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Probably the most interesting and important site in Annapolis, the Naval Academy, established in 1845, occupies 338 waterfront acres along the Severn River. The midshipmen (the term used for both women and men) go to classes, conduct military drills, and practice or compete in intercollegiate and intramural sports. Your visit to "The Yard" (as the USNA grounds are nicknamed) will start at the Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center. The visitor center features an exhibit, The Quarter Deck, which introduces visitors to the academy's mission, including a 13-minute film, The Call to Serve, and a well-stocked gift shop. From here you can join one of the hour-long, guided, walking tours of the academy. The centerpiece of the campus is the bright, copper-clad dome of the interdenominational U.S. Naval Academy Chapel, beneath which is buried Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones. You can go inside Bancroft Hall (one of the world's largest dormitories) and see a sample room and the glorious Memorial Hall. Visitors can have lunch on campus either at Drydock in Dahlgren Hall or the Naval Academy Club.
121 Blake Rd., Annapolis, Maryland, 21402, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, All visitors 18 years and older must have government-issued photo ID to be admitted. Visitors may not park on campus.
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A world-class sculpture and botanical venue, Annmarie Garden Sculpture Park and Arts Center is a 30-acre property on the St. John Creek. The sculptural art is by artists both local and from around the world. One of the more intriguing installations is a series of 13 "Talking Benches." Each tells an ecological story by depicting a plant that grows in southern Maryland, including dogwood, loblolly pines, papaw trees, and tobacco. Smooth, user-friendly pathways curve through the grounds. Don't miss the lyrical brass statue of a crabber in front of the museum. The figure and water feature perfectly captures the dependence of the area on the seafood industry. Little here is off-limits, and picnickers are welcome to settle in virtually anywhere. Be sure to visit the mosaic-filled restrooms. Annemarie Garden has a special Christmas display, "The Garden in Lights," from mid-December through New Year's Eve. Children get in free and there are many specialized programs that provide a hands-on art experience.
13480 Dowell Rd., Solomons, Maryland, 20629, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: $5, Daily 9-5
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With the northernmost naturally occurring stand of bald cypress trees in the United States, the 100-acre Battle Creek Cypress Swamp Sanctuary provides close-up looks at the forest primeval. A 0.25-mi elevated boardwalk at the bottom of a steep but sturdy set of steps gives you a good vantage point to see the swamp, thick with 100-foot-tall trees that are 75 to 100 years old. Guides at the nature center can alert you to the seasonal permutations of the vegetation and the doings of squirrels, owls, and other wildlife. Indoor exhibits focus on the area's natural and cultural history. The swamp is about 5 mi west of Port Republic.
2880 Grays Rd., Prince Frederick, Maryland, 20678, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free
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Housed in the railroad's 1898 track-side terminus, this museum provides memorable glimpses of the onetime resort's turn-of-the-20th-century glory days. Among its exhibits are a glass-enclosed model of the town of Chesapeake Beach and a hand-carved kangaroo from the magnificent carousel, as well as a slot machine and photos of early vacationers. One of the railroad's passenger cars rests nearby.
4155 Mears Ave.,, Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, 20732-1227, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, May-Sept., daily 1-4; Apr. and Oct., weekends 1-4 and by appointment.
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Families make a day of it at Chesapeake Beach Water Park, which has a children's pool, beach, and many slides. The park is open from Memorial Day until the first day of school. Admission is $18 (it's less for locals).
4079 Gordon Stinnett Ave., Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, 20732, USA
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Recommended Fodor’s Video
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Tracings its origins to 1672, when a log-cabin church stood at the site, Christ Church received a brick replacement in 1772, coated with plaster, is notable for its biblical garden, planted with species mentioned in the scriptures. Port Republic School No. 7 is on the church's property. Since immediately after the Civil War the grounds have been a venue for jousting (Maryland's state sport) on the last Saturday in August.
3100 Broomes Island Rd., Port Republic, Maryland, 20676-2101, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Daily dawn–dusk
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The Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House is where John Wilkes Booth ended up at 4 am on Holy Saturday, 1865, his leg broken after having leaped from the presidential box at Ford's Theater. Most likely, the 32-year-old Dr. Mudd had no idea his patient was wanted for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Nonetheless, Mudd was convicted of aiding a fugitive and sentenced to life in prison. (His time behind bars was cut short when President Andrew Jackson pardoned him in 1869.) Today the two-story house, set on 197 rolling acres, looks as if the doctor is still in. The dark purple couch where Mudd examined Booth remains in the downstairs parlor, 18th-century family pieces fill the rooms, and the doctor's crude instruments are on display. There's a 30-minute guided tour of the house, an exhibit building, and Mudd's original tombstone. They also have a farm museum and tobacco museum.
3725 Dr. Samuel Mudd Rd., Waldorf, Maryland, 20601-4359, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: $7, Late Mar.–late Nov., Wed. and weekends 11–4, Closed Mon.--Tues.
