RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Maryland >> Saint Mary's County >> Portobello >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Portobello, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Portobello and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Portobello:
    • 38.175682, -76.453286
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Portobello
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Saint Mary's County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Saint Mary's County
    • Since Portobello is near Calvert County and also Westmoreland County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Calvert County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Westmoreland County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Portobello

Communities Also Named Portobello ...

We found one communities that are also named Portobello.

Within Maryland, the name Portobello is unique.

Beyond Maryland, there is another community also named Portobello in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Nova Scotia
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Nova Scotia community of Portobello.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Portobello ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Ancient Oaks
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Ancient Oaks is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ancient Oaks
  • Cedar Landing
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Cedar Landing is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Landing
  • Dukes Retreat
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Dukes Retreat is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dukes Retreat
  • Dutchmans Cove
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Dutchmans Cove is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dutchmans Cove
  • Evergreen Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Evergreen Park is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evergreen Park
  • Flowers of the Forest
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Flowers of the Forest is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flowers of the Forest
  • Great Mills
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Gum Landing
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Gum Landing is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gum Landing
  • Herring Creek
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Herring Creek is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Herring Creek
  • Hunting Neck Woods
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Hunting Neck Woods is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunting Neck Woods
  • Laurel Run
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Laurel Run is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laurel Run
  • Leachburg
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Leachburg is located in Saint Mary's County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leachburg
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Park Pines
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Park Pines is located in Saint Mary's County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Park Pines
    • Piney Point
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Stoney Run
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Stoney Run is located in Saint Mary's County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stoney Run
    • Tall Timbers
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Upper Jutland
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Upper Jutland is located in Saint Mary's County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Upper Jutland
    • Valley Lee
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Valley Lee is located in Saint Mary's County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley Lee

How Far From Portobello to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Portobello to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Portobello and extending to:

  • Leonardtown, which is the Seat of Saint Mary's County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<3> to the northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Portobello to Leonardtown, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Annapolis, which is the State Capital of Maryland, lies 55 miles [88.5 km] to the north (N). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take over two days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 58 miles [93.3 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving would take less than an hour, a buggy would take over two days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,903 miles [9,500 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,603 miles [10,626.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,482 miles [7,213.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Portobello could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Portobello) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<5>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Portobello to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Portobello. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.1757, Longitude: -76.4533       In this case, the coordinates for Portobello have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.593 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.991 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.75 degrees.