Longing for a vacation but don’t have the time or budget to go far and stay long? A stay-cation fits the bill.     Within a day’s drive of Annapolis you can find leisure, recreation and delights that fill your summer fun list and don’t require airfare, time off work or hotel stays.

It’s almost official. Maryland’s Mallows Bay will be the first new national marine sanctuary in almost 20 years. On July 8, the designation was announced by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the state of Maryland and Charles County. As what’s working behind the scenes here is bureaucracy at its best, the sanctuary designation will not be effective until after 45 more days of continuous session of Congress.

Angelina’s Italian Kitchen in Edgewater isn’t a drive-thru restaurant. But one unlucky motorist almost turned it into one earlier this month.     Saturday evening, July 6, a motorist visiting the neighboring nail salon put his car into drive instead of reverse and drove into the restaurant’s front window, says owner MaryJo DeMilo.     “I was making pizza in the back and just heard this explosion. I didn’t know what had happened until we saw that the entire front window was gone.”

Finding your way along the busy streets of Annapolis is not a job for novices. Nor is locating a place to park. Even landmarks, museums and cultural districts can be elusive.     So since 2013, the City of Annapolis has had a wayfinding signage program. But not so many signs.

      As Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse loomed ever closer in the brackish waters of Chesapeake Bay, John Potvin placed one leg on the edge of Audacious, a pristine white deadrise.      The fishing boat’s engine roared and sputtered as it neared the historic landmark: a towering, red-and-white circular house squating on crisscrossed metal beams. 

  Humans aren’t the only mammals swimming in the summer Bay. Dolphins are making regular visits, too.       From April to September, these sleek swimmers are being spotted from Virginia’s Northern Neck into the Potomac River and up all the way to the Inner Harbor of Baltimore.

     We soon may see how much clout GOP Gov. Larry Hogan has in Washington Republican circles.      Last week, the Democratic-run U.S. House upped to $85 million next year’s allocation for the Chesapeake Bay Program.      As we know, the Trump administration wants to gut the Bay program and other watershed restorations around the country. The White House said okay to about $7 million, but no more.

     Giant tires, propane gas tanks and shopping carts bogged down with mud.     Trash-picking volunteers found this trash and more in the littered waters of the Potomac River at the 31st annual Watershed Cleanup. The Alice Ferguson Foundation initiative sent out 9,745 volunteers between mid-March and late-May. They scooped 376,933 pounds of trash into garbage bags.

      “Water is the driving force of all nature,” Leonardo da Vinci said.       Yet 663 million of us do not have access to safe, clean water, according to thirstproject.org.      In Honduras, 457 people now have access to water that is safe to drink, cook with and bathe in, thanks to a partnership between two Rotary Clubs, Prince Frederick and La Paz, Honduras.

    For up to 12 hours, even on the hottest and rainiest days, Mary Larichiuta drifts around TNT Fireworks’ shady tent off Mayo Road in Edgewater. Customers trickle in, leaving her with lots of free time to manage the fireworks under the tent.      She doesn’t get paid commission, just an hourly wage, but the “low-stress” job fills in time between summer and teaching at her middle school.