Seeing the radar array and runway at Wallops Island is always a little jarring. It's on the road to Chincoteague, and it's hard to reconcile the high-tech operations at Wallops with the 'back-in-time' vibe of Chincoteague and the ponies.

The base is a major support and research center for NASA and home of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS, for short. Gotta love the sense of humor of space-techno geeks!). According to its web site it's a " "one stop shopping" place for low cost, safe, reliable, user friendly space launch facilities and services for commercial, government and scientific/academic users, both foreign and domestic. " The Wal-Mart of Space!

There's a regular schedule of rocket and balloon launches, radar telemetry tests, and all sorts of other airborne scientific experiments going on there. Some of the local residents hold barbeques to coincide with launches, kind of Trekkie tail gating. (http://sched.wff.nasa.gov/wffsched/)

The Wallops Island NASA Visitor Center showcases all of the activities, equipment, experiments, and discoveries. It's designed to provide something for all ages, which is great for families. Probably the coolest exhibit is "Science on a Sphere." 3D visual effects are projected onto a 6-foot diameter globe suspended from the ceiling, like a planet floating in space. You can see images of Mother Earth and the moon and storms on the planet Jupiter. There's a moon rock -- which probably doesn't impress today's kids, but for those of us who watched the landings, it's an amazing artifact. The kids (and parents) line up to play with the interactive computer programs that let them fly their own rocket and play with NASA launch vehicles. Outside, there are full-scale rockets and aircraft used at Wallops.

During the winter, the visitor center is open Mon-Fri from 10-4. From March-June, it's open Thursdays through Mondays 10-4, July and August, it's open 7 days a week. It's FREE! 757-824-2298; 757-824-1344.

http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/wvc/

Supertankers are impressive; container ships are practical; power boats are fun. But for nautical romance, nothing compares to a traditional wooden boat. The sturdy work boats of the Bay -- the bugeyes, buy boats, and skipjacks -- are somehow more elegant for being crafted by the skilled hand and eye of a master boat builder.

The Richardson Maritime Museum in Cambridge is a tribute to the tradition and history of wooden vessels. Dozens of scale models of crabbing skiffs, schooners, work boats, buy boats, skipjacks, bugeyes, pungys, and lightships compete for attention. Standing in the middle of them all, you can imagine what it was like to stand on a dock surrounded by all of these vessels half a century ago. Many of the models were crafted by their boat builder, others by passionate modelers.

A special exhibit of boatbuilding tools adds depth to the displays. We're used to walking into Home Depot for the latest easy-to-use power tool. Looking at the simple augers, cross-cut and rip saws, mallets, and hand planes -- with nary a power cord to be seen --makes the precision and quality of the boats even more impressive. Another room houses the tools of the Watermen. Unlike the boat building equipment, these have hardly changed over time. The antique dredges, tongs, crab pots, and floats on display would be picked up and used by watermen today.

To keep the traditions of wooden boat building alive, the museum maintains the Ruark Boatworks on Cambridge Creek. Six traditional boats are in various stages of restoration. The work is being done by master boat builders who are working with apprentices and volunteers to pass along their knowledge.

The Richardson Maritime Museum is at the corner of High & Locust Streets in Cambridge. Don't expect a 'museum-like' structure. If you think the imposing brick Victorian-era building looks like a bank, that's because in its past life, it was. It's open Wednesdays & Sundays from 1-4,and Saturdays from 10-4. A donation of $3 is suggested. 410-221-1871. The Boatworks is open Mon/Wed/Fri 9-2. On Saturdays a docent is on hand in the modeler's shop. 410-221-8844. During the winter, you should call ahead to make sure they are open and working.

http://www.richardsonmuseum.org/

Pocomoke City is a quiet little town on the placid Pocomoke River with two, maybe three, stoplights along the main street. It's hard to appreciate that it was once a major ocean seaport. Even though it is about as far inland as you can get on Delmarva, the Pocomoke River is very deep -- by pre-20th century sailing vessel standards. Ships could get their goods closer to inland customers at a time when roads were few.

But as technology changed, Pocomoke became, quite literally, a backwater town, its history largely forgotten.

That's all changing with the opening of the Delmarva Discovery Center. Located in a 1920's era building on the riverfront, it preserves and interprets the natural and cultural heritage of the Pocomoke River and lower Delmarva. The permanent exhibits start with the Native American cultures that flourished before the arrival of the Europeans. Their lives were tied closely to the natural world, so those exhibits also concentrate on the ecology of the river and the cypress swamp that surrounds Pocomoke. You can look inside Native American dwellings and crawl through a human-sized beaver dam. Displays on early trade, shipbuilding, market hunting, and commercial fishing follow the timeline of colonization and development. Pocomoke was important port through the steamboat era, and there is a life-sized mock-up of a steamboat dock and deck which give visitors a chance to see and feel what the town was like then.

One of the most exciting displays is the aquarium. It's still under construction, but visitors can watch as it develops. The tank is currently being 'seasoned' in order to provide a healthy habitat for its soon-to-arrive residents. Chief among those will be Atlantic Sturgeon. Once so plentiful in the region's waters that early diaries speak of being able to catch the fish with bare hands, its population is severely depleted. Even for life-long residents of Delmarva, the specimens in the aquarium may be the only Sturgeon they've ever seen. They will share the water with Gar, Largemouth Bass, and even a Diamondback Terrapin.

The Delmarva Discovery Center is located at 2 Market St., Pocomoke City. 410-957-9933. It's open Wed-Sat 10-4, Sun 12-4. Admission: Adults $10, Seniors & students $8, 4-17 $5. There's a special deal for residents of Somerset, Wicomico, Worcester, Accomack, and Sussex Counties. 50% off admission the first weekend of every month through May. http://www.delmarvadiscoverycenter.org/index.html