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Solomons Solomons boasts an impressive Riverwalk, a sixteen-foot-wide boardwalk stretching a third of a mile along the bulkhead of the Patuxent River. There are benches as well as a pavilion and an amphitheater. A 46-seat water taxi known as the Stars & Stripes shuttles passengers around the island on weekends in summer. Sailing, boating and charter fishing are the big attractions. They are available through various marinas, which seem to be the second most prevalent business activity here after restaurants. Hour-long cruises around Solomons Inner Harbor are offered by the 1899 log-built bugeye William B. Tennison, the oldest passenger-carrying vessel on the Chesapeake Bay. They're scheduled to leave at 2 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday, May-October, from the Calvert Marine Museum, but may depart early, as we found to our dismay upon arrival one afternoon at 1:56. Additional cruises are offered Saturdays and Sundays at 12:30 and 3 in July and August. Calvert Marine Museum, 14200 Solomons Island Road, Solomons. Started in the old school building, this growing museum specializes in local maritime history, the marine paleontology of the nearby Calvert Cliffs and the estuarine life of the tidal Patuxent River and adjacent waters. Its impressive exhibition building has extensive exhibits on the Patuxent, including 500 photographs, scale models and artifacts. Among them are a 28-foot-long, three-log canoe and an underwater mine and torpedo from World War II testing in the river. A permanent exhibit on the river and its life features seventeen aquariums, live otters and a discovery room with "please touch" area for children. A hall of fossils from the Calvert Cliffs traces ancient inhabitants of the region, including the enormous jaws and teeth of the extinct great white shark. Fascinating to visit is the Drum Point Lighthouse, which dominates the waterfront and is one of three remaining cottage-type lights from the bay. Fifteen visitors may go inside hourly on guided tours. Varied watercraft are on display in the small craft building or are afloat in the boat basin. Half a mile south of the main museum complex is the J.C. Lore Oyster House, a former seafood packing plant that traces the bloom and decline of the region's commercial seafood industry. The museum recently acquired Maryland’s oldest continuously operating lighthouse, the Cove Point Lighthouse in nearby Lusby, and shuttles visitors by bus to the site. Nautical and local items of interest are sold in the excellent Museum Store. (410) 326-2042. www.calvertmarinemuseum.com. Open
daily, 10 to 5. Adults, $5. Annmarie Garden, Dowell Road, Solomons. Accented with contemporary sculptures, 30 acres of forests and gardens along St. John Creek are being developed into a world-class sculpture garden. Walkways in the woods take visitors past juried sculptures set in garden "rooms" cut out of the forest. A sculpture of an oyster tonger was a focal point at an early visit, followed by talking benches, a council ring and a surveyor's map. One local artist predicted the sculpture garden would ultimately rival the famous Brookgreen Gardens of South Carolina. The late Francis Koenig, who had donated the land and named it for his ailing wife, envisioned it as "a contemplative and creative place" for the public to commune amid floral and fauna. All kinds of visual and performing artists make the garden rooms come alive at the annual September Artsfest, which attracts 15,000 visitors. Gardenfest is a plant sale and exhibition staged annually in late April. (410) 326-4640. www.annmariegarden.org. Open
daily, 10 to 4. Free. Shopping. Based on the long lines outside a structure built right over the water along the boardwalk, the biggest attraction in summer is the ice cream shop called Cone Island. The building formerly served as an annex of is The Sandpiper, a gift shop run by Joann Kersey at the Holiday Inn Select, where we picked up some clever Christmas cards. Hand-painted clothing, T-shirts, jewelry, resort wear and gifts are stocked at Caren's Solomons Style. The increasingly well-known Carmen's Gallery displays appealing artworks. Nautical items are featured at Sea Gull Cove Gifts, and we liked the gems and jewelry at Solomons Mines. Grandmother’s Store is a trove of antiques and collectibles. Hoping to set a standard for future commercial development of Solomons, Ellen and Skip Zahniser of sailing-center fame erected Avondale Center, a retail and professional complex along the main street. Among its treasures is Fine Things, whimsically stocked with one-of-a-kind shell items, pottery, cut crystal, accessories and such, in exquisite taste. If we'd had a spare $155 we might have emerged with a gold-shell wreath. Extra-Special
Historic St. Mary's City, 18559 Hogaboom Lane, St. Mary's City. Founded in 1634 by Catholic pilgrims, this National Historic Landmark was the fourth permanent settlement in British North America, served as the Colonial capital of Maryland until 1695 and calls itself the birthplace of religious toleration. The abandonment of the town and the subsequent shift to agriculture was an archaeological blessing, for most of the 17th-century town was preserved under the plowed soils, awaiting excavation. A low-key, outdoor living-history museum opened on the 800-acre site in 1984, and work continues to uncover and restore the nation's only Colonial capital still undisturbed by development or erosion. Four main exhibit areas include the Visitor Center with an archaeology exhibit hall, a tobacco plantation, the Chancellor's Point Natural History Area (site of a Chesapeake Indian Lifeways Center) and the Governor's Field. We found the last to be of most interest. You can walk out on a dock in the St. Mary's River to board the square-rigged replica of a ship that brought the first settlers from England, hear your footsteps echo as you explore the reconstructed State House of 1676 and stop for a lunch featuring traditional Colonial dishes and regional seafood specialties in the $5 to $10 range at Farthing's Ordinary. The remains of St. Mary's Chapel, whose excavation is in progress, marks the birthplace of the Roman Catholic church in America. The old town – what little there is – blends nicely into the waterfront campus of St. Mary's College, a liberal arts college of 1,500 students. (240) 895-4990 or (800) 762-1634.
www.stmaryscity.org. Open Wednesday-Sunday 10 to 5, mid-June to
mid-September; Tuesday-Saturday 10 to 5 and limited Sunday opening,
spring and fall. Closed December to mid-March. Adults, $7.50. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places / Mid-Atlantic, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2003. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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