I’m constantly trying to improve the blog — coming up with new ideas for destinations or things to do, providing tips, improve the information, and yes, improve the photos. I recently discovered Washington Photography Safaris, with a variety of destinations (several of which you’ll see in upcoming posts over the next couple of months). I […]
heritage tourism
Ten Great Ghost Tours You Shouldn’t Miss!
September and October are the season most folks check out ghost walks and ghost tours — one of my favorite activities! Ghost tours are always intriguing — they’re a little bit of sight-seeing, a little bit of ghost story, and usually a lot of history. It’s a good way to get to know a city or […]
Kykuit: Retreat of the Rockefellers
The John D. Rockefeller estate, Kykuit, is a 40-room National Trust house in Westchester County, NY, built by oil tycoon, capitalist and Rockefeller family patriarch John D. Rockefeller. Conceived largely by his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and enriched by the art collection of third-generation scion, Governor of New York and Vice President of the United […]
A House for the Masses That’s Perfectly Unique: Kentuck Knob
“[Kentuck Knob]…is of a spectacular beauty that never palls whatever the season and whatever the gap between visits, whether one month or ten minutes.” — Lord Peter Palumbo Kentuck Knob began in 1953 when the Hagans, owners of a major dairy company in Western Pennsylvania, purchased 80 acres of mountain land east of their native […]
Hiking at Jerusalem Village in Gunpowder Falls State Park
Established in 1959 to protect the Gunpowder River and the Big and Little Gunpowder Falls, Gunpowder Falls State Park is now one of Maryland’s largest state parks. With more than 18,000 acres in Harford and Baltimore counties, Gunpowder’s narrow corridors host a varied topography ranging from tidal wetlands to steep and rugged slopes. My first […]
An Afternoon at the Museum
Big cities don’t have a monopoly on art and culture, and modest Hagerstown can attest to that, with its Museum of Fine Arts. What began as an initial gift from the founders has grown into an extraordinary permanent collection that includes over 7,000 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and other works of art representing a variety […]
7 Places in Pennsylvania You Don’t Want to Miss in 2017!
Over the four years that I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve discovered unexpected castles, rocks that sing, places of incredible beauty or incredible historical significance — and sometimes both. I’ve ridden bikes along rivers, hiked to mountain tops, and explored underground — all in the great state of Pennsylvania. Now that school is out, here […]
Afterlife Behind Bars at Moundsville Penitentiary
West Virginia Penitentiary was one of the bloodiest and deadliest prisons within the United States. It also is where the dark souls of rapists, murderers, and other criminals still may be walking, spending their afterlife imprisoned behind the same bars that held them captive when they were alive. Talk about recidivism! It was, of course, […]
Behind Bars: Touring the West Virginia Penitentiary
The West Virginia State Penitentiary is an imposing, gothic style prison located in Moundsville, WV. It operated from 1876 to 1995. Now open for tours, it stands as a monument to a bygone era, and provides ongoing testimony to man’s inhumanity to man. The town of Moundsville is interesting in its own right, having derived […]
Savoring Gettysburg
There are so many different ways to explore Gettysburg. The Civil War history, of course, is what initially put Gettysburg on the day trip map, but as this blog has pointed out before, there’s so much more to Gettysburg and its surrounding environs than its battlefields. Gettysburg offers a (surprisingly) wonderful food scene, a culinary […]
5 Fabulous Forts to Bring Your Kids to this Summer!
Everyone’s probably heard of famous Fort McHenry in Baltimore — well worth a visit! This is the fort that was being shelled by the British during the War of 1812, immortalized in Francis Scott Key’s Star-Spangled Banner. But there are five other fabulous forts worth exploring: three in Maryland, and one each in Delaware and […]
Returning to Hell House and Finding Everything AND a Kitchen Sink
Last year my husband and I climbed the steps from the still-active train tracks just above Ilchester Road to the old St Mary’s Seminary site, adjacent the Patapsco River Valley State Park. Where once there was a thriving men’s Catholic seminary, now — as it was a year ago — is just a pile of […]
Nine Places in Maryland You Don’t Want to Miss!
Summer is almost here, and that means, the peak of day trip season! If you’re getting ready for some day trips, then here are nine places in Maryland you don’t want to miss! Maryland offers astounding natural beauty, from its rivers to its mountains and forests, as well as history from its colonial past onward. Don’t check these […]
A Fort Not to Miss: Fort Delaware
Over the course of several years of writing this blog and just because of a natural curiosity about any potential day trip destination, I’ve visited the major forts in the immediate Maryland vicinity. It is true that each fort has something special about it — Fort McHenry has that magnificent historical attachment to the foundation of […]
Lovely Urban Oasis at the US National Arboretum
Dogwood Alley. I’m always excited to discover an urban oasis — a place to retreat far from the madding crowd! In fact, I spent this past Sunday morning exploring just such an oasis: the U.S. National Arboretum. The National Arboretum is a garden, a park, and a research institution, part of the USDA. Its 446 […]