Maryland Medley

Travel America, May, 2001 by Patrick Soran

It's probably no coincidence that the tower atop Maryland's colonial State House resembles billowing sails. After all, seafaring is at the heart of this state that edges into the Atlantic and straddles the Chesapeake Bay. And since Maryland is the repository of so much important American history, you might even say that sailing off the windy water toward that Annapolis landmark is like sailing into America's past.

Annapolis itself has quite a history. Early settlers swapped tea for tobacco along the nearby rivers. Kunta Kinte, immortalized in Alex Haley's Roots, was sold into slavery here; a plaque understates the tragedy. General George Washington resigned his military commission nearby in the Capitol's Senate chamber. The Revolutionary War even ended there: With the stroke of his quill pen a fellow named Thomas Mifflin executed the treaty that separated America from Britain. Sixty years later, and not a mile away, 55 freshmen and seven instructors founded a school to study seafaring. That school became the United States Naval Academy.

Nowadays, landlubbers and mariners alike come by the carload and flotilla-ful to experience the ambiance of Annapolis' restoration and recreation renaissance. The city is laid out like a pair of Ben Franklin's spectacles, two circles. On one stands the State House, the oldest continuously operating capitol building in the nation. In the other stands a lovely church. Main Street, lined with shops and restaurants, drops down to City Dock, where sailboats and speedier craft line up. Running east from the capitol, Maryland Avenue offers visitors antique and gift shopping on their way to call at two of Annapolis' many heirloom homes, the Paca and Hammond-Harwood houses.

At the end of the lane sprawls the 338 acres of the U.S. Naval Academy. Guides lead guests past the Olympic-size swimming pool, through Bancroft Hall (where all 4,500 cadets hang their hats), and into the Tiffany-windowed chapel where a candle still bums for graduates lost in Vietnam.

If Annapolis represents Maryland's colonial past, Baltimore represents a newer age. But not much newer. Fort McHenry, on a spit of land protecting the inner harbor, was the scene of the battle after which a young lawyer named Francis Scott Key penned a few now-renowned lines:

"Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,

what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming."

That's correct, the Star Spangled Banner was written in Baltimore. And the banner itself was sewn here, at Flag House, the home of Mary Pickersgill. A visit to Mary's house now puts you near Little Italy, locale of some of Baltimore's best restaurants. And not far is the tourist-friendly Inner Harbor with its shops and restaurants and active street life. Here, too, the kids can enjoy Port Discovery, a new museum powered by the creativity of youngsters. Then there's the National Aquarium and the USS Constellation, a grand old sailing ship that predates the Civil War. For an overview of Baltimore's harbor, many first-time visitors take a narrated lunch or dinner cruise aboard the Bay Lady or Lady Baltimore.

Baltimore is one of the best places to get Maryland's most famous foodstuff--crabs. Crabbers lure tons of the curious crawlers out of the Chesapeake each year. You can try them the way Marylanders love them--steamed and piled high on newspapers and accompanied by a cold beer.

A short drive from Baltimore leads to Ellicott City in Howard County. With over 200 antique dealers, its historic district is a big destination for collectors and offers superb dining as well. Tersiguel's is one of the Baltimore area's best French restaurants and Ellicott Mills Brewing Company a top microbrewery. The history-rich town also has a nationally recognized ghost walk. Its B&O Railroad Station Museum is the restored first terminus of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the destination of America's first steam engine, the "Tom Thumb," in 1830.

Also in Howard County, just off Interstate 95, Savage Mill is a unique marketplace that started out as a 19th century cotton mill on the banks of the Little Patuxent River in Savage. It's now a retail center with home design, craft and antique stores, resident artisans, a gourmet cafe, and French bakery with wood-fired ovens.

On the Atlantic Ocean, at Ocean City, they brag about a not-so-fancy food, french fries. At a dozen places along the shopped-lined boardwalk, you can grab a basket of these fanciful frites.

When you're basking in that sunny sand at Ocean City, you're not far from the ponies on Assateague Island. There among the grass-dappled dunes run shaggy horses who live wild on the island year-round.

For an unparalleled wilderness experience in Maryland, leave the east behind and go west as the state unfurls itself along the Mason-Dixon line. Nature lovers wanting to spot birds head south into Garrett County. At Swallow Falls State Park, amidst Maryland's last stand of virgin hemlock and pine, Muddy Creek scatters water along chiseled granite formations. The brook drops 52 rock-strewn feet at Muddy Creek Falls, where a stone path traces the water's edge.