I lived in Maryland off and on for nine years. Here, I showcase Maryland in all its facets: natural scenery and wildlife, its rich history, and its culture (quirks and all).
Hatem Bridge in Perryville. Photo credit to Walter Dorsett photography.
Concord Point Lighthouse in Havre de Grace with rainbow and sunflowers. Also Walter Dorsett photography.
It’s not just the Tidal Basin of Washington DC that has beautiful flowering cherry trees in the spring. Kwanzan cherry trees in MD. Walter Dorsett photography.
Great blue heron. Walter Dorsett photography
A mother doe licks the rump of her newborn fawn, along the banks of the Susquehanna River.
Chesapeake Bay Bridge as seen from the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal near Chesapeake City MD
If you read “Misty of Chincoteague” when you were young, you may know about the wild horses of Assateague Island. Here, the horses are escaping the mosquitos and flies of the marsh by spending time at the beach.
Smith Island was settled by British colonists in 1657. Even today, Smith Island residents speak with a distinctive accent that’s remniscent of their British forebears and which has been preserved by isolation. The island was used by the British as a base of operations during the Revolutionary War. The surrounding waters have been crabbed by the inhabitants for generations. Visit soon; the island is sinking into the Chesapeake Bay due to climate change.
Canoeing along the Monocacy River near Frederick. This location is near the Monocacy National Battlefield, where Lew Wallace’s Union troops were able to fend off Jubal Early’s Confederate forces long enough to allow Washington DC to prepare itself for the Confederate advance.
Fall foliage along Maryland’s Eastern Shore
Calvert Cliffs State Park. The area was once (10-20 million years ago) covered by a warm inland sea. Nowadays, the cliffs reveal the remains of prehistoric whales, rays, sharks, and seabirds the size of small airplanes.
Swallowtail butterfly on a sunflower. I used to see many of these in my garden.
Water snake in Patapsco State Park. Not poisonous.
The National War Correspondents Memorial was built in 1896 to honor journalists killed in combat. It contains the names of 157 correspondents and war artists. Although located in Gathland State Park, the memorial itself is maintained by the National Park Service.
National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Seton is located in Emmitsburg. The only American saint in the Catholic Church, Mother Seton was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1975. During her lifetime, she founded the Sisters of Charity, the first community of religious women in the U.S. Its members dedicate themselves to the unmet needs of people living in poverty. Mother Seton also founded St. Joseph’s Academy and Free School, thus planting the seeds of Catholic education in the U.S.
The National Shrine Grotto is a reproduction of the grotto in Lourdes, France, where young Bernadette Soubirous was visited by the Virgin Mary 18 times in 1858. Ths stone wall reproduction of the grotto was initiated by President Fr. John A. Watterson and constructed by Mount St. Mary’s seminarians in Emmitsburg in 1879. The purpose of the project was to commemorate the apparitions which had taken place 21 years earlier in France. Bernadette was canonized as a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1933.