In my childhood, though we took many, many road trips, the staple highlight of the summer was a trip to the Chesapeake Bay to my uncle's cabin in a little resort called Red Point. Though it was only about 1 1/2 hour drive, it seemed an enormous journey to me.
Red Point had a large sandy beach, well, there was sand but also many pebbles, seaweed, scraps of driftwood, shells and general debris. The cabin was small, hot and in the beginning days there was no running water and an outdoor privy . In other words, it was heaven!
And there's the rub. We had a much nicer home in Lancaster County, but Red Point provided us with an entirely different lifestyle. The bay held endless beauty. To our small-town eyes that normally viewed rolling farm land, watching the sunshine dance across the water from all angles of the day, boating, swimming, parading around in the scantiest of clothes, no chores, all family play - it was nirvana indeed. It was not until years later when I went as an adult that I realized the severely narrow outlines of the place, how small, how poor, how lowly the surroundings were!
70 years has passed and I have seen glorious oceans, lakes, rivers in many countries yet my child's heart still leaps with joy at the first glint of vast blue of my beloved Chesapeake when I return each summer with my sister.
Because always our hearts see deeper than our eyes.
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