USA: Maryland

DeltaRomeo · #1 10-20-2006, 12:33 PM

starting catagory

DeltaRomeo · #2 06-26-2007, 06:53 PM

I recently flew into Baltimore (on AA) for a contract photo gig and ended up in Cumberland in the little downtown square for dinner:

The long shadowed strip centered in this sat image...
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...&t=k&z=17&om=1

There was about a mile of bricked street running east/west with dining establishments lining the entire way. We found a nice place with tables outside and enjoy seafood and microbrew. The old buildings were beautiful.

Cumberland GA airport is about 2 miles from the downtown area.

Great atmosphere...and the gentle hills with old homes situated in among the mature trees made for a great backdrop. You know the beginning of 'The Office' where they show some old town in PA (Scranton)? It looks a little like that...

Here is a shot of the mall:

b,
dr

rbibb · #3 06-28-2007, 05:32 AM

If the Cumberland, GA airport is two miles away from downtown Cumberland, MD....then the end must surely be near....

DeltaRomeo · #4 06-28-2007, 05:40 AM

...or something like that

hevansrv7a · #5 07-06-2007, 05:14 PM

We splurged and went to KBWI. We took 22 gallons and stayed a little too long because public transportation into downtown Baltimore was kinda slow. My total bill was $178. It was a day trip. I did say "splurged", didn't I? Signature gave first class service.

OK, now for the good part. Faidley's lump crab cakes at the Lexington Market in downtown Baltimore was worth the trip from KDET. If these are not the best in the world, they have to be pretty close. The neighborhood is down scale and the market is, to a midwesterner, noisy and crowded. But it's full of life and it's fun. You eat standing up at counters near Faidley's. There are so many interesting food vendors I think I could spend a week there just having lunch. We took along a soft-sided cooler and brought home four more for the next day's treats. We used frozen water bottles and the FBO provided some additional ice. http://www.faidleyscrabcakes.com/

When we go back we will likely go to KMTN and rent a car. The $$ will work out about the same and the hassles will be less.

The DC ADIZ is manageable, but for a first-timer, it is intimidating if you are VFR. Be sure to research the do's and don'ts with both AOPA and DUATS.

rgarrett7 · #6 10-05-2007, 09:10 PM

Kay's -- very nice restaurant on the field.

rgarrett7 · #7 10-05-2007, 09:11 PM

Standard airport restaurant. Not great; not terrible.

Nice pilot shop immediately across from the restaurant.

mike newall · #8 10-14-2007, 03:31 PM

Just spent a week in Maryland - Harford County to be precise. Stayed with Charles and Elizabeth, she sort of runs Harford Air Services and helps keep Kevin, Davey and Howdy in check.

Went Aeronca Champing for a day, cheffed at a cook out, flew a Stearman and a glider, watched a rounders match - sorry, baseball game - yep Orioles got whooped, but such a nice setting.

What a nice place it is - normally I only see it from FL380 as I wander down to Sanford FL.

Hey Ho, Montego Bay tomorrow

poeboy · #9 02-28-2008, 02:01 PM

Airways Inn on the field at Frederick. It's typical of
most similar places, with burgers, sandwiches, soups.
Cream of crab soup is pretty good on a chilly day.
Nice big windows face the ramp.

AOPA is also on the field, with their own ramp (but
they are only open M-F, no weekends other than the
once-a-year open house in June). EAA Chapter
524 has a club house on the field, too.

Keep your head on a swivel approaching the airport, as
activity is very high and varied - primary flight training,
a 'chopper school, gliders, IFR training, and corporate jets
make for an interesting mix. Also be aware of the DC ADIZ
to the south and P40 (Camp David) to the Northwest. P40
expands significantly when the President's there.

Bob Axsom · #10 05-29-2008, 09:57 PM

We flew into Martin State Airport and stayed at the Residence Inn for a week. Honest to God I do not understand the praise laid on Crab Cakes - I keep trying them because people rave about them and they just do nothing for me. That aside, we had a great time.

The first day we went to Annapolis and toured the capital of Maryland. After the city tour we went to the U.S. Naval Academy and had a tour of this famous institution that was founded in 1845. The day we visited was graduation day and we saw the crowd in the stadium attending that event. Ours was a very good tour led by a good tour guide. In the Visitor's Center they had Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 Mercury Capsule. Hundreds of people walk by it every day but very few actually worked on it - I was one of the few. I told my wife that the structure aft of the hatch was called the Z123 ring and the adapter mating ring around the large pressure bulkhead was located at Z104. I wanted to point out where Z137 was located up at the cylindrical section but I couldn't remember exactly so I dropped it. I wrote so many squawks about the wire bundle routing around the Z-one-twenty-three ring that I would never forget that.

The second day we took an all day tour of Washington DC. Basically we saw the monuments and memorials that we had seen before and the new ones - WWII, Korea and Vietnam. The WWII memorial is much grander than either of the other two. In the book by the Vietnam War Memorial I looked up the name "Long" because my old mechanic's twin brother was killed in the war while both served in the Marine Corps there. I didn't know Darrell's brother's name but the thought was there. There were a lot of Long's killed or missing in action in Vietnam. I have a more personal connection with Korea since as a teen aged Airman I was stationed at K-2AB for a year after the shooting stopped - not very heroic but still, I identify with that war more than any other. I was in High School Army ROTC during the shooting war and at 16 was in the 40th Infantry Division of the California National Guard in 1953. The men that fought in that war stand very high in my little private view. I recognized very easily the BAR, the M-1 Rifles and the M-1 Carbines carried by the 19 soldiers and I was moved back to another time as I looked at the patrol.

We became very familiar with I-95 during our stay as we drove on it every single day as the initial path to our new adventure. We drove down south of DC into Virginia twice and both were great trips. The first one was to George Washington's home at Mount Vernon. We saw a special movie about him that was very well done and then we toured the house itself. I came away with a whole new appreciation for the father of our country - a very good one. The second trip was to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum out by the Dulles Airport. I recognized most of the planes but the only one I actually worked on was the F-4 Phantom II. There was a Vari-EZ there but not a single RV in the Sport Aviation section. My wife said that she really enjoyed the visit and that was a surprise to me. Then we walked into the James S. McDonnell Space part of the museum. WOW! Up near the ceiling they had the SRTM canister with the outboard antenna partially deployed above the Space Shuttle Enterprise. Then I walked a little farther and I saw a write-up about the Homing Overlay Experiment (HOE) that I never thought anyone had ever heard of but there it was in a place of honor. On the other side they had Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules. With the shuttle, all of the NASA manned space vehicles except Skylab were there.

The rest of our time was spent in Baltimore. We took a cruise tour of the harbor out past Fort McHenry, we toured the city on a trolley and we visited Ft. McHenry itself. When you sail out in the harbor where the British ships were firing on Ft. McHenry all night and you see the large flag with 15 stars and 15 stripes as Francis Scott Key saw it still there the next morning against all odds - well, you will never hear the Star Spangled Banner quite the same again. You should take your children.

Bob Axsom