Visitors

It jars and jumps, it pitches and yaws, it rolls and reels -- and it wows its riders. Disneyland's new Indiana Jones ride is a real trip, say those who have been on it.Riding on a "troop transport vehicle," visitors swoop and swerve through typical Indiana Jones territory -- the Mummy Chamber, the Gates of Doom, the Tunnel of Torment and the Cavern of Bubbling Death. En route, they encounter such cheerful items as skulls pierced with spears, a falling ceiling of spikes, scads of snakes and rats, and a 16-foot boulder rumbling down at them.

* Forget MARC. It's sold out. * MTA commuter buses will depart Kent Island, Annapolis, Columbia, Scaggsville-Burtonsville, Frederick, Upper Marlboro and three Southern Maryland locations this morning and connect with the Washington Metrorail system. Tickets can be purchased onboard. Reservations are not required. Round-trip tickets are $10. Exact change is required. Schedules and other information at www.mtamaryland.com. * One of the most economical ways to go from Baltimore is to take the light rail to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport ($1.60, one way)

Ocean City's fishing pier officially opened Friday as the Maryland resort town signaled it is ready for summer visitors. During last fall's storm, about 100 feet of the pier collapsed into the surging sea. The damage was featured prominently in news coverage of the storm. But at Friday's rededication, Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan said the town had put all of that behind it. He said the re-opening the pier let's visitors know that “it's business as usual in Ocean City.” The pier was originally built in 1907 and has been rebuilt many times since then.

CAMDEN, N.J. - When it opened five years ago, the New Jersey State Aquarium was a "pioneer" on the Camden waterfront - a successful one at first. Nearly 600,000 visitors passed through its doors in the first four months of operation. During the next 12 months, 832,000 attended.Then, attendance sank.The new aquarium's exhibits weren't as colorful as those at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and the waterfront was missing attractions to lure visitors outside of the region. Only 447,000 came to the Camden facility in fiscal 1995.

J. Edward Johnston - aka the "Birdman of Guilford" - has been inviting strangers onto his front lawn to visit with his parrots and cockatiels for nearly two decades. At 80, he's still squawking out facts about the birds (for example: Parrots are the fourth-smartest animals on the planet) and setting the stage for the Houdini-esque escape act of a blue macaw named Margaret. "She's so fast, you won't see her [execute her] escape," Johnston told a group of visitors recently, waving his hand toward Margaret, who was perched on his shoulder.

A great winter at Western Maryland resorts, the debut of Baltimore's new visitor center and the expectation of a big summer in Ocean City are converging in what could turn out to be a record year for tourism in the state. "I'm being bold," Dennis M. Castleman, assistant secretary of tourism, film and the arts in the Department of Business and Economic Development, said yesterday. "I believe we'll hit $9 billion for tourism expenditures." Visitors spent $8.8 billion in Maryland in 2002, the most recent year for which financial data is available.

Tourism is big business in Maryland, but soaring gas prices and a slumping economy threaten to put a damper on this important source of revenue for the state. That's why tourism officials here are smart to look for ways to attract more visitors from closer to home. In 2006, the last year for which figures are available, Maryland welcomed 28 million visitors who spent more than $11.4 billion enjoying themselves here. Tourism accounted for more than $895 million in state and local taxes and provided more than 116,000 jobs to local residents.

ADELPHI -- University System of Maryland officials asked yesterday that the state ethics commission reverse a decision that puts campus Boards of Visitors under ethics regulations. "We are adopting a two-pronged approach," said Leronia A. Josey, chairwoman of the advancement committee of the system's Board of Regents. "We passed a resolution calling on the full board to ask the ethics commission to reconsider this and, if that fails, for the legislature to take action." System officials said they are concerned that the ethics regulations -- which could require Boards of Visitors members to make full financial disclosure and prohibit them from doing business with the school -- might keep people from joining the Boards of Visitors.

The earth-movers, construction trailer and stack of felled trees stand in stark contrast to an old tobacco barn and re-created 1696 wooden crate of a house. But at the end of next summer, this section of Historic London Town and Gardens will have a $5.1 million museum, visitor center and archaeology lab, providing thousands of visitors with historical context for what they see at the bygone colonial tobacco port and ferry crossing just south of Annapolis. "It is going to dramatically change London Town and Gardens.

The potter's wheel is twirling at the Annapolis Pottery, Genevieve McWilliams' hands are mired in shapeless muddy clay, and her fingers are giving form to her imagination.A deep crab-soup bowl? A jar? Maybe a long-necked vase, detailed with etchings and glazed in earth tones?A lump of clay transforms into whatever McWilliams wants."That seeing something become from nothing is really exciting," said McWilliams, owner of the pottery shop on State Circle, one of the stops on the Annapolis Art Walk to be held from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 12."