Bunky’s Charter Boats and Tackle Store, Solomons, Calvert County, Maryland

The long-time readers among you first met Ella at age 5 months when she had her first encounter with the flavor of barbecue, and later in her first review, when she’d turned one. Most recently, Ella, now 6, and her sister, Lily (4), appeared in a chocolate croissant comparison. That ended without decision but much enthusiasm for trying more chocolate croissants.

Ella and I recently had an outing together. We started off at the Calvert County Maritime Museum. A county-level museum may not sound like much to you but it is fantastic. Touch the stingrays, and see.an awesome display of prehistoric shark teeth and other fossils that are found in abundance in Calvert County, most famously at Calvert Cliffs. Plus, live otters!

Good sponsor of that one. There are interesting exhibits on the history of the Chesapeake, slavery, tobacco, pirates, the Revolution, and the War of 1812. It moves on to oyster harvesting, showboats, and recreational boating. There also are lots of marine and shore animals — the otters are a big draw — fleets of boats of all types, and a residential lighthouse to tour.

The tour gave Ella a big appetite for some ice cream. The issue was where to get it. There were several nearby options, the Baskin-Robbins back in Lusby, a Rita’s on the way, Cone Island on the riverside boardwalk, and Bunky’s Tackle Store right across from Cone island.

We all had gone to the big dragon boat races a couple of days before, and had stopped at Bunky’s for ice cream, in part because of the crowds at the more conventional Cone Zone right on the water, and without bait for sale.

We’d been to Bunky’s before and enjoyed it. At the time, we didn’t know that there are two options at Bunky’s — the walk-up window on the right, above, and a walk-in spot to the left, which has the singular advantage of air-conditioning. Ella chose Bunky’s and off we went. We strode up to the counter where we were greeted by a friendly young server.

Bunky’s also offers nachos, a burger, and a hot dog, and I thought about trying a hamburger. There’s a nice shady spot just outside with a couple of tables and a sign saying no alcoholic beverage beyond this point. The bait and tackle side of Bunky’s sells beer, of course, and I was thinking that on a hot day it would be a nice spot to enjoy a beer and a burger. Then I remembered the weight I had gained on our recent River Cruise, especially at La Republica in Prague and Gösser Bierklinik in Vienna, so I fasted for a good two hours. Meanwhile, Ella looked over the choices carefully and chose mint chocolate chip, her favorite flavor — a double scoop.

We sat at a nice shady table until Ella got cold from eating the ice cream, then we moved to the large outdoor picnic table for her to finish the dish. I asked her how she liked the ice cream. She liked it. How does it compare to other ice cream places? “It’s as good as Jetties,” the premier ice cream location in our DC neighborhood, and Ella’s favorite. High praise, indeed.

What a nice morning. It was so much fun to spend some “Us Time” with Ella, and on other occasions with Lily. I often say that children are the investment and grandchildren are the dividend, and it’s the peaceful together times like these, just the two of you, that are really precious. These moments are a lot easier to create for a grandparent, with no career or other distractions, and they remind me of our rarer times with Patrick and with Liza. Precious memories.

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