A dog-friendly art museum? Yep, it’s the Annmarie Sculpture Garden (one of a few dozen pet-friendly museums in the United States). And we were thrilled to see it with Honey the last time we landed in Solomons, Maryland.
How Did We Miss Annmarie Sculpture Garden
Solomons was in danger of becoming the place we stopped to wait out bad weather on the Chesapeake Bay.
Solomons is nice enough. But usually we anchored or docked on the creeks farther from downtown. And if the weather was bad enough to chase us off the bay, it was bad enough to make for a sporty dinghy ride to town.
And our regular readers know how bad a sporty dinghy ride can end up.
But the Annmarie Sculpture Garden was on our side of the peninsula. And getting there became much easier when the town built new sidewalks from our favorite marina.
Honey’s always up for a nice walk. And I like looking at art. So off we went.
With art on loan from the Smithsonian Institute and its own collection, the Annmarie Sculpture Garden is a delightful museum to visit. And it’s wonderfully pet-friendly.
Visiting A Museum With Honey
The garden opens its gates an hour before regular opening hours. You can stroll the grounds for free until 10:00 a.m. But the $5 admission fee is a real bargain (pets enter free).
In a nod to solo travelers with pets, the museum allows you to pay your admission with your dog indoors and walk through the building to the beginning of the meandering art trail.
I won’t pretend Honey expressed any interest in the art. But the art trail is shaded and cool on a warm day. We took breaks to give Honey time to play.
The children’s garden looked like loads of fun for kids. For Honey, it was a great place to hide some treats and let her sniff them out.
And when she found the perfect stick, Honey found herself in retriever heaven.
As long as we gave her plenty of time to sniff and frolic in the grass, Honey was happy to let us enjoy the art.
Let me share some of my favorite pieces with you.
Kokoro Carvers in Vermont.
And of course, what could be more fun than making your own art?
Visting Solomons
Solomons is a few miles up the Patuxent River from the Chesapeake Bay–just one of many splendid places to visit with a dog or cat. It has several outdoor restaurants and a lovely boardwalk on the river.
But it’s definitely worth a short trip from the downtown waterfront to visit Annmarie Sculpture garden.
Even if you don’t think of yourself as an art lover, you’ll find a sculpture garden is a wonderful place to take your pup.
Your Turn: Have you ever taken your dog to a sculpture garden or museum? Which one? And who liked it more?
“Crossing back over to Calvert” is used without changes under a Creative Commons license. Thank you to Belinda Mariepix for sharing the image.
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Looks like they have some fun stuff to see there, not just the old serious sculptures. Nice they allow dogs too.
I was inspired to take Honey after seeing the nice pictures your hu-mom has taken when visiting Minnesota sculptures. So thank you!
We aren’t near any coasts so you probably won’t be visiting us but in case you do, the city of Loveland, CO, has two sculpture gardens that are pet friendly. Benson Sculpture Garden and Chapungu Sculpture Park at Centerra.
Well, I have a secret wish to also buy an RV so we could see more of the country. So maybe someday…
How cool that Loveland has TWO sculpture gardens!
Some fun art pieces. What a cool place.
It was very neat. Especially some of the ways they had for visitors to create their own art.
WOW! What a great place to spend some time with a pet! And, yes, I saw you and Honey peeking through the window. 🙂
Good eyes!
I love this post Pamela – we are always looking for pup friendly spots when traveling.
This is a hidden gem for sure!
Erin
It is a pretty sweet place. If you like museums, there are some interesting ones all over the country.
https://blog.gopetfriendly.com/pet-friendly-museums/
What a cool place. LOVED that triple-decker ram sculpture. So coloerul, so fun to look at.
I know! It was so cool to see a gigantic enamel sculpture.
What a wonderful place to explore. So sorry I didn’t know it was there while I lived in the area! #dammit The photos are precious. Looks like a good time was had by all…..
I’d suggest the Annmarie Sculpture Garden and a Solomons might be a nice place to take your daughter for a girl’s weekend. 🙂
I wouldn’t call myself a huge art lover, but sculptures in a garden? Yes, that appeals to me very much. Even better I could bring my dog too. That looked beautiful, and like there was enough to keep Honey happy as well.
It was really wonderful. It was a nice mix of representational art and stuff that was more abstract. So there was probably something for everyone.
And the hands-on activities were fabulous!