1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (22 page)

The Hagley Museum holds an annual car show.

The Riches of an American Country Estate

Winterthur, Delaware

Winterthur, one of America’s most renowned mansions, was first conceived in 1837 as the relatively modest 12-room residence of Evelina Gabrielle du Pont, daughter of DuPont company founder E. I.
du Pont (see previous page), and her husband, Jacques Antoine Bidermann, in the lush Brandywine Valley straddling Delaware’s border with Pennsylvania. The place operated as a farm, but E.I.’s great-grandson Henry Francis du Pont, an obsessive collector and passionate horticulturist, had other plans for it: He transformed it into the world’s premier museum of 17th- through 19th-century American antiques and decorative arts. Opened officially in 1951, the connoisseur’s collection of more than 60,000 items (later acquisitions have brought the figure to nearly 85,000) ranges from exquisite furniture to fine porcelain to silver drinking vessels made by Paul Revere. Collections are arrayed in over 175 period rooms, most of which you can visit on tours led by knowledgeable guides. At Christmastime, expect to find several of the interiors lavishly decked out with historic holiday decorations—Yuletide at Winterthur is a beloved institution.

The estate’s garden, however, was H. F. du Pont’s first love: He studied horticulture at Harvard well before he began to collect; he even selected the house’s ever-changing textile arrangements and place settings according to what was in bloom outside. Today some 60 of the estate’s 982 acres are given over to magnificent massings of native and exotic plants. The gardens are located close to the museum and are accessible via the Garden Tram, which fills you in with a running commentary. You can expect to find something in bloom almost year round.

The extensive gardens feature snowdrops, yellow Adonis, Chinese witch hazel, winter jasmine, and lavender crocus.

Not far away, on a former part of the estate, you can see where, if not exactly how, the other half lived. Montchanin Village used to be populated mostly by workers at the Du Ponts’ gunpowder mills; today it’s a meticulously restored luxury inn. The old 1850s barn houses the reception and gathering area; nine old residences have been divvied up into 28 rooms and suites outfitted with antiques and marble bathrooms. The old blacksmith shop is now the inn’s restaurant, Krazy Kat’s, one of Delaware’s best. The decor is whimsical, but the menu is serious, with such delicacies as grilled elk medallions with rabbit sausage.

W
HERE:
6 miles northwest of Wilmington. Tel 800-448-3883 or 302-888-4600;
www.winterthur.org
.
When:
closed Mon.
T
HE
I
NN AT
M
ONTCHANIN
V
ILLAGE:
Montchanin. Tel 800-269-2473 or 302-888-2133;
www.montchanin.com
.
Cost:
from $178; dinner $55.
B
EST TIMES:
the Sun of the 1st full weekend in May for the Winterthur Point-to-Point Steeplechase Races; mid-Nov–early Jan for Yuletide at Winterthur.

Sailing Capital of the World

Maryland

Annapolis isn’t just the capital of Maryland, it’s also the self-appointed world headquarters of sailing, that breezy, brine-drenched activity that fills the upper Chesapeake Bay with billowing sails on a daily basis
.

Begun in 1649 as a Puritan settlement, today Annapolis is a handsome case study in preservation, with over 1,200 restored and preserved structures in its eminently walkable historic district.

Some of the capital’s fame derives from its role as the home of the U.S. Naval Academy, established in 1845. Guided walking tours of the bucolic 338-acre campus along the Severn River start at “the Yard” and go on to the crypt of John Paul Jones—father of the American Navy—and Bancroft Hall, a 1906 beaux arts–style building that’s one of the largest dormitories in the world. The daily Noon Formation starts here, an assembling of midshipmen that is not to be missed.

And if all those boats in the harbor make you yearn to hit the water, head to the Annapolis Sailing School, the country’s oldest and most prestigious. Classes range from the popular “Become a Sailor in One Weekend” to courses in coastal navigation and powerboat cruising.

Back on dry land, hit the town’s high point with a visit to the William Paca House, a five-part Georgian mansion built in 1765 by a Revolutionary-era governor of Maryland. Its restored 2-acre pleasure garden unfolds in five terraces and is one of only two dozen formal English gardens in the U.S. To keep you in a Revolutionary mood, drop by for a tipple at the Middleton Tavern, where Benjamin Franklin and other luminaries gathered. But for dinner and the best views of the waterfront and the city skyline head to Carrol’s Creek, serving some of the area’s most memorable seafood. The ca. 1770 Georgian and Greek Revival town house that’s now the Annapolis Inn has just three sumptuous suites, but with its tireless attention to detail, this supremely elegant historic inn is more like a miniature five-star hotel.

Developed as a tobacco port in the 17th century, the city dock is the center of Annapolis.

