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Okay, so, I've been driving around MD/VA/DC. I wrote about the VA places on the NoVA forum, but I don't might answering questions about it, if anyone is curious. Okay, impressions of Maryland towns:
I'll do it in order of where I explored:
COLLEGE PARK: Yep, I can understand the place now. It had some bicycle shops and a couple organic restaurants. The college campus was real nice. The neighborhood around it was basically the Route 1. There were more businesses than I expected though. But, not a place to seek out to live, unless a person was the student studying there.
HYATTSVILLE: Yep, looks like they are trying to do something interesting there. Saw the newer developments of townhouses. Also, seemed to have several, at least, organic stores. Kind of interesting, as the area didn't strike me as having the types of people that would naturally be attracted to organic stores.
MOUNT RANIER: Felt like I was in DC itself.
GREENBELT: I just couldn't find the historical downtown that is walkable. It seemed like I kept getting caught in a loop and just driving around. Lots of woods around.
LAUREL: Nice that a MARC train goes right there. Nice historical downtown. Seems underrated.
ARBUTUS: I followed the MARC train stops. This was interesting as a larger community than most on the MARC stations. I believe it's part of Baltimore County.
ELKRIDGE/HALETHORPE: Just interesting as lots of older housing, established suburb.
CATONSVILLE: Basically between Baltimore and Elicott City. Seemed to be called 'music city' or something like that. Saw a few cool places including an Appalachian Music Store. It also had a bit of the scenery that downtown historic Ellicott City has. Very interesting town.
ELICOTT CITY: Saw the historical city, than it seemed to turn very development-y quickly. Lots of new places, etc. The old historic town was amazing though!
COLOMBIA: Is the MALL the main center of the city? It seemed like the entire town was developed around it? Interesting place though. All the housing seems to be 'in the woods', which is interesting. Lots of trees everywhere, and car-oriented, but so curvy everywhere, that it wasn't like super fast traffic or anything. I also recall people saying there are many interracial couples there, and yeah, there are! I always thought it odd people would mention that on city-data, but having been there, it's very noticeable. Seemed like every kind of person too - black, white, latino, asian. Felt like exactly 25% of each...oddly. Doubtful that it was, as the Asian is never that high, but felt very multicultural somehow.
WHEATON: Yep, lots of Spanish-speakers (and African American too). Older houses. I didn't see all the gentrification that I read about, but I didn't spend that much time there.
SILVER SPRING: Referring to under the beltway. Yep, felt very urban. A few times I drove right into DC, and didn't realize I had. Nice downtown. Saw a ton of Ethiopians. Attractive!
BETHESDA: It had a very nice downtown. I somewhat expected it was going to, and it did.
ROCKVILLE: I liked the Rockville Town Center. Very nice focal point for a suburb.
GAITHERSBURG: Much better than I expected, and I didn't even find the Kentlands. Saw one real interesting neighborhood near the tracks, but couldn't find it again a second time.
GERMANTOWN: Looked very very NEW. Looked like everything had recently been built.
DAMASCAS: I thought it was going to be a one gas-station town. Actually quite a bit larger than I thought. Still rural, but quite a few chains, businesses, and residential areas, etc.
MT. AIRY: Very small town, but some nice hills around that area! Some of the housing has nice small hill views here and there.
FREDERICK: Very nice city. Looks very peaceful, but at the same time, it does seem that both good and bad elements are coming up from both Baltimore and DC itself.
POINT-OF-ROCKS: I just went here because I wanted to see this place that the MARC train goes to. Small, but there are residential houses nearby.
BRUNSWICK: Quite a few residential homes around the station. All quite old and from a different time. Like a little bit of Pittsburgh in Maryland.
I also went into WV and VA, and wrote about them on the NoVA forum. By the way, this is just from the last two days, so it's not like I'll be right about all my impressions.
GREENBELT: I just couldn't find the historical downtown that is walkable. It seemed like I kept getting caught in a loop and just driving around. Lots of woods around.
By the way, if you have GPS, plug this address in: 3821-B S George Mason Dr
Falls Church, VA 22041. It's the address of a sports bar in an All-Ethiopian strip mall in the suburban part of Falls Church near the Alexandria border. This strip mall has multiple night establishments as well- all run by Ethiopians and mostly catering to Ethiopians.
