Beautiful Ruins, Beautifully Preserved

On a hilltop overlooking the Patapsco River Valley, stabilized ruins sit serenely in a park just above Ellicott City. I’ve known vaguely that these are the former Patapsco Female Institute, which was founded in 1837 as an elegant finishing school for young women. Despite living in Ellicott City for almost two decades now, only recently […]

Getting to Know the Ghosts of Gettysburg

Gettysburg is as known for its ghost tours as the battle itself, which caused so much alleged paranormal activity. The ghost tours are everywhere! Stroll along Baltimore Street or Steinwehr Avenue at 7 or 9 pm and you’ll see multiple groups. There are now more than a dozen to choose from, a ridiculous number for […]

Day Trip on a Budget: Fort Necessity

This is my first day trip on a budget post, and I’m going back to one of the first posts of this blog: Fort Necessity, which is part of the national park system, for the material. I’ll be drawing on a lot of my day trips to national and state parks, because quite honestly, they’re […]