It's Sunday night at Middleton Tavern, where a handful of drinkers at the rustic wooden bar are surrounded by glimpses of America's colonial past. Copper pots hang over a fireplace, while seascape paintings, farm tools, old naval uniforms and models of sailing ships adorn the walls. The patio offers views of Annapolis' City Dock, where Chesapeake Bay watermen once brought in the day's catch. And the tavern itself dates to 1750 – before America became a country – when Horatio Middleton opened it to lodge travelers crossing the bay on his ferry. If you believe the local lore, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin once drank here. "This is one of the oldest – if not the oldest – bars in Maryland," says bartender Steve Frederick, an amiable guy with a lanky frame and a trucker hat. "There's a lot of history here." Indeed, there's a lot of history throughout this cozy waterfront city, whose narrow streets, brick sidewalks and handsome Georgian buildings could serve as an 18th-century ...