Calvert Marine Museum

Patuxent River Appreciation Days Saturday and next Sunday pay tribute to Maryland's largest river contained within the state's boundaries. The event is an effort to make the public aware of the river's economic importance as well as its scenic beauty and historic and recreational value. The Appreciation Days, held annually for 15 years, will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the grounds of the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons.Organizations like the Sierra Club, America's Clean Water Foundation and the Southern Maryland Audubon Society will be on hand to discuss environ-mental issues.

Lighthouse celebration at marine museum Follow the lure of the lighthouse Saturday to the Calvert Marine Museum's fifth annual "Winter Lights: A Celebration of Chesapeake Bay Lighthouses." Throughout the all-day festival at the museum on Solomons Island, visitors can tour Drum Point Lighthouse, one of only three remaining cottage-type screwpile lighthouses in the Chesapeake Bay, and Cove Point Light, which has served mariners on the Chesapeake Bay and Patuxent River for nearly 170 years.

An update on the concert scene: newly announced shows and ticket availability. For ticket information and purchase, call Ticketmaster at 410-547-SEAT unless otherwise noted. Just announced The Indigo Girls will perform at Rams Head Live in Baltimore on June 21. Also, John Legend is there on July 18. Call 410-244-1131. Al Green plays the 9:30 Club in Washington on June 26. Call 800-955-5566. Coldplay takes the stage at Nissan Pavilion in Manassas, Va., on Sept. 30. Tickets go on sale June 4 at 10 a.m. Crosby, Stills and Nash will perform at the Calvert Marine Museum's Gas Pavilion on Aug. 14. Tickets go on sale July 20. Call 800-787-9454.

The 15-million-year-old marine sediments exposed at Calvert Cliffs on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay are famous for giving up fossil shark teeth. But until now, scientists could only speculate about what the sharks were biting. Now they've gotten a glimpse - and it's not a pretty picture. In a paper published this month in the German science journal Naturwissenschaften, paleontologists reported that the Calvert sands have coughed up a pair of fossilized feces. Both bear the bite marks of prehistoric sharks.

If you're happy and you know it and your face really shows it, you must be a resident of Solomons Island in Calvert County. Coastal Living magazine's special 15th anniversary issue ranks the southern Maryland waterfront village no. 15 on a list of "America's Happiest Seaside Towns. " The magazine points to the town's history of fishing and exploration, as well as its boardwalk, sculpture gardens and of course, its hospitality. It also notes that Solomons Victorian Inn is the place to stay.

The September 15 letter about the removal of fossils from Calvert Cliffs by Phyllis Bonfield and Marcia Seifert (Readers respond) provides a good opportunity to clarify how the Calvert Marine Museum goes about that work. Their concerns are varied and will be addressed in the order in which they appear in their entry. Their first concern was for our safety, which is a legitimate concern and one that we take great care to address. The cliff in the immediate area where this skull was removed is approximately 20 feet high.

Rocky Gap Country Music FestivalFor three days of country music, family activities and arts and crafts, attend the 11th annual Rocky Gap Music Festival this weekend at Allegany College in Cumberland.Headlining the outdoor celebration tomorrow are Chely Wright and Kevin Sharpe. Sharing the stage Saturday are Deana Carter, Steve Wariner, Joe Diffie and Ty Herndon. And Sunday's lineup includes Bryan White, Trace Adkins, Sammy Kershaw and Ricochet. Regional singers and bands are also scheduled to perform each day.Gates open at noon, and music starts at 4 p.m. tomorrow.

Archaeologists searching in the mud of St. Leonard's Creek in Calvert County have stumbled on what they believe are the remains of a gunboat scuttled and burned by American sailors during the War of 1812.If they're right, it is only the second time in 20 years that investigators have found part of the long-sought "lost flotilla" commanded by Commodore Joshua Barney.Barney ordered his boats destroyed to keep them out of British hands as the Redcoats advanced on Washington. Most were burned in the upper Patuxent in August 1814, but Susan M. Langley, Maryland's underwater archaeologist, said two were burned earlier in St. Leonard's Creek when they proved to be too slow.

War in SolomonsWatch troops re-enact World War II Marine exercises aboard the John W. Brown at the 56th anniversary of the U.S. Naval Amphibious Training Base in Solomons this weekend.The commemoration will also feature newsreels, amphibious landing training films, exhibits and living history programs. The Southern Maryland Concert and Swing Bands will bring the ceremonies to a close with hit tunes from the '40s and '50s.Events run 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons.

D.C. food and musicHere's a great opportunity to check out some of Washington's best restaurants. It's the fifth annual "Taste of D.C.," an outdoor food festival for the family, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, on Pennsylvania Avenue between 9th and 14th streets.Fifty restaurants will be serving classic American cuisine along with international dishes representing more than 12 nations. In past years the festival has drawn about 1 million people, and one of the reasons is the free entertainment -- the Temptations, Little Feat, the Ohio Players, Joan Jett and Burning Spear.