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Natural Wonders

Natural wonders of the Delmarva Peninsula–the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and Delaware

The Great Dune Poem Featured Photo
Poetic Inspiration for Beach Season: “The Great Dune” DestinationsNatural Wonders

Poetic Inspiration for Beach Season: “The Great Dune”

"The Great Dune" was one of the works in Gilbert Byron's book of Delaware Poems, published in 1943. Born in Chestertown, Md. in 1903, Byron wrote novels, essays, and newspaper columns in addition to poems. His was was so tied to his home turf that he earned nicknames like "The Voice of the Chesapeake" and "the Chesapeake Thoreau." He did much of his work in…
March 21, 2021
Sunset atBlackwater 2013 Featured Image
Southern Delaware: James Farm Ecological Preserve DestinationsNatural Wonders

Southern Delaware: James Farm Ecological Preserve

This is an excerpt from the coming-soon book, 181 Great Events on Delmarva, which includes more than 100 suggested side trips that are located nearby one of the featured events. When the crowds at the beach get to be too much, you have several sweet parks to choose from near the oceanfront in Southern Delaware. The one that in my experience offers the best measure of…
June 2, 2020
Sunset atBlackwater 2013 Featured Image
Virginia Eastern Shore: The Birding Trail at Brownsville Preserve DestinationsNatural Wonders

Virginia Eastern Shore: The Birding Trail at Brownsville Preserve

This is an excerpt from the coming-soon book, 181 Great Events on Delmarva, which includes more than 100 suggested side trips that are located near an event featured in the book. For a span of 326 years, more than 100 acres outside of Nassawadox on Virginia’s lower Eastern Shore stayed in the hands of one family, the Upshurs. From a colonial-era wharf on Brownsville Creek, they…
May 31, 2020
Sunset at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
Experiencing the Natural Wonders of the Eastern Shore at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge DestinationsNatural WondersRoad Trips

Experiencing the Natural Wonders of the Eastern Shore at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

  For my money, there is no better place than these 30,000-plus acres and their surrounding back roads to get a first-hand feel for why the marshlands of the Chesapeake Bay rank as a natural wonder of the first order. The scenery is breathtaking, the wildlife is abundant, and the landscape is chock full of fascinating bits of history. For many of the 150,000 people who…
September 21, 2015
Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride
Why is the Town Played by Berlin in the Movie “Runaway Bride” Called Hale? DestinationsNatural WondersWay Back Machine

Why is the Town Played by Berlin in the Movie “Runaway Bride” Called Hale?

Since the subject at hand is peaches, we might as well start with the bit of "Runaway Bride" trivia highlighted in the headline here. The name Hale, you see, is actually a sly tribute to a tasty little slice of Eastern Shore history. Released in 1999 and starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, “Runaway Bride” was filmed in Berlin. Berlin, in turn, was home back in the first part…
July 30, 2015
Who could mistake a manatee for a mermaid? Capt. John Smith, for one. CharactersNatural Wonders

Who could mistake a manatee for a mermaid? Capt. John Smith, for one.

    On July 12, 2015, there was a confirmed manatee sighting in the coastal waters off of Ocean City. That was the first such sighting in nine years, according to experts at the National Aquarium. Manatee sightings in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay are more frequent, usually coming in at the rate of one every year. These cuddly-looking mammals have been compared by some…
July 18, 2015
Red Knots at Delaware Bay
10,000 Years and Counting: The Story of the Red Knot and the Horseshoe Crab DestinationsNatural Wonders

10,000 Years and Counting: The Story of the Red Knot and the Horseshoe Crab

Quick question: How much do you weigh? OK, now try to imagine the sort of marathon physical ordeal you’d have to put yourself through in order to lose half of your body weight. OK, now try to imagine that you’ve been through that ordeal, and you are suddenly facing a deadline—in just two weeks, you have to eat enough food to get back up to…
April 1, 2015
Strolling the Shifting Sands of Assateague Island DestinationsNatural WondersRoad Trips

Strolling the Shifting Sands of Assateague Island

  This gorgeous barrier island lies on the Atlantic coast right where Maryland meets Virginia. It's the kind of place where in the course of your wanderings you are quite likely at some point to take a look at your camera and say something like, “Geez, did I really just take my 374th picture of a horse?” The diminutive ponies that the 37-mile-long Assateague is famous for…
February 11, 2015
Harbor Seal Wikicommons by Amanda Boyd USFWS
The Deal With Seals: What Brings Guys Like This To Our Beaches? DestinationsNatural Wonders

The Deal With Seals: What Brings Guys Like This To Our Beaches?

Seals tend to live farther up in the North Atlantic—off of Massachusetts, Maine, and Canada—but every year in the colder months between about January and April a good number of them embark on a hellacious journey to points south in search of more temperate waters. That’s when they land on our beaches—mostly on the Delaware coast and in the lower Delaware Bay, but sometimes in Maryland…
February 5, 2015