3 Best Sights in Annapolis and Southern Maryland, Maryland

Probably the most interesting and important site in Annapolis, the Naval Academy, established in 1845, occupies 338 waterfront acres along the Severn River. The midshipmen (the term used for both women and men) go to classes, conduct military drills, and practice or compete in intercollegiate and intramural sports. Your visit to "The Yard" (as the USNA grounds are nicknamed) will start at the Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center. The visitor center features an exhibit, The Quarter Deck, which introduces visitors to the academy's mission, including a 13-minute film, The Call to Serve, and a well-stocked gift shop. From here you can join one of the hour-long, guided, walking tours of the academy. The centerpiece of the campus is the bright, copper-clad dome of the interdenominational U.S. Naval Academy Chapel, beneath which is buried Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones. You can go inside Bancroft Hall (one of the world's largest dormitories) and see a sample room and the glorious Memorial Hall.

Visitors can have lunch on campus either at Drydock in Dahlgren Hall or the Naval Academy Club.

Port Republic School No. 7, a classic one-room schoolhouse built in the 1880s, looks for all the world as if today's lesson could begin any minute. Here, you can find a restored classroom with archetypal desks, inkwells, and a school bell. Until 1932 a single teacher taught children in seven grades here.

St. John's is the third-oldest college in the country (after Harvard and William and Mary) and adheres to a Great Books program: all students follow the same four-year, liberal-arts curriculum, which includes philosophy, mathematics, music, science, Greek, and French. Students are immersed in the classics through small classes conducted as discussions rather than lectures. Start a visit here by climbing the slope of the long, brick-paved path to the cupola of McDowell Hall.

Down King George Street toward the water is the Carroll-Barrister House, now the college admissions office. Once home to Charles Carroll (not the signer of the Declaration, but his cousin), the house was built in 1722 at Main and Conduit streets and moved onto campus in 1955. The Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Art Gallery, on the east side of Mellon Hall, presents world-class exhibits and special programs that relate to the fine arts.