Blackwater Bend - Waterfront Farm w/ Pool & Dock - Sleeps 10

Blackwater Bend is a four-bedroom farmhouse at the eastern edge of Cambridge, Maryland, on land that sits inside the city limits and inside Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge at once. Sika deer graze the front lawn. Bald eagles work the treeline. Hundreds of acres of protected state land lie beyond the farm, and for most of a week here you won't see another car.

Cambridge sits near the middle of the Eastern Shore, within a comfortable drive of most of Delmarva.

AT A GLANCE

- Sleeps 10 across four bedrooms and 2.5 baths
- King in the master, two queens, a bunk room
- Large in-ground pool, 3 to 8 feet, open Memorial Day through October
- Private floating dock with a picnic table
- Three kayaks with paddles and life vests
- Six bikes
- Pool table, ping pong, and a large television in the game room
- Master suite with steam room, heated floors, and a two-person rain shower
- Private east-facing balcony off the master
- Wood-burning fireplace under original beams
- Two outdoor dining areas and a covered patio
- Grill and wood fire pit
- Five acres of level lawn
- Walnut dining table for eight, made locally
- Moccamaster, Nespresso, and Cambridge-roasted coffee provided
- Starlink internet up to 300 Mbps
- Six parking spaces
- Dogs welcome
- Self check-in by keypad

WHERE YOU'LL SLEEP

Four bedrooms upstairs, two full baths between them. A king in the master, queens in two more, and a bunk room for the children. Ten sleep comfortably. A half bath on the main floor for coming in from the pool.

THE HOUSE

A third of a mile of gravel through the corn, and then the river.

The living room sits under its original beams, wide pine floorboards underfoot, a wood-burning fireplace at one end. It is the room the house turns to once the pool closes.

The master has heated floors, a steam room, and a rain shower for two. Its balcony faces east over the water. The eagles are up before you are.

The kitchen opens onto a walnut table made for eight by a woodworker a few miles from here, with two more seats at the bar. Moccamaster and Nespresso on the counter. Night Kitchen Coffee, roasted in Cambridge, in the cupboard when you arrive.

The game room holds a pool table, ping pong, and a large television.

OUTSIDE

The pool runs three to eight feet under string lights, open Memorial Day through October, with a lounge deck around it. Two dining tables, one off the kitchen and one seating ten, and a covered patio beneath the upper deck for the afternoon it rains. A grill. A wood fire pit.

Five acres of level lawn below that, for cornhole and badminton and the dog.

Three kayaks on a rack at the shoreline, paddles and vests beside them. A floating dock with a picnic table at the end. The fishing is good and mostly uninterrupted. Six bikes in the drive, and a flat, easy ride into town.

THE WEEK

Five minutes west: downtown Cambridge, RAR Brewing, the Choptank waterfront. Five minutes east: Wildlife Drive, the auto loop through Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, and some of the best bald eagle viewing on the East Coast. Eight minutes to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center, on the byway through the landscape where she was born and where she led people north.

Easton is thirty minutes, St. Michaels forty, Salisbury forty. Ocean City and the wild horses at Assateague are about an hour and a quarter, as is Annapolis. The Delaware beaches are under two hours.