• Whitehaven Car Ferry 410/543-2765, free
• Smith Island Cruises Crisfield, 410/425-2771, smithislandcruises.com, $24 round trip

The sleepy village of Whitehaven, best seen by bike (Justin Steele) [enlarge photo] WHAT TO DO WHEN... • Your Rental Car Gets Flooded

Lodging

• Alexander House 30535 Linden Ave., Princess Anne, 410/651-5195, bookloversbnb.com, from $85

Food

• Bayside Inn Restaurant 4065 Smith Island Rd., Ewell, 410/425-2771, cake $3

Activities

• Smith Island Center 20846 Caleb Jones Rd., Ewell, 410/425-3351, $2

DAY 3
Because of its adorable Victorian homes, tiny blocks, and brick sidewalks, Princess Anne is sometimes called the Williamsburg of the Eastern Shore. The main architectural attraction is the Teackle Mansion, a pink-brick Federal-style behemoth appropriately situated on Mansion Street. "I wonder what the street was called before the mansion came," I say to Kathie.

We called ahead to set up an appointment (it's not the kind of place where you can just show up). A volunteer shows us antique furniture and tells us about the ongoing renovation. In every room we visit, the guide points out where the kooky owner, Littleton Dennis Teackle, added fake windows and doorways to ensure that the house appeared to be perfectly symmetrical.

With a picnic lunch from the grocery store, we drive to our next destination: Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, a marshy preserve covering more than 27,000 acres. Getting there takes us on another car ferry and miles of back roads, past soggy countryside and the occasional fisherman. The town names on our map of scenic byways often turn out to be nothing more than four-way stops connecting wilderness to wilderness.

At the beginning of the refuge's three-and-a-half-mile nature drive, visitors drop $3 in a posted box. A map I snag at the gate tells us to look for deer, squirrels, and birds--bald eagles if we're lucky. The rainy weather, however, seems to have driven the wildlife into hiding. Nevertheless, there's plenty of beautiful marshland and forest. We picnic outside the visitors center, and head inside to watch a live camera feed of an eagle's nest and check out dioramas of area animals.