move. After about 8 or 9 tries of going back and forth from Park to Drive it finally went and got her to the top of the driveway. Of course I wasn't home at the time, so her father came down to see what was wrong with it. She also mentioned to him that the automatic transmission had a hard time shifting the entire way home. She had to drive home in a very low gear. In the meantime, he is still in the garage as I get home from work and pull up the driveway. As I walk in the garage I notice that he is opening a large bottle of transmission fluid. He looks up and me and says "Next time go to Jiffy Lube." Evidently I drained the transmission fluid AND dumped 4 more quarts of oil in the motor. I drained the wrong plug. Now, my father in law is a very quiet man, but this might have something to do with them not letting me do anything except make lemonade while he was building my house. I insisted that I wanted to help lay blocks, but for some reason everyone was always thirsty.