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havre de grace

As we drove home from Delaware last Sunday, Rob and I marveled at the lovely weather and mused about how best to enjoy the day (aside from just sitting in the car). Within moments, an opportunity presented itself, in the form of a highway “attractions” sign that mentioned a lighthouse. We exited the interstate and soon found ourselves in lovely Havre de Grace, Md., which happened to be hosting a big Maritime Heritage Festival that weekend.

Our first stop was Concord Point Lighthouse, a smaller structure than most of the lighthouses we’d visited of late — small enough, in fact, that I was able to push aside my acrophobia and climb all the way to the top. Because of the lighthouse’s small size, only a few people were allowed up at a time. The woman who came up with us must have been a local, or at least very familiar with the town; as we admired the view from the top of the lighthouse, she filled us in on the key attractions of the day’s festival.

Afterward, we wandered along the periphery of the festival, which featured everything from 17th century armor and weaponry to Native American boats to funnel cake. Finally, we arrived at the biggest attraction: a replica of the shallop that Captain John Smith and a small crew used to explore and map the Chesapeake Bay in 1608. To celebrate the 400th anniversary of that trip, a modern-day crew was retracing Smith’s trip and stopping at various cities and festivals along the way.

And because apparently no road trip these days is complete without some vehicular mishap, we had a mini “adventure” on our way home. As we drove away from the festival, we heard a strange “kerTHUMP” sound coming from one of the back tires. When we pulled over in a small parking lot, we spotted the culprit: a screw had embedded itself in the tire — thankfully not far enough to have caused a flat tire (yet), but just far enough that twenty minutes of fiddling and prying did nothing to pull it loose. So we swapped it out with the spare tire and resumed our trip home.

More Photos from Havre de Grace »