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City Park
Like its better-known neighbor Calvert Cliffs State Park, Flag Ponds Nature Park has spectacular views of the cliffs, but with just a short stroll to the beach, this county park is the more accessible of the two. Until the 1950s the area was a busy fishery, and some of the buildings from that era still stand. Today it beckons with bathhouses, a fishing pier, 3 mi of gently graded hiking trails, observation decks at two ponds, a boardwalk through wetlands, and indoor wildlife exhibits. Soaring cliffs, flat marshland, and wildflowers (including the blue flag iris, for which the park is named) provide stunning contrasts. A shark's tooth, which scientists date at more than 10 million years, is the big prize in a fossil hunt on the beach, one of the park's most popular activities.
Rte. 2/4, Lusby, Maryland, 20678, United States
Sight Details
Rate Includes: $6 per vehicle Apr.–Oct., $3 per vehicle Nov.–Mar., Memorial Day–Labor Day, weekdays 9–6, weekends 9–8; Labor Day–Memorial Day, weekends 9–5
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Based on the Villa Pisani in Montagnana, Italy, this 1774 home was a Colonial high-style residence. Currently, the museum is working to provide and present greater visibility and documentation about those enslaved at Hammond-Harwood House, including wills and letters. Up to seven women, men, and children were enslaved here in the 19th century, according to census records, and a slavery exhibition documents what scholars and historians have learned about them thus far. There are also exhibits of Colonial art by Charles Willson Peale and Rembrandt Peale, as well as displays of decorative arts—everything from Chinese-export porcelain to Georgian-period silver.
19 Maryland Ave., Annapolis, Maryland, 21401-1626, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: $10, Closed Tues. By reservation Apr.–Dec.
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The St. Mary's River, which once powered Historic Cecil's Old Mill, is just a trickle in this area now, so the water wheel now runs on electricity. Today the building, which dates to 1900, contains an artist co-op as well as a small display of artifacts and photographs of the mill. In keeping with the setting, most of the arts and crafts on sale are quaint and rustic: rural scenes painted on circular saw blades or lighthouses on driftwood, crocheted place mats, and colorful quilts. The mill is about five miles west of Lexington Park and quite difficult to find—there are no signposts. Once a year, in the fall, the mill is powered up for sawing logs. Call for details.
20853 Indian Bridge Rd., Great Mills, Maryland, 20653, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: Mar.–Oct., Thurs.–Sat. 10–5, Sun. 11–5; Nov. and Dec., Mon.–Sat. 10–5, Sun. 11–5
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The 17th-century tobacco port of London, on the South River a short car ride from Annapolis, was made up of 40 dwellings, shops, and taverns. London all but disappeared in the 18th century, its buildings abandoned and left to decay, but one of the few remaining original Colonial structures is a three-story brick house, built by William Brown between 1758 and 1764, with dramatic river views. Newly reconstructed buildings include a tenement for lower-class workers, a carpenter's shop, and a barn. Guests can walk around on their own or take a 30-minute docent-led tour. Allow more time to wander the house grounds, woodland gardens, and a visitor center with an interactive exhibit on the area's archaeology and history.
839 Londontown Rd., Edgewater, Maryland, 21037-2302, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: $10, Closed Mon. and Tues.
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Museum/Gallery
When you visit the 800-plus acres here, with a liberal arts college serving at the cultural center, don't expect Colonial Williamsburg. St. Mary's is an ongoing archaeological dig and a work in progress. In 1934, in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of Maryland, the colony's imposing State House, originally built in 1676, was reconstructed. In the early 1970s a vast archaeological-reconstruction program began in earnest, a project that has revealed nearly 200 individual sites. In 2009 St. Mary's marked its 375th anniversary of the founding of Maryland. A living history museum of sorts, the historic town includes several notable reconstructions and reproductions of buildings. The State House of 1676, like its larger and grander counterpart in Williamsburg, has an upper and a lower chamber for the Council and General Assembly. This 1934 reproduction is based on court documents from the period; the original was dismantled in 1829, with many of the bricks used for Trinity Church nearby. The square-rigged ship Maryland Dove, docked behind the State House, represents the smaller of the two vessels that conveyed the original settlers from England. The Godiah Spray Tobacco Plantation depicts life on a 17th-century tobacco farm in the Maryland wilderness, with interpreters portraying the Spray family—the real family lived about 20 mi away—and its indentured servants, enlisting visitors in such household chores as cooking and gardening or in working the tobacco field. The buildings, including the main dwelling house and outbuildings, were built with period tools and techniques.Other sites to see in town are the town center, the location of the first Catholic church in the English Colonies, a "victualing" and lodging house, and the Woodland Indian Hamlet. Historic interpreters in costume—some in character—add realism to the experience. Admission is about a third of the price for kids.
