I just made the announcement here at work: at the end of the month, I’m moving to a new job in Baltimore. Huge move, from Seattle to Baltimore, and we’re going to have to drive it. We’re planning on renting an RV to make the trip so that we don’t have to fly our dogs over there… and we’re going to try to make a bit of a vacation out of it.
So… what’s the Straight Dope on Baltimore? Technically, I’ll be on the north side- the new job’s in Cockeysville. Going to be renting a house for a year or so, which ain’t gonna be easy to arrange. I’m hoping we won’t have to put our stuff in storage and live in a hotel for a while.
How’s the weather out there? I can’t imagine it’s as wet as Seattle, but it certainly seems to be about as cold during the winter. I understand summers can get pretty hot and humid.
The Baltimore inner harbor area is pretty cool, if touristy. You can go see Fort McHenry, the site that inspired “The Star Spangled Banner.” Nera that is the maryland Science Center, a museum. And there’s the aquarium, the USS Constellation (a tall ship), the USS Torsk (a WWII submarine) and others.
Welcome to Bawlamer, hon (You’ll get used to the accent).
I work in Baltimore and live in Pennsylvania. I came from West Virginia originally, and to me the winters here seem mild. One thing you get a lot of in Baltimore that I didn’t get in WV was ice. Baltimore gets a lot more ice and freezing rain. WV just gets dumped on with snow and very rarely gets sheets of ice all over the roads and parking lots. Baltimore is kinda funny that if you draw a line down the middle, the east side often gets ice and the west side gets snow. Cockeysville is just barely on the snow side of the line.
83 and the beltway are a bitch around rush hour. You’ll get used to it.
As for fun stuff, Hypno-Toad already mentioned the harbor and all the stuff around it, which I’ll second. The aquarium is one of the best in the country. There are also a couple of art galleries if you are into that sort of thing (the Walters art gallery is free), the B&O train museum, and the museum of industry which is kind of tucked away but I think it’s neat (then again I am an engineer geek).
Washington DC is just down the road. IMHO the best way to visit DC is to drive down to the Silver Spring metro station and take the metro in. Saves you the hassle of trying to park in DC.
Hershey Park is basically straight up 83 from Cockeysville.
There are always all kinds of things going on at the Timmonium fair grounds, which isn’t too far from Cockeysville.
Ladew Topiary Gardens is interesting if you are into that sort of thing.
I can’t help you with sushi. I don’t touch the stuff.
My husband and I used to live in Cockeysville (we live in Baltimore city now). Sadly, in the year that we lived there we never found a good sushi place in Cockeysville. There is a really good one in Towson though, which isn’t too far. I don’t remember the name of the place, but I know it was on the same street as Legends Games and Comics (503 York Rd), and it was only a block or so away. If you like Irish food, you absolutely MUST go to the Still. The actual name is An Poitin Stil, but everyone calls it the Still. It’s on 2323 York Rd in Timonium (just south of Cockeysville).
If you don’t mind making a bit of a drive (45 minutes or so from Cockeysville, depending on traffic) for sushi, our favorite sushi place is Tokyo Sushi in Glen Burnie. The address is 60 Mountain Rd.
As far as fun stuff to do, we’re fond of Thames St in Fells Point (in the inner harbor). It seems like that’s where all the fun bars are, like The Horse You Rode In On (the bar Edgar Allen Poe used to hang out at), and the Cat’s Eye Pub (live music 7 days a week). There’s a pizza place on Broadway walking distance from there called Brick Oven Pizza (everyone calls it BOP). It’s the best pizza ever after a night of bar hopping.
Poe went on a week long drinking binge, was found delirious in the street, and died a short time later. I’m not sure that advertising yourself as a bar where he hung out is a good thing.
Well, i’m going to be a bit of a wet blanket, but i think the Inner Harbor is a piece of shit. It is, like so many similar places, an overhyped, overpriced tourist trap that keeps most Baltimore visitors from seeing some of the truly interesting parts of the city.
Sure, there’s a couple of decent places tucked in among the fudge shops and the burger joints and the crab cakes, but for the most part it’s a bland, boring place that i did my best to avoid for much of my time living in Baltimore.
Lightnin’, if your idea of fun in Seattle is to hang out at Pike Place and watch some fish-tossing, and then walk up to Westlake Center and take the monorail out to the Space Needle, then you should, by all means, hang out at the Inner Harbor.
Baltimore has a lot of great bars, restaurants, and other attractions, but they’re not all clustered around the Inner Harbor. It’s a city that rewards effort. If you take the trouble to visit different neighborhoods you’ll find some really interesting places and people.
My sister tends bar at the Cat’s Eye! And my brother’s best friend occasionally plays there - dunno what his band’s name is, tho. I spent much of my youth in Fell’s Point - my grandmother lived just a few blocks away.
I grew up in Parkville, but I never really took advantage of the best of Maryland - the Bay. Now, however, we have a sailboat, so we’re afloat. Which brings me to water-related places nearby. Annapolis. Solomons Island, heck all of southern Md. The eastern shore: Kent Island, St. Michael’s, Ocean City.
I’m biased, but I think it’s a great area. Plus there are tons of MADs (Mid-Atlantic Dopers) around, so you’ve got friends here already!
Yes, it can get incredibly hot and humid here (when the weatherman says it’s going to be ‘hazy, hot and humid’ it’s best to just stay inside where the AC is kept), but the worst of it is in August. Spring and Fall are pretty nice.
There are countless seafood places around here. Hale’s in Parkville is great. Ocean Pride, in Lutherville, just down York Road from Cockeysville, is a little over-priced, but it’s always good.
Conversely, there are always lines outside of Red Lobster and Long John Silver’s. I figure those people just don’t know any better.
Traffic on the major routes can be a bitch at rush hour, as engineer comp geek said. Interstate 95 is horrible as well. Yesterday, an armoured truck flipped over and dumped, well, a truckfull of coins all over the place, shutting down the roadway for a good long time.
I grew up in Towson, lived in Cockeysville for a time, and in Parkville, right near where FairyChatMom lived, and about 5 minutes from GingerOf TheNorth and WeirdDave.
I’ll second the recommendation for Ocean Pride in Lutherville. Best cream of crab soup I’ve come across – we buy it by the quart usually. Pappa’s in Parkville has amazing crab cakes.
Looking westward, there are plenty of civil war battlefields in the western part of central Maryland, which are good for history and/or hiking, depending on how your tastes run. Gettysburg is just over the border in PA, and there are plenty of opportunities for Amish furniture stores and antiquing in that part of PA.
And don’t forget to check out Camden Yards, home of the Orioles who (as of this posting) are in the lead of the AL East thanks to their opening day spanking of the Yankees.
Wow, there seem to be a lot of Baltimoreans (Or Baltimorons, when you’re trying to take 95 North through the city at Rush Hour) here! I don’t live in the city, but I’ve lived about 45 minutes NE of it in the town of Bel Air for my whole life and I’m currently attending UMBC, about 15 minutes south of the city. I’ll second what pretty much everyone here has told you, and add this: If you like music, don’t forget to check out Ram’s Head Live, PowerPlant Live, and the Hard Rock Cafe for some great live shows!
