Deal Island

My friend Lynne & I decided we deserved a girls' weekend away. We spent hours researching vacation rentals until finally she found this one and booked it for a weekend in mid-September. The price was right, and Lynne said it was not far from Annapolis, maybe 90 minutes away. She invited her friends Lisa and Trish, researched the area and made plans for us to hit the bars, and even got us invited to a catered party. The night before we left, she Googled the directions and discovered it wasn't in Deal, Maryland after all. It was in Deal Island, Maryland... three and a half hours away!

Obviously we had to go anyway, though we were disappointed that the place was at the end of nowhere, not even close to the parties and clubs we had imagined. When we got there, the cottage wasn't quite what the photos led us to believe, either! It was way smaller than it looked in the internet pictures. But we figured, what the heck, we'll only be here 2 days anyway. How big a space do we really need?

We asked Arby, the caretaker and guru of the island, where the swinging hot spots were, and he directed us to Lucky's, the local general store/bar. We made friends with the bartender there, who looked like Britney Spears might look in 10 years, and a couple of the 3 or 4 locals who popped in, and told them the story of how we ended up there. Before we knew it, the whole town had heard of us and was coming by to meet us. When we showed up the next night, because there truly was nothing else to do anywhere remotely close by, the whole town was there. Strangers were coming up and asking us, "So are you the Lost Girls? I heard about you!" It was so funny. The locals were friendly and real sweet. One of the crab men got us a whole basket of crabs for free, and I swear we didn't pay for one drink the whole time we were there.

We joked for a long time about being the Lost Girls of Deal Island, and Lisa & Trish actually talked about going back again, ha ha. But next time I get the chance for a girls' weekend away, I'm saving up and renting a beach house somewhere near civilization!