Tangier Island

One of my favorite books is Earl Swift's Chesapeake Requiem, and ever since I read it I've wanted to visit Tangier Island, a tiny crabbing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. It's not the easiest place to reach. It's only accessible by boat and their marina has a challenging approach, so it's best to take the commuter ferry out of Crisfield, VA or a tourist ferry that runs out of Reedville, VA. From Reedville the ferry takes about an hour and a half to reach the island and it leaves again less than three hours later. If that doesn't seem like enough time you could stay overnight at one of the few inns on the island but we found one afternoon to be sufficient time to explore. It is a very religious place and 'dry' with regards to alcohol so there is certainly no reason to hang around for the nightlife!

The island is very small, very wet (wear waterproof boots!), and very unique. After eating a very serviceable crab cake and soft crab at one of the only two restaurants open, we walked the perimeter of the island to take photos and sightsee. Tangier is beautiful, and I wanted to do the place justice. It would be easy to do an entire post of 'ruin porn' and show how bad the flooding is, how many abandoned houses and boats there are, and all the closed businesses, but this wouldn't reflect what really struck me about the place. It felt vibrant. Every person in a car or golf cart that passed us on the narrow streets said hello, there were children outside playing, and banners on the streetlights proudly announced this year's graduating high school class (of 2!). Life goes on in Tangier.