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Southern Maryland Highlights
 | | Historic St. Mary's City brings the past to life. |
18559 Hogaboom Lane
St. Mary's City, MD 20686
240-895-4990 or 800-762-1634
St. Mary's City Website
Travel to 17th-century Maryland at Historic St. Mary's City, where costumed interpreters in recreated settings recapture the days when the town served as the colony's capital. Exhibits include the reconstructed State House of 1676; Smith's Ordinary; the Godiah Spray Tobacco Plantation, a working colonial farm; and the Woodland Indian Hamlet, where you discover how the native population interacted with the English colonists. Here, you can watch a militia drill, work beside archaeologists, churn butter or shoot an arrow with a bow. Aboard the Maryland Dove, a replica of a square-rigged ship, visitors listen to sailors' stories of immigration and the tobacco trade. The museum, part of a National Historic Landmark, is regarded as one of the nation's best-preserved colonial archaeological sites. (Note: Exhibits are open from mid-March through November only, but visitors can tour the grounds year-round.)
Hours: Jan. 2-March 9, June 18-Sept. 14, Wed-Sun, 10-5 p.m.; March 11-June 15, Sept. 16-Nov. 29, Tue-Sat, 10-5
Admission: Adults, $7.50; seniors and students, $6; children 6-12, $3.50; audio tours, $3.50. (Living history exhibits are closed Jan. 2-March 9.)
 | | The Patuxent Naval Air Museum displays planes on the flight deck. |
Route 235 and Pegg Road
Lexington Park, MD
301-863-7418
Naval Air Museum Website
For close-up views of U.S. Naval aircraft, visit the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum. Outdoors, the museum displays 17 Naval aircraft, including an F-14. Indoor exhibits and hands-on displays give the visitor lessons in aircraft technology and systems and how the planes are tested. You can sit in seats of flight trainers, view the instruments and operate the controls. The museum also displays aircraft models, engines, helmets and "unmanned air vehicles." Patuxent is one of only 11 Navy museums in the nation chartered by the secretary of the Navy.
Hours: Sun, 10-4; Tue-Sat, 10-5
Admission: Free
 | | The Drum Point Lighthouse stands at the Calvert Marine Museum. |
14200 Solomons Island Road
Solomons, MD 20688
410-326-2042
Marine Museum Website
The Calvert Marine Museum presents history and a vast array of marine life in the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay. Along the museum's waterfront stands the Drum Point Lighthouse, one of three remaining "screwpile," cottage-like lighthouses of the 45 that once served the bay. The lighthouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has been beautifully restored and features furnishings of the early 20th century. Paleontology exhibits include original fossils dating back 10 million to 20 million years to a time when a shallow ocean covered Southern Maryland. Paleo Hall allows visitors to enter a recreated underwater setting of Southern Maryand's ancient sea, and a representation of Calvert Cliffs helps explain local geology. The J.C. Lore & Sons Oyster House has been restored and houses major exhibits on commercial fishing and boat-building. The museum's 15 aquariums display aquatic plants and animals from the area between the Chesapeake and the Patuxent River. Between May and October from Wednesday through Sunday, you can take a one-hour sightseeing cruise aboard the historic Willliam B. Tennison, once used to dredge oysters.
Hours: Daily, 10 a.m.-5 p.m (Closed New Year's Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day.)
Admission: Adults, $5; seniors (55 and older), $4; children 5-12, $2; children under 5, free
 | | Kids sort through finds at the park. |
9500 H.G. Trueman Highway,
Lusby, MD 20657
301-872-5688
Calvert Cliffs Website
Beneath the sands of 30 miles of beaches along the Chesapeake Bay in Calvert County lie fossils dating back more than 15 million years. The cliffs now shelter more than 600 species of fossils, and hunting for shark's teeth and other fossils is a popular pursuit. A trail from the parking lot to the beach area is the best bet for hunting fossils, which visitors can keep. (Because of erosion, access to the cliffs is not permitted.) Along with fossil-hunting, the park offers plenty for nature-lovers and outdoor enthusiasts – trails for hiking; hundreds of acres of wildlands for hunting game, turkey and deer; a one-acre pond for fishing; youth campsites; and pavilions with tables and grills to accommodate as many as 50 people for picnics.
Hours: Daily sunrise-sunset
Admission: $3 per vehicle
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