Just over an hour north of Baltimore and maybe 45 minutes from Philadelphia lies the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail, a string of six wineries along the trail that ranges some 50 miles. The last weekend of April found us veering out of Maryland to check out three of the wineries that were closest to the […]
Author: Jody Arneson
Brookside Gardens: Oasis in Suburbia
I decided to write this blog as a Mother’s Day special — for all those looking for a lovely place to bring their mums! An overcast Saturday afternoon found us heading over to check out Brookside Gardens, in Wheaton, MD; I had my new macro lens in hand and was eager to experiment. Thunder bumper […]
Scenic Vistas Along the Indian Head Trail
We would see amazing things if we could learn to be travelers in our own neighborhoods, Henry David Thoreau once said. Since beginning this blog last June, I have discovered some hidden delights in the mid-Atlantic region: Susquehanna State Park’s Rock Run Historic Area and Hampton Mansion both come to mind. And once again, this […]
“Mystery Trip” Ends Up in Monticello, Jefferson’s Masterpiece Mountaintop Retreat
Gail writes about a recent day trip she took with her retirement community: The day was one of those rare ones this past March that was warm and pleasant for our day at Monticello, in Charlottesville, VA. We were on a retirement community trip – a “Mystery Trip that we’d signed on for not knowing where […]
Battles of Bull Run: Manassas National Battlefield Park
When we headed to Manasses, VA on a spring day, I realized we were not the first tourists to have visited and wandered the battlefields there. In fact, the very first sight-seers were those rather naive Washintonians and Congressmen, who, in mid-July 1861, followed Gen. Irvin McDowell’s army of some 35,000 green Union soldiers on a […]
Patapsco River Valley State Park Part 2: Everyone Can Help
This week’s blog — Part 2 of last week’s blog on Patapsco Valley State Park — isn’t really about a day trip — but it is about activities my family and I participated in, on two separate days this spring. We decided to volunteer to help out in the park. It was certainly a different […]
Patapsco Valley State Park and a Rant: Part 1
The park is a perfect place to tire out kids and beagles. The benefit to living near a state park like Patapsco Valley State Park is being able to grab a beagle or two and go for a walk in the woods whenever it’s convenient. I am very grateful to have, by chance, bought a home […]
Biking, Lunch, and then Some Wine: The NCR Trail, Woodhall Winecellars, and Royal Rabbit Vineyards
Courtesy of Maryland Department of Natural Resources There is not much that wine doesn’t enhance. Is there any better way to round out a few hours biking on Maryland’s Northern Central Rail Trail (renamed the Torrey C Brown Rail Trail) than with a trip to two local wineries? The itinerary for this day trip — […]
Three Wineries on a Spring Sunday
A warm March Sunday beckoned me out of my winter hideout, and what better way to do than to go visit a few wineries in the beautiful Maryland countryside? I’ve lived in my neighborhood for over a decade, but I’ve not been a good neighbor. I like my neighbors but I realized recently I hardly […]
Cookies are the Goal on the B&A Trail
The recent warm weather in Maryland enticed me to try out my new bike. Since I hadn’t ridden a bike for 20 years, we decided to start with small goals. A comfortable 2.5 mile ride to — get this, a coffee shop along the scenic Baltimore & Annapolis Trail purported to sell the most delicious […]
From the AVAM to the BMA: An Afternoon of Art
Lynn is guest blogging for Mid-Atlantic Day Trips Blog this week. (Thanks Lynn!!) My son and I met Mid Atlantic Day Trip gal and her son at the American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) in January. While she wisked her 11-year-old son through to maintain his interest, we opted to stroll through at a more leisurely […]
Exploring Two Castles of Whimsy and Treasures
There once lived a man who, in the early part of the 20th century, built two castles. He was a visionary, for he recognized the importance of preserving items of a fading way of life for future generations. He was a artist, creating tiles that were reknown for their beauty. And he was a bit […]
Eastern State Penitentiary
How do you describe a place that is intentionally ugly, intentionally horrible, intentionally built that way? How do I describe a place that having visited a couple of years ago, still haunts me? The Eastern State Penitentiary Museum and Historic Site initially captured my interest in the early 1990s, when I worked at the American […]
Singer Castle
Who can resist exploring a castle? And that’s a problem with America for us castle-lovers — there simply aren’t enough of them around. So when you get to tour one, even if it isn’t five centuries old, I jump at the chance! I’d like to say that even Boldt Castle isn’t castle enough — it’s really […]
1000 Islands Visited: Sunset Dinner Cruise on the St Lawrence River
I’m a sucker for beautiful sunsets, dinner is always a winner, and who doesn’t like a cruise on a lovely river? This “day trip” had all three — a Sunset Dinner Cruise on the St Lawrence River, touring the Thousand Islands. Lovely scenery and the food wasn’t half bad! That morning we’d driven 8 hours […]