Calvert Marine Museum

While it may not be the Volvo Ocean Race or some other push-it-to-the-limit water race, the Vintage Model Yacht Regatta at the Calvert Marine Museum is exciting in its own, albeit smaller, way. The regatta, on Saturday and Sunday, features radio-controlled model skipjacks, schooners and marbleheads. The Solomons Island Model Boat Club and the Great Schooner Model Society present the race. Children can get involved by building their own model boats and setting them to sail. Model-boat kits will be available for purchase.

The badly decayed body of a manatee was found washed up by the shore of the Patuxent River last week, apparently the first such discovery in Maryland, officials at the Calvert Marine Museum said. According to officials, the dead aquatic animal was found Monday evening by exhibits technician Skip Edwards a few miles north of the museum in Solomons at the southern tip of Calvert County. The discovery was confirmed by Spephen Godfrey, the museum's curator of paleontology. The large, sea grass-eating mammals are normally found off Florida and other in other warm waters but have been known to occasionally travel northward along the Intercoastal Waterway in summer.

Patuxent River Appreciation Days focus attention on Maryland's largest intrastate river and its impact on the local culture, history and economic growth. This year's 14th annual event takes place Saturday and next Sunday on the grounds of the Calvert Marine Museum, on Route 2 in Solomons.Attractions will include boat rides, entertainment, arts and crafts vendors, children's boat building, Southern Maryland food, environmental demonstrations, seafood cooking demonstrations with a parade at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Waterfowl fest The lowdown -- Don't miss the 37th annual Waterfowl Festival in Easton this weekend. Browse through sculptures, carvings, photographs and wildlife paintings at 12 venues. Watch fly-fishing demonstrations and world championship calling contests. If you go -- The Waterfowl Festival will be held 10 a.m.-6 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $12 tomorrow and Saturday; $10 Sunday; and $24 for multiple days. Children 12 and younger accompanied by an adult are admitted free.

Motley Crue / Nissan Pavilion Iconic hard rock group Motley Crue with Vince Neil will hit the stage at the Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge, 7800 Cellar Door Drive in Bristow, Va., at 6 Saturday night. Tickets are $23.50-$78.50 and are available through Ticketmaster by calling 410-547-SEAT or visiting www.ticketmaster.com. CSN / Calvert Marine Museum and Wolf Trap Legendary pop rockers Crosby, Stills & Nash will appear at Wolf Trap, 1635 Trap Road in Vienna, Va., at 8 Saturday night. Tickets are $25-$42.

Waterfowl fest The lowdown -- Don't miss the 37th annual Waterfowl Festival in Easton this weekend. Browse through sculptures, carvings, photographs and wildlife paintings at 12 venues. Watch fly-fishing demonstrations and world championship calling contests. If you go -- The Waterfowl Festival will be held 10 a.m.-6 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $12 tomorrow and Saturday; $10 Sunday; and $24 for multiple days. Children 12 and younger accompanied by an adult are admitted free.

1880s bicycle tourThe Calvert Marine Museum will present the Wheelmen of the Potomac Region for an Official High Wheel Tour Saturday (rain date: Sunday.) See the high-wheeling antics of a re-created 1880s bike tour and riders in period costumes. The Wheelmen are a group dedicated to preserving high wheel and antique bicycles from the 1870s, '80s and '90s. They will re-create the type of touring popular from the golden age of biking, when the Wheelmen were 100,000 in number and the largest athletic group in the nation.

The Calvert Marine Museum had an easy decision to make more than five years ago when choosing which aquatic animal to honor with an annual festival. "We could have had Whalefest, but we chose sharks because they're so popular and people never tire of them," museum curator of paleontology Stephen Godfrey said. Sharkfest, a celebration of one of the world's most popular oceanic predators, is Saturday at the museum in Solomons. There will be a variety of educational activities dedicated to sharks, both living and extinct.

The badly decayed body of a manatee was found washed up by the shore of the Patuxent River last week, apparently the first such discovery in Maryland, officials at the Calvert Marine Museum said. According to officials, the dead aquatic animal was found Monday evening by exhibits technician Skip Edwards a few miles north of the museum in Solomons at the southern tip of Calvert County. The discovery was confirmed by Spephen Godfrey, the museum's curator of paleontology. The large, sea grass-eating mammals are normally found off Florida and other in other warm waters but have been known to occasionally travel northward along the Intercoastal Waterway in summer.

PARADE TIME Drop by Key Highway on Sunday for the Columbus Day Parade, which features a float competition, mounted police, Marine and high school bands, mini-cars, an antique firetruck, scooters, unicyclists, jugglers, clowns, stilt walkers, dancers and color guards. Miss Little Italy and Christopher Columbus impersonator Don Castronova will also participate. .................... Catch the 117th annual Columbus Day Parade from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The parade starts at Key Highway and Light Street, turns right onto Light Street, right onto Pratt Street, right onto Exeter Street, left onto Bank Street and ends at Central Avenue in Little Italy, where there will be an Italian Festival the rest of the afternoon.

The Calvert Marine Museum had an easy decision to make more than five years ago when choosing which aquatic animal to honor with an annual festival. "We could have had Whalefest, but we chose sharks because they're so popular and people never tire of them," museum curator of paleontology Stephen Godfrey said. Sharkfest, a celebration of one of the world's most popular oceanic predators, is Saturday at the museum in Solomons. There will be a variety of educational activities dedicated to sharks, both living and extinct.

Imagine you have some pieces to a puzzle. But you don't know what it is - there's no box with a picture. You don't even know if it's all there. There might even be some pieces from a different puzzle mixed in. Now you've got to sort it and put it all together."

Motley Crue / Nissan Pavilion Iconic hard rock group Motley Crue with Vince Neil will hit the stage at the Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge, 7800 Cellar Door Drive in Bristow, Va., at 6 Saturday night. Tickets are $23.50-$78.50 and are available through Ticketmaster by calling 410-547-SEAT or visiting www.ticketmaster.com. CSN / Calvert Marine Museum and Wolf Trap Legendary pop rockers Crosby, Stills & Nash will appear at Wolf Trap, 1635 Trap Road in Vienna, Va., at 8 Saturday night. Tickets are $25-$42.

SOLOMONS - An amateur fossil hunter strolling the banks of the St. Mary's River after Tropical Storm Isabel stopped in his tracks when he saw a bone protruding from the sandy muck. Beneath his feet, he soon learned, were the skull and jaws of a whale that swam here 8 million years ago, when Southern Maryland was under the Atlantic. Paleontologists toiled through snow and rain to dig up the bones of the ancient mammal. Then a Navy helicopter hauled the half-ton load to workers from the Calvert Marine Museum, which is to announce the discovery today.