W
HERE:
30 miles south of Baltimore.
Visitor info:
Tel 888-302-2852 or 410-280-0445;
www.visit-annapolis.org
.
U.S. N
AVAL
A
CADEMY
: Tel 410-263-6933;
www.navyonline.com
.
A
NNAPOLIS
S
AILING
S
CHOOL
: Tel 800-638-9192 or 410-267-7205;
www.annapolissailing.com
.
Cost:
from $235 per person for 2-day basic sailing course.
When:
Apr–Oct.
W
ILLIAM
P
ACA
H
OUSE:
Tel 410-267-7619;
www.hometownannapolis.com/tour_paca.html
.
M
IDDLETON
T
AVERN:
Tel: 410-263-3323;
www.middletontavern.com
.
Cost:
dinner $30.
C
ARROL’S
C
REEK:
Tel 410-263-8102;
www.carrolscreek.com
.
Cost:
dinner $30.
A
NNAPOLIS
I
NN:
Tel 410-295-5200;
www.annapolisinn.com
.
Cost:
from $250
(off-peak), from $310 (peak).
B
EST TIMES:
1st weekend in Oct for Annapolis Sailboat Show (
www.usboat.com
); following weekend for U.S. Powerboat Show. During June Week, the Naval Academy’s yearly pregraduation celebrations, the town is packed.

Windswept Beaches and Wild Ponies

Maryland and Virginia

This long, skinny barrier island off the Maryland-Virginia border faces the restless Atlantic with 37 placid miles of sand backed by loblolly pine forests and salt marshes. Famous for its wild ponies, Assateague is home
to a wide variety of wildlife, from sika deer (actually miniature elk from Asia) to migratory hawks that soar through in the fall. Two-thirds of the island is in Maryland, where a good portion of the 2.5 million annual visitors gain access. Assateague State Park offers 2 miles of gentle beaches and on the western side of the island, visitors use canoes and kayaks to explore salt marshes in Sinepuxent Bay. The rest of the Maryland section falls within the Assateague Island National Seashore, a wilder stretch of shoreline with backcountry campgrounds and a route for off-road vehicles (permits required) to the state line.

The southern third of the island consists of Virginia’s Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (see p. 242), famous for the scruffy wild ponies that are its charming draw (technically, they’re actually stunted horses and not true ponies, but try telling that to a ten-year-old). It’s generally easier to see them on the Maryland side, where they tend to linger closer to the walking trails and roads and often roam the beaches in the evening. Most of the refuge is beach, accessible only by foot, and if you sign up for a tour with a park ranger you can see the ponies in a different light—sometimes up close and personal—during your walk through the wild.

About 150 wild ponies wander freely on the island’s Maryland side.

Assateague can be crowded on summer weekends, especially given the Maryland end’s proximity to Ocean City with its wash of high-rise hotels, amusement park rides, and 3-mile boardwalk: If this isn’t your speed, consider a sojourn in the less commercialized town of Berlin, 10 miles inland, with a cluster of antiques shops and cafés and the town gem, the three-story Atlantic Hotel. The restored 1895 Victorian inn boasts an acclaimed restaurant and 17 rooms that combine armloads of Old World charm with New World amenities.

W
HERE:
The Maryland entrance to Assateague Island is 142 miles southeast of Baltimore.
A
SSATEAGUE
S
TATE
P
ARK:
Tel 410-641-2120;
www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/eastern/assateague.html
.
A
SSATEAGUE
I
SLAND
N
ATIONAL
S
EASHORE
: Tel 410-641-1441 (MD) or 757-336-6577 (VA);
www.nps.gov/asis
.
C
HINCOTEAGUE
N
ATIONAL
W
ILDLIFE
R
EFUGE:
Tel 757-336-6122;
www.fws.gov/northeast/chinco
.
A
TLANTIC
H
OTEL:
Berlin. Tel 800-814-7672 or 410-641-3589;
www.atlantichotel.com
.
Cost:
rooms from $85; dinner $40.
B
EST TIMES:
June and Sept for smaller crowds.

Quirky, Offbeat, and Wildly Fascinating

Baltimore, Maryland

If the word “museum” conjures up images of endless hallways lined with armless statues and ornately framed paintings of long-dead dowagers, does Baltimore have a treat for you. Sandwiched between Federal Hill and
Baltimore Bay on the south side of the Inner Harbor (see p. 120), the American Visionary Art Museum is one of the most interesting—and certainly most entertaining—art venues in the country.

By its own definition, the AVAM is dedicated to “art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision.” Often called “outsider art,” this genre includes voodoo-inspired “shrines,” mutated Barbie dolls, and 55-foot-high wind-powered “whirligig” sculptures. From naive to downright bizarre, the museum’s 4,000-piece permanent collection and continually changing exhibitions will challenge, tickle, surprise—and even stun—you with the creative potential of the human brain and hands.