Take a stroll through the Montgomery College Rockville campus (off Rockville Pike between the Rockville and Shady Grove stations) if you want to see mind-blowing diversity.
Brookfield Plaza in Springfield off of Backlick Road is a mostly Indian strip mall.
If you're in NoVa, you should definitely check out the Wegman's in Fairfax, and the nearby Fair Lakes development.
The drive on University Boulevard (MD-193 from US 1 in College Park to Colesville Road- very close to the Beltway) can also be pretty interesting. You could also check out Montgomery Village simply by driving east for like 5 miles along MD-124 from exit 11 off of I-270.
By the way, if you have GPS, plug this address in: 3821-B S George Mason Dr
Falls Church, VA 22041. It's the address of a sports bar in an All-Ethiopian strip mall in the suburban part of Falls Church near the Alexandria border. This strip mall has multiple night establishments as well- all run by Ethiopians and mostly catering to Ethiopians.
Take a stroll through the Montgomery College Rockville campus (off Rockville Pike between the Rockville and Shady Grove stations) if you want to see mind-blowing diversity.
Brookfield Plaza in Springfield off of Backlick Road is a mostly Indian strip mall.
If you're in NoVa, you should definitely check out the Wegman's in Fairfax, and the nearby Fair Lakes development.
The drive on University Boulevard (MD-193 from US 1 in College Park to Colesville Road- very close to the Beltway) can also be pretty interesting. You could also check out Montgomery Village simply by driving east for like 5 miles along MD-124 from exit 11 off of I-270.
Yeah, that Rockville/Gaithersburg does have a very intoxicating mix of diversity. I didn't expect it, I'm going to go back by there again today....I liked that area, in general!
Thanks for that Ethiopian/Falls Church one! Wrote it down, and definitely going there today!
US 1 - very interesting! I'm definitely going up there again today just to check it one more time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HandsUpThumbsDown
GREENBELT: I just couldn't find the historical downtown that is walkable. It seemed like I kept getting caught in a loop and just driving around. Lots of woods around.
BRUNSWICK: Quite a few residential homes around the station. All quite old and from a different time. Like a little bit of Pittsburgh in Maryland.
I like Brunswick too.
I'm definitely going to get back to Greenbelt again.
Brunswick - really cool little town. No shopping there either. Very out of time. I guess they mostly go over to Charles Town WV or Frederick MD?
Quote:
Originally Posted by goldenage1
I think Catonsville is a bit under-rated. It has a cute, walkable center of town and affordable row-houses.
HUGELY UNDERRATED. Wow. And Ellicott City is right there, the best historical part of EC being right next to Catonsville. Some of the same topography as well.
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Okay, Day 3. I saw so many interesting Maryland towns, most of which have me even more curious. I'll probably check out many of them again a second time, out of curiousity.
Brunswick - really cool little town. No shopping there either. Very out of time. I guess they mostly go over to Charles Town WV or Frederick MD?
.
Brunswick has a grocery store and some cafes, but yeah, that's it. With all the big box stores in Charlestown and Frederick, not really much chance for retail there.
Did you see Shepherdstown when you went to WV? I think you might like it a lot.
So Tigerbeer, are you going to be able to make out my way?
I spent A LOT of time thinking about it! Than I started thinking that if I did, Morgantown WV would be tempting to see too.
But, in the end, decided it would take too much time away from more realistic options closer to DC....and decided against Cumberland.
It was on my mind a lot though! Daylight hours was also important for seeing places, and I figured I'd lose way too much of my daylight hours just trying to drive out there and back as well!
Quote:
Originally Posted by HandsUpThumbsDown
Brunswick has a grocery store and some cafes, but yeah, that's it. With all the big box stores in Charlestown and Frederick, not really much chance for retail there.
Did you see Shepherdstown when you went to WV? I think you might like it a lot.
I did see Shepherdstown. Yeah, I did like it. Pretty region as well. Very nice town, with a seemingly very disproportionately large university, with a lot of students. Very nice to see.
Brunswick - Yeah, I was imagining what it might be like to live there. It would be fairly quiet at night, for sure. Interesting there is a MARC there, with such easy access to DC. But, still 90 minutes out of DC. Charles Town seemed fairly close, I wonder if Brunswick people feel a bigger connection to Charles Town or Frederick. I imagine Frederick is the bigger one, but they both seem to have a lot of the same stores.
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