3 Best Sights in Ocean City, The Eastern Shore

Jacob Fussell began a wholesale ice-cream business in Baltimore in 1851, the first in the United States. Today privately owned and operated ice-cream parlors abound along Maryland's Eastern Shore, but Dumser's Dairyland, established in 1939, is the choice for longtime beachgoers; its vast "factory" and parlor are open from noon to midnight in the summertime. In addition to its main South Atlantic Avenue outfit, it also operates branch locations at 49th Street and Coastal and 124th Street and Coastal, as well as three smaller outlets on the boardwalk.

This attraction on the southernmost tip of the island traces the resort to its days as a tiny fishing village in the late 1800s. Housed in an 1891 building that once held the U.S. Lifesaving Service and the Coast Guard, the museum's exhibits include models of the grand old hotels, artifacts from shipwrecks, boat models, five saltwater aquariums, an exhibit of sands from around the world, and even itchy wool swimsuits and an old mechanical laughing lady from the boardwalk. Press the button, and you can be laughing with her.

At the south end of the boardwalk, this thrill center has a "boomerang" roller coaster; the rickety and terrifying "Zipper" wood coaster; and the Hirschell Spellman Carousel, from 1902. The park has been owned by the Trimper family since it opened in 1890.