Maryland – Places I’ve Been – Part 2

During my last post, I shared the 1^st half of my favorite places to visit and some good things to know before you visit the historic state of Maryland.  Here is part two.

Located southwest of Baltimore, Patapsco Valley State Park is Maryland’s oldest state park (established in 1907).  A few years back, two of my friends (Anna and Rob) and I hiked a very small portion of the 70 miles of their maintained trails.  You can also fish, camp, canoe, mountain bike, and horseback within the park.  We stuck to the Avalon/Orange Grove/Glen Artney areas of the park.  Trail maps are available on information boards located throughout the park or for purchase online, at the visitor center, or at the park’s headquarters.  We walked past the Bloede’s Dam and walked across the swinging bridge.  You can walk at Patapsco Park a lot and still not see the same thing twice.  Perfect.
 

I spent many weeks as a kid on the New Jersey shore boardwalks.  So when my friend, Ketina, took me to the Ocean City Boardwalk a few years ago, I was reminded of my summers as a kid – food, sand, food, people watching, ocean smells and sounds, food, walking along the boardwalk, did I mention the food?  Ocean City Boardwalk isn’t as long as some of the ones in Jersey that I grew up with but it’s still nice.  It’s the traditional boardwalk with popcorn (my friend Ketina likes Fisher’s popcorn), pizza, ice cream/frozen custard (Kohr Brothers is yummy), rides/games, tourist souvenir shops, etc, but Ocean City also has Maryland crab cakes and Thrasher’s Fries, which are great.  Here’s a list of 100 free Ocean City activities you might want to check out if you plan to visit there.

Every state has beautiful back roads, and Maryland is no exception.  One of those roads is the Historic National Road, which was the nation’s first federally funded interstate highway going from Baltimore, MD to the mighty Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri.  It traverses 824 miles through six states, including 170 miles within Maryland.  I drove along the eastern Maryland section (Baltimore to Hagerstown) back in May and it was beautiful.  This section parallels I-70 and takes you through all the small towns you would normally bypass, such as Ellicott City, which I spoke of in my last post.  It makes for a great lazy Sunday afternoon drive.

 

Maryland has some beautiful Civil War Battlefields such as Monocacy and Antietam, both of which I visited for the first time this past May.  Monocacy Battlefield is located two miles south of Frederick and it’s the battle that saved Washington, DC in the summer of 1864.  It has a small visitor center that shows a great timeline of all the events before and after the battle.  Before leaving the visitor center, be sure to pick up a helpful free self-guided auto tour brochure.  The route totals approximately 6 miles round-trip.  If you have kids, be sure to bring along a copy of the scavenger hunt for them to complete on your visit to keep them entertained. 

The Battle of Antietam is said to be the bloodiest one-day battle in American history having 23,000 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing after only 12 hours of combat back in 1862.  You should take the self-guided 8 ½ mile 11 stop auto tour through the battlefield. 

My two favorite stops along the tour were climbing to the top of the tower on Bloody Lane and visiting the Burnside Bridge. 

Whether you’re into the Civil War or not, I highly recommend the walking trails along both of the battlefields’ self-guided auto tours.  They make great places to get out of the car, get some fresh air, and get some exercise.

I love covered bridges and I found out this past May that Maryland has two Covered Bridges Trails.  I drove along the Frederick County Covered Bridge Trail that has three bridges (Utica Mills, Roddy Road, and Loys Station), and it was neat to explore some of the beautiful back roads, rolling hills, and history of that part of Maryland.

As I mentioned in the Delaware Blog Post, if you’ll be traveling through the Mid-Atlantic area (Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey), you might want to look into getting an EZ Pass for the toll booths.  In Maryland, there are tolls on I-95 at the Baltimore/Delaware boarder area as well as crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis.  If you pay cash for those tolls, you’ll be in a long line, however, the EZ Pass lines run much faster.  Also, when traveling on I-95 north of Baltimore, you should stop at the Maryland House.  It’s a great, clean, and well-light rest area with restaurants, restrooms, a convenience store, and a gas station.
 

I’ve shared with you my favorite places to visit and some good things to know before you visit Maryland.  In my next post, I’ll share the wish list of places I still want to check out in my state of Maryland.

* Photos taken by Me

Maine - New England Road Trip

I visited Maine in October 2007 on a New England road trip with three other women (mentioned in my Connecticut Blog Post).  Now, if you’re from Maine, like two of my friends (Molly and Julie), you probably would agree with them that I didn’t visit “true” Maine because we only visited the southern point where all the “rich snobs live” (not where the “true Maine people” live).  However, I loved what I did see of Maine and I’d go back again.

In a previous post (Delaware Blog Post), I mentioned the EZ Pass.  Maine has tollbooths throughout the state that take the EZ Pass.  So, if you’ll be traveling through the Mid-Atlantic / Northeast along I-95, you might want to think about getting an EZ Pass to save time.

Our first stop in Maine was the Nubble Light (or Cape Neddick Light Station) in York.  I love lighthouses and this one didn’t disappoint.  The lighthouse itself is not accessible to the public, but it can be photographed from Sohier Park that overlooks this picturesque lighthouse.

From there, we drove north and visited the seaside town of Kennebunkport.  We put our feet in the freezing cold water on one of the nearby beaches.

We checked out the quaint shops and cafes.  One such café had a chocolate blueberry latte called the Mainer that was DIVINE!  It was SO GOOD!  Have I ever found another chocolate blueberry latte as good?  NO!  Have I been looking for another chocolate blueberry latte ever since – ABSOLUTELY!  Yummy!  While in Kennebunkport, we ate lunch at the Clam Shack.  I remember getting a little of everything and everything was wonderful! HOWEVER, word to the wise: do not eat a lot of the fried stuff no matter how good the clams are, okay?!  I made myself sick.  I just couldn’t take that much fried food all at once.

We spent the night in Saco.  There wasn’t anything special about it, but there was a nice Hampton Inn there with very friendly staff. They told us about a place where locals go for a lobster dinner (you know the places that only have Maine license plates in the parking lot).  It was so YUMMY and came complete with lobster bibs!  Can I remember where we ate?  Nope.  Sorry.  You’ll just have to find your own locals-only place for lobster in Maine.

They also told us of a few places to pick up some wonderful blueberry pie the next morning.  So, the next morning, we headed north with the plan to pick up some blueberry pie along the way, only to find out that all of those places were CLOSED ON SUNDAYS except the last one which had run out by the time we got there.  Be careful to look at the hours and days of operation for any place you want to go to.  Lesson learned.  So, it was off to Portland to check out the Portland Head Lighthouse, which was yet another beautiful lighthouse, but boy the wind was gusting!  Our hair was all over the place.

From there it was time to keep exploring through the New England states and head west to New Hampshire.  The leaves were breathtaking throughout our entire New England road trip.  I’d love to go back in the fall and see the leaves changing again and see a bunch of other places I’ve learned about since then.  In my next post, I’ll list those places that I’d like to go see on my next trip to the majestic state of Maine.

**All pictures taken by me or my friend, Lori.**