Hiking along the Old Main Line in Patapsco Valley State Park is one of my favorite hikes, and I’ve visited repeatedly, but, it seems, always during the winter. This time we returned just as summer was setting in, and everything was green, green, green. It was lovely! As we walked along the Patapsco River, trees […]
budget-friendly day trip
Five Little Known Must-See Civil War Battle Sites
The midAtlantic states offer a plethora of great Civil War battlefields and sites to explore, from the obscure (Balls Bluff) to the famous Gettysburg, Manassas and Antietam national battlefields. Although many of these battlefields’ visitors centers are currently closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the need for social distancing, add these to your […]
12 Urban Oases To Escape To!
When the urban jungle becomes too much for us, we naturally seek an oasis of peace and calm amidst the asphalt and pandemonium. I’ve found twelve surprising urban oases offering us the promise of lovely vistas, green relief, or a pleasant walk. These are all near or in major cities in the mid-Atlantic region: Pittsburgh, […]
Three Great Hikes in Patapsco Valley State Park
Some of these hikes are really popular — so social distancing might be a bit difficult. But if you haven’t been on these hikes, these are three good ones to add to your bucket list! Patapsco Valley State Park extends along 32 miles of the Patapsco River, encompassing 16,043 acres and eight developed recreational areas. […]
Roar with the Wild Ones at Salisbury Zoo
If you’re looking for a few hours of fun or something fun to do with your kid, check out the Salisbury Zoo! Situated along a tributary to the Wicomico River, the 12-acre zoo focuses on species native to the Americas and Australia. You can see bison, Amazon macaws, white-tail deer, greater rhea, alpaca, black-tailed prairie […]
Discovering the Beauty of Nature at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl
Red-Breasted Merganser Pair, date unknown, A. Elmer Crowell, East Harwich, MA The story of how the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art got started is really cool, actually, and started with two brothers, who began carving in their childhood in the early 1900s. Flying Canvasback Pair, 1963, Lem Ward, Crisfield, MD Lemuel T. Ward (1897–1984) and […]
Biking in White Haven and Wicomico County
We were staying at the Whitehaven Hotel, a bed and breakfast inn in the sleepy village of Whitehaven, on the banks of the Wicomico River. The land is flat in and around Whitehaven, the roads surrounded by farm fields and marsh flats. In such a rural place, there’re few vehicles and the drivers all courteous, […]
Hiking and Bird Watching in the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge
Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife sanctuary expressly for migratory birds, located east of Milton, DE in southern Delaware. Translated from the Dutch words Priume Hoek, meaning Plum Point, Prime Hook was named by European settlers in the 1600s for the land’s abundance of purple beach plums. Established in 1963 on 10,000 acres along […]
Hiking Greenbriar State Park — Big Red and Rock Oak Fire Trails
Greenbrier State Park, just off I-70, is another of Maryland’s lovely state parks, and offers public recreation on South Mountain, just 3 miles northeast of Boonsboro in Washington County. The state park offers camping, fishing, a boat ramp, hiking trails, and a 42-acre man-made lake with picnicking areas and a sand beach that is quite […]
Gaining Insight into our Fifth POTUS at the James Monroe Museum
There’s a curious little museum in Fredericksburg dedicated to the fifth President, and the last Virginia president. James Monroe, who was born in 1758 and lived until 1831, served in the Continental Army and as a governor of Virginia; he also was a statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father. He is perhaps best known for […]
Storybook Trail – Masanutten State Park
The Story Book Trail is an almost mile-long, out-and-back wheel-chair accessible trail on Masanutten Mountain, leading to an overlook revealing the Page Valley and Route 211 below. The trail gently heads up hill under tree-cover the entire way. With boardwalks in places and a paved trail, you can walk it in your flip-flops. Along the […]
Why the Walters Art Museum Is Best Visited in Sneakers
On the Desert, Jean-Leon Gerome, before 1867 The Walters Art Museum — usually just referred to as “The Walters” — is a public art museum in Baltimore founded and opened in 1934. Its collections were gathered in the mid-1800s and include masterworks of ancient Egypt, Greek sculpture and Roman sarcophagi, medieval ivories, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance […]
Delightful Winter Hike in Soldiers Delight NEA
It was a gorgeous winter day, sunny and a perfect 50 degrees and we decided to go hiking. We live near Soldiers Delight National Environmental Area, also referred to as the Patapsco Barrens, a serpentine barrens located northwest of Baltimore, in the midst of a highly populated suburbia. It is the largest and most diverse of […]
Hiking in Historic Pemberton Park
Pemberton Park is an historic park, just outside of Salisbury MD; the site of the former Pemberton Plantation, the historic house, built in 1741, still stands and is open for tours most weekends. But what really drew us to the park was the opportunity to explore its trail system, which takes you through a variety […]
The Simple Joy of a Christmas Train Garden
Trains and Christmas seem to go together. The first model trains appeared in 1891 and 13 years later, a group of English hobbyists began building little worlds to go along with these wonderful trains. Electric model trains appeared just before WWI, and the 1920s saw an explosion of these as toys for the wealthy. By […]