Each time I visit the Gettysburg National Military Park I learn something new. This Sunday morning, however, my intent was just to focus on the bike ride and scenery, and not try to read the signs or follow a narrative to understand how the battle unfolded. The day before the weather had been rainy and […]
heritage tourism
InSite Gettysburg Brings the Battlefield into Clearer Focus
This is fourth of a series focusing on Gettysburg, PA as a great day trip destination. I’m always intrigued by different ways to tour the National Military Park at Gettysburg. I loved the segway tour of the battlefield my husband and I went on a couple years ago, but that was as much for the […]
Visiting Maryland’s Ghost Town: Daniels
Good friends of ours offered to take us to some “local ruins” that were “only a short hike.” They had me at “ruins.” I lept at the chance, and so a windy, blustery late October Sunday found us hiking off of Hollifield Road, following what’s left of old Alberton Road into the ghost town of […]
A Rare Opportunity to Tour the Thomas Point Shoal LIghthouse
On the last weekend in September, my sister and I went on one of the few tours offered every year to the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse. I mean, not just a victory lap around the outside like countless folks in their boats, but get off the boat and climb up through the hatches to the […]
Shriver House Museum: The War Through the Eyes of a Family
I’m fascinated by the civilian experience that I learned about at this house museum because I believe my ancestors, who lived on a farm not that far away, may have had similar experiences, although their farm didn’t border a battle field. Like the Shrivers, my ancestors were immigrants from Germany. Like the Shrivers, the man […]
Oh Say Can You See… Fort McHenry and the Star Spangled Banner
Francis Scott Key was always sort of a hometown hero for me: I grew up in Frederick, MD, where Key is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery as he desired, “in the shadows of the Catoctin Mountains.” Thus, Fort McHenry has always been a favorite destination for me. It’s a lovely place to walk along the […]
Gettysburg Heritage Museum Shares Civilian Experience During the Battle
The new Gettysburg Heritage Center used to be the American Civil War Wax Museum. I have to admit: I never visited the wax museum. I eschew wax museums: I find them creepy. But having a museum dedicated to the civilian perspective of what happened in Gettysburg during that great battle sounded intriguing, and I welcomed […]
Getting to Know the Town of Gettysburg
This is part one of a five-part series over the next 2 months focusing on Gettysburg, PA as a great day trip destination. There is so much to do there — from strolling around the quaint town itself and eating at one of the taverns or cafes to touring the battlefields. My friend and I […]
Montpelier: James Madison’s Presidential Retreat
My sister and I are determined to visit all the local presidential mansions: Mount Vernon, Monticello, and Montpelier, among them. Montpelier is the estate of our 4th president, James Madison, and one of America’s Founding Fathers. He is known for putting his lawyerly training to work by helping write the U.S. Constitution in the late […]
The Sunnyside of Sleepy Hollow: Visiting Washington Irving’s Home
The mention of Sleepy Hollow conjures up creepy images of the Headless Horseman riding at midnight after poor, silly Ichabod Crane. But there’s a sunnier side of Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown, NY! In American Lit in college we studied, among others, Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859), who was an American author, essayist, biographer, […]
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
It was only recently that I learned that Sleepy Hollow, made famous by Washington Irving’s story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” was a real place. So, although it’s a little out of day trip range for Marylanders — I justified the excursion and this blog with the knowledge that the Mid-Atlantic Day Trips Blog’s northern […]
Annamarie Sculpture Garden: Exploring Art Outdoors!
“The Gateway,” by Peter King and Marni Jaime, 1995, Stonehaus Pottery. Permanent collection. Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center is located near Solomons, Maryland, where the Patuxent River meets the Chesapeake Bay. The sculpture garden features a short walking path that meanders through the woods past a variety of sculpture, including over thirty works on […]
Cape May’s Victorian Mansions, a Lighthouse, and a Lookout Tower
Cape May, NJ, is the original beach resort on the East Coast. Its collection of authentic Victorian mansions makes it a destination for anyone who prefers the intimate setting of a bed and breakfast inn over those horrible beach hotels found at other beach resorts. I’ve visited Cape May a handful of times over the […]
Delaware Bay Lighthouses
Seagulls stand watch above the Miah Maull Shoal Lighhouse. Lighthouses stand as solitary sentinels signaling unseen danger — the peaks and valleys that map the geography under water. Mysterious, silent, and now lonely — almost all lighthouses are automated, and almost all are slowly deteriorating back into the waters they have protected our sailors and […]
A Maryland Story: The Booths, the Assassination of a President, and Tudor Hall
There’s a lovely little Victorian house tucked into the suburban neighborhoods surrounding Bel Air, MD, called “Tudor Hall.” It is a 1 1⁄2-story Gothic Revival cottage built of painted brick. The house was built as a country retreat by Junius Brutus Booth. Junius Brutus Booth, in case you don’t know — was a famous English […]