The 60-mile long Delaware Canal towpath runs from Easton to Bristol and is a National Recreation Trail. Once trod by mule teams pulling cargo-laden boats along the canal, the towpath is used today by walkers, joggers, bicyclists, cross-country skiers and bird watchers. During our four-mile walk, we encountered dog-walkers galore, joggers, families strolling with little […]
Author: Jody Arneson
Explore Interesting Eats and Daring Feats at Maryland’s Ren Fest!
This year is the 40th annual Maryland Renaissance Festival, where for 9 weekends between August and October. My husband and I have been attending, at least every other year, for about 20 years — it’s crazy that it’s been that long! There’s nothing quite like a Renaissance festival, whether it’s in Maryland or Virginia or Pennsylvania. […]
Chasing the Fox and Hounds at Ladew Topiary Gardens
Harvey Ladew loved hunting, and while visiting England in the 1920s, he became fascinated with the art of topiary. The hunt scene combines his love of the foxhunt as well as his gardening hobby. As traveler, artist, fox hunter and creator of an amazing garden, Harvey Ladew filled the nearly 90 years of his life […]
Haunted Pittsburgh: Stories of the Undead, Ghosts, and Bandits
Ghost tours aren’t terribly scary, but they can be terribly entertaining, and the Haunted Pittsburgh tours didn’t disappoint. Never mind the Northside, or the Southside — as the Ghost Tour promises, it takes you to the dark side. Our guide for the evening was Haydn Thomas, a vivid story-teller who emphasized all the right words and held […]
Spending the Day at the National Colonial Farm
Photo courtesy Accokeek Foundation. This week Mike guest blogs about a recent day trip he and his wife enjoyed. My wife and I visited the National Colonial Farm located in the Piscataway National Park in Accokeek, MD on Saturday, 23 April; we enjoyed it very much. The National Colonial Farm is a living heritage farm […]
Going Crazy at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
Like countless others, I’ve watched the ghost hunting shows that have visited the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (TALA), in Weston, WV. When I realized it was just 1 1/2 hours away from Canaan Valley, where we recently spent a holiday weekend, I added it to our weekend plans — a fortuitous decision because most of the activities for Canaan […]
Bowmans Hill Wildflower Preserve
“There is that in the glance of a flower which may at times control the greatest of creation’s braggart lords.” –naturalist and author, John Muir Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve is a nature preserve, botanical garden, and accredited museum located just outside of New Hope, PA, that showcases an extraordinary diversity of plants native to Pennsylvania […]
Appreciating the Beauty of the Blackwater River
We arrived for our holiday weekend in Canaan Valley a few hours earlier. We unpacked the car and get settled into the cabin. The kids decided to hang out there, rather than come along with us as we re-explored Davis and traveled down memory lane a bit. The view from our cabin across Canaan Valley. […]
Pittsburgh’s Toonseum
It’s a catchy name for it — and I had high hopes of spending an afternoon exploring the history of cartoons and comics, and seeing some quirky examples from years past and perhaps an exploration of how cartoons and comics have evolved. Plus the art form — going from black and white to color, where […]
Gotta Catch Them All: 11 Best Places to Play Pokemon Go
With multiple Pokéstops and Pokégyms, 1. Columbia’s four lakes in Howard County, MD, offer Pokémon Go players great game play in a pleasant, shaded setting that belies its urban location. Proximity to water also ensures you’ll catch plenty of magikarp as you collect what you need to evolve a gyarados. 2. Downtown Pittsburgh has hundreds […]
Baltimore’s Waterfront Promenade
My friend suggested Baltimore’s Waterfront Promenade as a daytrip destination earlier this year, and we’d been waiting for a weekend which we both had some free time to go explore it in its entirety — or almost in its entirety. I am still amazed that I can live within minutes of some of these daytrip […]
Four Lakes in Columbia
Maryland has no natural lakes. Thus, to find a place with several lakes that look completely natural, with many lovely scenes, and walking paths so you can enjoy the scenery, is a wonderful discovery. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed Columbia’s lakes throughout the seasons. If you’re a fan of the new and popular Pokémon Go, these […]
The Battle That Saved D.C.
True confession: Not only had I grown up in Frederick, MD, without ever going to see the Monocacy National Battlefield Park, which is a scant 9 miles south of Frederick, but I’d grown up without even knowing it had taken place. To be fair to the local school system, I’m an Army brat, and had […]
Washington’s Crossing
Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, 1851. Washington’s Crossing State Park, in Buck’s County, PA, is a park in two parts — one where the crossing itself occurred, and another part — just as, if not even more interesting, just up the road. The park commemorates the famous Crossing as the turning point of the American Revolution. […]
A Few More Sailor’s Creeks…
“….a few more Sailor’s Creeks and it will all be over.” — Confederate General Lee to President Jefferson Davis, April 6, 1865 The Sailors Creek Battles occurred after the fall of Richmond and Petersburg, on April 6 1865. Following the fall of Richmond and Petersburg, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s primary objective was to get his army […]