Maryland Favorite Tips by grandmaR Top 5 Page for this destination

The Eastern Shore

Favorite thing: The Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake is a Tri-State Area. The State of Delaware is totally on the Eastern Shore fronting on the Atlantic Ocean. The southern end of the Eastern Shore including part of Smith Island and all of Tangier Island is in Virginia. But most of the Eastern Shore is in Maryland.

In spite of former Governer Shaeffer who referred to it as the 'outhouse of Maryland', the Eastern Shore has a lot going for it. It is sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay - a largely flat sandy penninsula which has lots of beaches for summer tourists and produces not only much of the seafood, but also chickens and vegetables.

Fondest memory: My pages on the Eastern Shore (first number tips, second number photos and third number travelogues) include:

Bruff's Island 0 9 1

Chestertown 4 14 1

Crisfield 49 116 5

Hills Point 0 2 1 (just a narrative section about a cruise on our boat)

Ocean City 1 3 0

Oxford 0 15 2 (two travelogues)

Queenstown 0 3 0 This page just has one narrative on the intro page and no pictures of Queenstown itself.

Big City, Capitol and Western Maryland Page

Favorite thing: This section of my tips is on Baltimore, Annapolis, northern and western Maryland

(first number tips, second number photos, third number travelogues):

Annapolis 34 81 3 - Maryland's Capital. In the past we have visited the boat show on Columbus Day weekend.

Baltimore 63 177 4 - where I was born - a work in constantly in progress (currently a top 5 page) This is Maryland's biggest city.

Fondest memory: Baltimore City and Baltimore County

Cockeysville 2 3 0 - Go north towards York PA
Curtis Bay 0 3 0 - South shore of the Patapsco River - under construction
Dundalk 3 6 0 Port for the Big Ships - under construction
Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine 1 3 0
Hunt Valley 4 17 0
Sparrows Point 0 2 0
Timonium 3 10 0 Site of the State Fair
Towson 18 63 2 - The County Seat of Baltimore County. My mom's home and where I lived through High School and college. Currently a top 5 page.

Northeast Maryland
Fair Hill 3 11 1 - mostly about horses from when my children were competing in combined training in the 80's. The photographs on this page aren't very good.

Western Maryland
Cumberland 0 3 0 - Out at the end of the Panhandle - under construction
Hancock 8 19 1 includes the Sideling Hill Rest Stop.

Southern Maryland

Favorite thing: If you think of the state as crab's left claw, with the Chesapeake Bay between the pinchers

Southern Maryland where I live is the west side or thumb side of the claw and it consists of the counties of Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary's. I live in Leonardtown, which is in St. Mary's County, Maryland. So I have lots of tips in this area, which I have distributed into the various communities served by a single post office but which are separate areas in VT.

In addition to (first number = tips, second number = photos, third number = travelogues) Leonardtown 28 122 5 (28 tips 122 photos and 5 travelogues) I have pages at (in alphabetical order within the counties):

Charles County
Benedict 1 6 0
Hughesville 1 1 0
Morgantown 8 11 0 (north end of the 301 Nice Bridge)
Popes Creek 2 9 0

Calvert County
Broomes Island 1 4 0
Lusby 1 1 0
Prince Frederick 8 49 0 (the County Seat)
Solomons Island 40 161 5 (home of the Maritime Museum)

But of course most of my tips are in St. Mary's County

Abell 2 12 0 (7th district),
Beauvue 2 13 1,
Chaptico 0 1 0,
California 14 34 0,
Callaway 4 13 0,
Charlotte Hall 0 1 0,

Fondest memory: Clarks Landing 2 11 0,
Coltons Point 2 4 0,
Dameron 0 1 0,
Great Mills 6 13 1
Helen 0 1 0,
Hollywood 1 7 1,
Horse Landing 6 17 1
Lexington Park 12 53 3,
Loveville 2 5 0
Mechanicsville 8 14 0
Morganza 2 5 0
Park Hall Estates 0 2 0
Piney Point 15 34 2
Point Lookout State Park 26 53 3
Ridge 11 59 4 (our marina)
Saint Andrews Estates 2 12 1 (write up on historic church)
Saint Clements Island 1 7 0
Saint George Island 1 8 0
Saint Inigoes Shores 1 4 0 (on the local NAS)
Sandgates 4 6 0
St. Marys City 12 19 1 (not finished)
Wildewood 3 6 0 (note that Wilde has an E on it - there are two other Wildwoods in Maryland without the E)

Eating my way through the Md 3/US 301 corridor

Favorite thing: We spent over 10 years between 1987 and 2000 driving back and forth through Central Maryland between Baltimore and Southern Maryland along the 301-3 corridor. We would have dinner on the drive down to Leonardtown in Southern Maryland on Friday, and have lunch Sunday on the drive back up to Brooklyn Park in northern Anne Arundel County to prepare for the work week in Baltimore. That's why most of these tips are about restaurants.

(First number tips, second number photos, third number narratives)

Bowie 8 38 0

Brooklyn Park 7 14 0 (our former city house)

Columbia 1 4 0 A planned community where our third daughter lived

Crofton 12 38 0 (restaurant tips)

Ellicott City2 5 0 (oldest daughter's home)

Gambrills 4 14 0 (restaurant tips)

Glen Burnie 4 6 0

Laurel 1 2 0 (where I used to work)

Linthicum 4 15 0
Linthicum Heights 1 8 (one brunch/lunch place tip and list of lunch places in the intro)

Odenton 1 8 0 (Jim's Hideaway tip)

Parole (west of Annapolis) 2 7 0

Pasadena 6 18 1 (my husband's brother's home)

Selby Beach 0 9 1

Fondest memory: Even after I retired in 1999, I still used to travel this route when I went to visit my mom who lived in Towson. Now that my mom has died, I am still going back and forth to handle estate matters, but after this year, I probably will not be going north on any regular basis.

Maryland's Potomac

Favorite thing: One of the things that not many people know is that the Potomac belongs to Maryland up to the low tide mark on the Virginia shore.

In 1632, Charles I granted a charter to Cecil Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, for a colony north of the "River of Pattowmack...unto the further Bank of the said River."

After the American Revolution, Maryland objected to Virginians poaching fish from "its" Potomac waters but Virginians were not inclined to honor the low-water mark boundary - George Washington, for example, found his herring fishery in the river offshore from Mount Vernon to be a more-reliable source of income than growing tobacco and wheat, and never paid Maryland anything for the fish.

In the Compact of 1785 (brokered by George Washington) it was agreed that neither Virginia or Maryland could interfere with the other's trade or fishing in the Potomac. The 1632 grant and the agreement by two states in 1785 explains why the Maryland-Virginia boundary is not the middle of the river.

Fondest memory: So if you want to get married on a boat in the water in front of Mount Vernon, you need a Maryland marriage license.