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  • March 2, 2012
  • on 3/2/2012
  • MoJo: Maggie Wolff Peterson

Beaver Creek Classroom

George Washinton's Bathtub

Burwell-Morgan Mill

Beaver Creek Classroom

Here’s a look at a handful of really cool or semi-quirky destinations around which to build a day trip or weekend. Most of these are close to good dining options and other attractions, including shopping:

  • Pinball Museum — Relocated to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor area in January, the museum, previously located in Georgetown, houses first-floor exhibits that follow the history and development of the pinball machine, and a second-floor arcade with more than 50 pinball machines available for play. Museum tickets include unlimited game play.   
  • Martinsburg Airport — Home base to 167th Airlift Wing of the National Guard and the giant C5 Galaxy transport planes that provision troops abroad. The airport terminal offers a great view of aircraft being loaded, taking off and landing. A second-floor café offers light fare with the view, and a small museum in the terminal gives a history of local aviation.  
  • Little Stone House — On the grounds of Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W.Va., is a pint-sized, two-story limestone structure just large enough for children. Constructed in 1929, it was built for student teachers as a laboratory to observe children at play. It’s quirky, and only just steps from the shopping and dining of German Street. 
  • George Washington’s Bathtub — A rock depression in the native limestone in Berkeley Springs, W.Va., where the Father of Our Country took the restorative, naturally warm spring waters of the town, was founded in the 1700s as Bath. Berkeley State Park, where the bathtub is located, is the nation’s only state park with a spa.  
  • Burwell-Morgan Mill — Established in the 1700s in Clarke County, Va., and restored in the 1990s, it is home to the Art at the Mill show, offered in spring and fall, that has become one of the premiere representations of new art in the Mid-Atlantic. At off times, the grounds offer a splendid site for a picnic. And the mill itself is authentic, down to the last wooden peg, and offers stone-ground grain for sale.  
  • Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival — Always the first weekend in May, this Winchester, Va., event offers two parades, a tent circus, midway, carnival, arts-and-crafts show and a full slate of music and food events. The city of Winchester practically shuts down as activities cover the city, over a four-day stretch. Some call it Winchester’s version of Mardi Gras.
  • Jefferson’s Rock — A mild climb brings visitors to this natural rock outcropping above Harpers Ferry, W.Va., which was named for Thomas Jefferson, who loved the site. Kids love to climb the rocks, and the nearly 360-degree panorama offers views of Maryland and West Virginia, and the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. 
  • Beaver Creek School — An authentic two-room schoolhouse in Hagerstown dating from 1904, the school was in operation until 1961 and later conserved as a museum that today displays late 19th and early 20th century items, including tools, toys, military uniform items, women's clothing, and musical instruments that include an 1840s hand-crank organ and a 1911 Edison record player. Also on display is a large stove manufactured in Hagerstown, and a re-creation of an early 1900s parlor.

 

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