Baltimore is a city that thinks like a small town.
I like it that way.
Everything I need is in Baltimore: a great library, some peaceful bars and plenty of neighborhood ethnic restaurants. There are parks and boats and people everywhere.
Like many visitors from outside Maryland, I have seen the National Aquarium, walked about in Fells Point, shopped at the Gallery at Harborplace.
But to get the complete picture of Maryland, residents as well as out-of-state visitors should see a bush sculpted like a teacup, walk along a Civil War battlefield, try to retrieve a space satellite and taste one of the area's best barbecue sandwiches.
It's easy, and it's cheap.
Here are a few suggestions to help you get acquainted (or re-acquainted) with Maryland:
* Smith Island. Tangier Sound, Somerset County; (410) 651-2968. All boats leave at 12:30 p.m. from Crisfield; Call for details.
People have gone to Smith Island to cleanse their souls, claiming the purity and peace found there is a spiritual catharsis.
Others have gone to simply spend a day crabbing, fishing or just looking around this timeless island. Its simplicity seems to put life back into perspective.
Claude Brooks of the Maryland Tourism Committee says the story of Smith Island is the people. Descendants of English and ** Cornish settlers, they mostly make their living on the water.
You must take a boat to Smith Island. There are cruises that can take you there, and you can arrange to have dinner on the island when you arrive. Or you can ride over with the mail and some fruit and groceries on the ferry.
* Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art. 909 South Schumaker Drive, Salisbury, Wicomico County; (410) 742-4988. Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.
If duck decoys make you think of big men with big guns tricking helpless animals into death, think again.
Designed to resemble a bird perched on the shoreline of Schumaker Pond, this museum houses a $2.5 million collection of some of the finest contemporary wildfowl art and antique duck decoys worldwide. The building itself is breathtaking.
The museum is aptly named after the men who transformed decoy carving from craft to art form, the late Lem Ward and Steve Ward. Interpretive galleries allow you to trace the evolution of this art from the hunter's decoy to works of sculpture. The history of wildfowl art is displayed beautifully.
Many of the carvings at the museum are extremely realistic; you might catch yourself watching for one of the wooden beasts to fly away.
* Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. St. Michaels Harbor, Talbot County; (410) 745-2916. Spring schedule: daily, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Summer schedule: Sunday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
"Heaven and Earth never agreed better to frame a place more perfect for man's habitation."
That's what Capt. John Smith had to say about the Chesapeake Bay. The Maritime Museum was founded in 1965 to celebrate the culture and heritage of the bay and its tributaries. Here you will find the largest collection of Chesapeake Bay watercraft in existence. There are crabbing skiffs, work boats, log canoes and larger vessels on floating display at the museum docks.
Visitors can see some of the rarest work boats and pleasure boats being built and restored at the museum, along with the century-old Hooper Straight Lighthouse.
* Ladew Topiary Gardens. Jarrettsville Pike, Monkton, Harford County; (410) 557-9466. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.; closed Mondays.
Harvey Ladew's 22-acre estate has been called one of the classiest bachelor pads of all time. Heir to a New York manufacturing fortune, Ladew acquired the estate in 1929 and devoted his life there to hunting, collecting antiques, painting and writing. Some features at the gardens suggest Ladew embodied the eccentricity sometimes associated with the rich. Look for the secret passage among the thousands of volumes shelved in the library. Ladew used the passageway to avoid unwanted guests. Some of the sculptures in the garden, such as the teacup and Winston Churchill's top hat, add to the quirky nature of the estate.
Ladew created more than a dozen thematic gardens with the help of two full-time gardeners. The grounds are dedicated to green topiary but are sprinkled with the color of roses, waterlilies and seasonal berry bushes.
Be sure to order the cold blueberry soup in the cafe, and to catch an evening of music on the Sunday summer concert
series. The Garden Club of America recognizes the estate as one of the country's best topiary gardens.
* St. Mary's City. St. Mary's County, Southern Maryland. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.
The story of Maryland's beginnings unfolds in St. Mary's City. About 350 years ago, 140 English settlers sailed to the edge of the world and established Lord Baltimore's colony. St. Mary's City was the fourth permanent English settlement in North America, and it served as Maryland's capital until 1695.
