CNN travel | Maritime town offers boating, great seafood and more than 250 years of history

Annapolis, Maryland (CNN) — It’s Sunday night at Middleton Tavern, where a handful of drinkers at the rustic wooden bar are surrounded by glimpses of America’s colonial past.Copper pots hang over a fireplace, while seascape paintings, farm tools, old naval uniforms and models of sailing ships adorn the walls. The patio offers views of Annapolis’ City Dock, where Chesapeake Bay watermen once brought in the day’s catch.

And the tavern itself dates to 1750 – before America became a country – when Horatio Middleton opened it to lodge travelers crossing the bay on his ferry. If you believe the local lore, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin once drank here.  –read/see more–