Rte. 5, St. Mary's City, Maryland, 20650, United States
Sight Details
Rate Includes: $10, Wed.–Sun. 10–5.
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Behind 2.5 mi of scenic Patuxent riverfront stretch 544 acres of woods and farmland. The 70-odd archaeological sites have yielded evidence of 9,000 years of human habitation—from prehistory on through to colonial times. At the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum you can follow an archaeology trail to inspect artifacts of the successive hunter-gatherer, early agricultural, and plantation societies that once roamed and settled this land. Displays include primitive knives and axes, fragments of Native American pottery, and Colonial glassware. Stroll along the nature trails to take a look at wildlife, antique agricultural equipment, and fields of crops. The park is 2 mi south of Port Republic.
10115 Mackall Rd., St. Leonard, Maryland, 20685-2433, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Wed.-Sun. 10-5
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Store/Mall
Many of the restaurants in southern Maryland serve Kim's pies —especially the key lime. The bakery is located in Solomons Island in a cottage that is a combination café, Kim's Key Lime Pie and Coffee Shop, and gift shop, Kim's Riverwalk Gifts. Although the key lime is the most popular, we also highly recommend the carrot cake. 14618 Solomons Island Rd., Solomons, MD, 20688. 410/326–8469.
14618 Solomons Island Rd., Solomons, Maryland, 20688, United States
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The Story Wall, comprising 10 plaques along the waterfront, recounts the history of African Americans in Maryland. These granite-framed markers lead to a sculpture group depicting Alex Haley, famed author of Roots, reading to a group of children of different ethnic backgrounds. Here you'll also see a plaque that commemorates the 1767 arrival of Kunta Kinte, who was brought from Africa, sold into slavery, and later immortalized in Haley's novel. Across the street is "The Compass Rose," a 14-foot-diameter inlaid bronze map of the world oriented to true north with Annapolis in the center.
Sidewalk at City Dock, Annapolis, Maryland, 20401, USA
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The Patuxent River Naval Air Museum houses items from the research, development, testing, and evaluation of naval aircraft. Nineteen vintage aircraft are displayed outside—which, while the museum is undergoing renovation, is all you can see.
22156 Three Notch Rd., Lexington Park, Maryland, 20653, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: $9, Tues.–Sun. 10–5, Closed Mon.
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The first permanent lighthouse constructed on the Potomac River is now the center of a small, 6-acre park. The grounds, which are free, have a boardwalk, pier, and picnic tables. The 1990 lighthouse is a replica of the 1861 original.
44701 Lighthouse Rd., Piney Point, Maryland, 20674, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: $7, Mid-May-Oct., daily
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When Father Andrew White came to Point Lookout and saw the Potomac at its side, he mused that the Thames was a mere rivulet in comparison. But instead of being overwhelmed by the wildness of the New World, he observed that "fine groves of trees appear, growing in intervals as if planted by the hand of man."
On the approach to Point Lookout State Park, two memorial obelisks remind travelers of the dark later history of this starkly alluring point of land. Beginning in 1863 a Union prison stood at the farthest tip of the peninsula, just across the Potomac from Confederate Virginia. During those last two years of the conflict, nearly 4,000 Confederate soldiers died here because of disease and poor conditions. Point Lookout is a reminder that many men from southern Maryland fought on the side of the Confederates during the Civil War. After the Battle of Gettysburg, 20,000 prisoners crowded the Point Lookout facilities—a space built for only half that. All that remains of the prison are some earthen fortifications, partially rebuilt and known as Fort Lincoln, with markers noting the sites of hospitals and other buildings. A small museum supplies some of the details.
The 1,046-acre state park has boating facilities, nature trails, and a beach for swimming. The RV campground, with hookups, is open year-round; tent camping facilities are open from April through October. Be sure to visit the lighthouse at the southern end of the park. Built in 1830 and used until 1965, the lighthouse also served as a depot. Bring plenty of bug spray. Mosquitoes can be a problem.
11175 Point Lookout Rd., Scotland, Maryland, 20687, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: $3, Year-round, daily 6 am–sunset
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Port Republic School No. 7, a classic one-room schoolhouse built in the 1880s, looks for all the world as if today's lesson could begin any minute. Here, you can find a restored classroom with archetypal desks, inkwells, and a school bell. Until 1932 a single teacher taught children in seven grades here.
3080 Broomes Island Rd., Port Republic, Maryland, 20676-2101, USA
Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Memorial Day–Labor Day, Sun. 2–4 and by appointment.
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Tour–Sight
For a long trip, consider a Boat & Breakfast on the Schooner Woodwind. Take a two-hour sail and then spend the night dockside in double-berth staterooms. 80 Compromise St. at the Annapolis Marriot Waterfront Hotel, Annapolis, MD, 21401-1810. 410/263–7837. www.schoonerwoodwind.com.
80 Compromise St. at the Annapolis Marriot Waterfront Hotel, Annapolis, Maryland, 21401-1810, United States
