We love to write all about fun, family-friendly things to do in this great state of ours. But Epic Marylanding isn’t only about ways to keep yourself and your family busy. It’s also about what it means to grow roots in and to call a place home. It’s about teaching our children – whether they are 13th generation Marylanders or their parents moved here last year to take a job – to know this place. It’s about seeing the beauty and wonder of not only the places we see in travel magazines and dream of visiting on vacation, but also of our own backyards and the parks and places down the street. It’s about feeling a part of this place – because place is part of our identity, and everyone needs an identity to call their own.
We don’t necessarily believe that Maryland is better than everywhere else. But Maryland IS pretty awesome. And even more importantly, Maryland is ours! We love it all – from the waves of the Atlantic in Ocean City and on Assateague to the Chesapeake and its waters full of life, to the DC suburbs with their culture and diversity, to the sloping farmland of southern Maryland, from the mountains and battlefields of Frederick and Hagerstown, to the glittering lakes and peaks and waterfalls of Garrett County and Deep Creek, and back to the shipping heritage and neighborhood character of Baltimore. The crabs, the rockfish, the Old Bay, the stuffed ham, the pit beef, and the pupusas.
They don’t call Maryland “America in Miniature” for nothing. While we’re certainly not the only state where one can experience the ocean, the freshwater, the forest, farms, and the mountains, we are likely one of the few where you can do all 5 in a single daytrip. The same goes for history: a single outing in Maryland will allow you to stand in the steps of both the indigenous Maryland people and the earliest European colonists, and to picture the times and lives of enslaved people, slave owners, and abolitionists. More contemporarily, in Maryland we are surrounded by a beautifully stunning diversity of political, socioeconomic, and ethnic backgrounds. Now don’t get us wrong, this varied picture hasn’t always been pretty (or fair). But if you believe, as we do, that our human greatness lies in the multitude of different experiences and perspectives that each of us bring to this thing we call life, then Maryland has got an awful lot going for it.
We love this great state of ours and have found it to be full of big incredible adventures and tiny minute wonders. Both are epic, and we hope you’ll come along on our journey to discover it all!
Epic Marylanding 