Cart

Category

Road Trips

Road Trips

The Throwback Joys of Chincoteague and Its Famous Ponies

  I write about lots and lots of different places on Facebook and for the Secrets website, so I’m speaking from long experience when I say that there is one town in particular on the Eastern Shore that generates the most passionate and enthusiastic response from people. The winner, hands down, is Chincoteague, Virginia. What is the secret to the town’s success in winning over…
October 3, 2015
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
Road Trips

Daytripping in Berlin: Peaches, Bathtubs, Glassblowing and more in America’s “Coolest” Small Town

  As old-time Main Streets go, Berlin is first-rate, blessed with a postcard-pretty streetscape, lots of interesting shops and adventurous restaurants, and a history chock full of fascinating characters. Bonus: Berlin knows how to throw a party. My theory in such matters is that you can’t go wrong in a town that makes a big production out of its annual bathtub races. Here, they close…
September 21, 2015
Road Trips

The Lighthouse Tour: Six Beacons of History on the Eastern Shore and in Southern Delaware

  Something in the sight of an old lighthouse makes many people go weak at the knees. The stately and iconic old beacons evoke wistful, romantic feelings tied to the beauty of waterfront vistas, the stately masts of old-time boats, the rugged lifestyle of keepers and their families—all mixed in with a touch of the danger, with legends of storms and shipwrecks also coming to mind. This…
August 30, 2015
Road Trips

Rehoboth: The Beach Town with Something for Everyone

  As beach towns go, Rehoboth Beach tends to be a shape shifter, ready at every turn to morph into the destination any one visitor might be looking for. If you have the kids in tow and you’re looking for beach fries, boardwalk arcades, and mini-golf, you’ll find them in abundance. If you’re an outdoors lover coming in search of bike paths, paddling expeditions, and abundant green spaces,…
July 19, 2015
Road Trips

The Dover Museums Are Full of Inspiring Tales about Old-Fashioned American Ingenuity

  When Eldridge Reeves Johnson graduated from Dover Academy in 1882, the school’s director gave him some blunt advice: “You are too god damned dumb to go to college. Go and learn a trade." Soon thereafter, Johnson landed an apprenticeship at a machine shop. Then, after a few years of working for other people, he hung up a shingle of his own at the Eldridge…
March 4, 2015
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
Road Trips

Finding Freedom Along the Harriet Tubman Byway

  When it comes to gaining a sense for the story of the Underground Railroad, the Eastern Shore is about as good a destination as it gets in this country. It is, after all, the birthplace of Harriet Tubman and the site of her 1849 escape into freedom—and then of her many fearless journeys back into the danger zone to help others escape. Tubman, who…
February 16, 2015