have to wait outside) and dinghy ashore. There is plenty of room at the sandy beach nearby for dinghies.
“The school has always looked to the water,” college President Jane Margaret O’Brien told me when we talked the following week. “All the old buildings face the river because that’s the way students saw the school—from the water—until 1934, when the steamship stopped running.” It’s a question of hospitality in a very rural area, O’Brien continued. The college continues to maintain a close relationship with the water; its sailing team, with 13 national championships, is ranked number one in the country.
For a place that’s pretty much the last stop before the end of the road, St. Mary’s was humming on this summer day. The Special Olympians we had encountered on the way in were part of a weekend of racing on a variety of watercraft for the state Special Olympics championships. Next door to the college, Historic St. Mary’s City was hosting its annual Archaeology Weekend, which lets visitors sift for themselves among the potsherds and get a once-a-year look at the site’s artifact filing system—housed in the climate-controlled basement of a former house.
All of this brings up another benefit of the college’s enlightened attitude toward cruisers. Because docking is available, cruisers can easily visit Maryland’s fascinating first capital—a feat rarely possible at the nation’s other historic sites, which have turned their back on their maritime origins. All of which made our visit to Archaeology Weekend a walk in the park . . . then a short stroll through Trinity Church cemetery, a trek past the Woodland Indian Hamlet, and a hike up the hill to the Visitor Center. At the