Historic St. Mary's City continues to grow as a "living history" attraction. Begin your trip at the visitors center -- the staff there will tell you about the museum and answer any questions.
Karin Stanford, director of visitor services, encourages people to get out of their cars and explore.
"This is a living history museum, so people can touch and feel and walk around; they don't have to feel uncomfortable. This is not a museum full of antiques -- it's very interactive," Ms. Stanford says.
Take to the trails that follow the old roads of the city, see history unearthed around you as archaeologists look for the fort built in 1634. The settlers built the structure to protect themselves from the Virginians (their relationship with Indians was good). Board the Dove, an authentic, working re-creation of a 1630s square-rigged ship, and talk to sailors about 17th-century navigation and sea travel.
* NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. Greenbelt, Prince George's County; (301) 286-8981; open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Want your kids to do their science and math homework?
Take them to the Goddard Space Fight Center.
"Goddard is living history at the moment. It's a big part of our country," says Dale Hemke, a Goddard spokesman.
"We want the public to know about some of the important work being done here, but we also want children to see and participate in the technology so that they will stay interested in math."
The communications facility studies the universe through satellites and orbiting spacecraft. When kids find out they can spin in the gyro chair, command a mock Gemini spacecraft and retrieve a satellite, nothing short of live dinosaurs will keep them from wanting to visit Goddard again. Staff members are on hand to explain how mathematics makes the design, building and testing of satellites and spacecraft possible.
Although kids love the center's sophisticated technology, the most popular event at Goddard happens on the first and third Sundays of the month, when the staff sets up a launch pad and invites enthusiasts to watch or participate in safe model rocket launches.
* Ma's Kettle. Savage, Howard County; (301) 725-8838. Monday, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Tuesday through Thursday, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
No matter where you call home, Ma's Kettle is a "slice of home in an otherwise inhuman world," according to a local regular. That's the way owner Mary Ann Mitchell likes it. But don't walk in and ask for Ma, and don't call her Ms. Kettle.
"I hate that," she once said. "They come in here and say, 'Where's Ma?' and they look at me and laugh. They expect some big old lady."
Ms. Mitchell, a former model, is neither big nor old.
She bought the restaurant in 1976, at a time when there were fewer fast-food joints on U.S. 1 to compete with. Those were the dayswhen people would line up outside her place for a country breakfast.
A sign on the wall reads: "The cuisine here is superb! . . . and the food ain't bad either!" The shredded pork barbecue has been voted "Baltimore's Best." And check out the homemade desserts. The cuisine is home-style, and the prices are affordable, between $5 and $7.
* Antietam National Battlefield. State Route 65 east of Sharpsburg, Washington County; (301) 432-5868. Visitor center is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Grounds close at nightfall.
The single bloodiest day of battle in America's history, Sept. 17, 1862, is memorialized at the Antietam battlefields.
An 8 1/2 -mile self-guided driving tour will take you through that day's actions, showing you where 23,000 Civil War soldiers were killed or wounded as Union forces repelled Lee's first invasion of the North. (During the summer, guided tours are also offered.) Notable landmarks include Burnside Bridge, Dunker Church and Bloody Lane. Today, the tranquillity of the battlefield seems to betray its tragic history.
* Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. Cumberland, Allegany County; (800) 872-4650. Train runs from May through mid-December; reservations advised.
Mountain Thunder barrels along a 32-mile round trip from Cumberland to Frostburg that features the Western Maryland mountains, an iron truss bridge, Helmstetter's Horseshoe Curve and the Brush Mountain Tunnel. In Frostburg, the train is rotated on a turntable for the return trip.
There is a 90-minute stop at the Old Depot Center in Frostburg. Built in 1891 as a freight station for the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad, the depot is now home to a restaurant, bakery and a "four season" mountain view.
If you'd prefer something a little extra, board the historic train in Cumberland, eat breakfast as you ride to Baltimore, pull into Camden Station in time for an Orioles game at Camden Yards. Dinner is served on the ride home. Cost: $75 and under. Call for more details.