Moving to Maryland

lisab99

lisab99

Cathlete
Hi All -

I got a really good promotion with my company, and I am moving from California to Maryland. I am thrilled to live closer to Cathe's operation - perhaps can go to an event or two.

I am hoping to find some Catheites in Maryland. My husband and I know absolutely no one in Maryland - so I would love to find some online friends to give us advice on restaurants etc.

We anticipate living in Columbia initially. :D
 
Hi!

I used to live in Columbia - moved there from Austin. Prepare for a little culture shock!

Columbia has a lot of nice features, though. Really good parks (Centennial Park was my favorite jogging park, and the Columbia Triathlon happens there). They now have a Trader Joe's and a Roadrunner Sports. And my favorite restaurant and grocery store are just down the road in Clarksville!

You're also in a good location to access Western Maryland for hiking - the Appalachian Trail runs through Maryland, and there's the C&O Canal and all kinds of fun stuff to see up in the mountains.

Maryland also has great farmer's markets. Nothing that holds a candle to the variety of produce you can get out west, but still.

Good luck on your move, and welcome!
 
Welcome to Maryland, Lisab99! I live in Southern Maryland, so I'm not too sure about the places you could go dining. If you like to go to concerts, I know Columbia is close to Meriweather Post Pavillion.

Congratulations on you promotion!:)
 
Congrats on your promotion! I live outside of Frederick.
I LOVE your avatar :D. I am a star trek fan through and through!
 
Congrats.......I lived in Columbia from 1974 to about 1985 and my parents still live there. It's a great place to live, lots of shopping and resturants and everything is well cared for and green. You will be close to Baltimore (about 20 mins) and Washington (about 30 mins). There are lots of options for fitness, bike paths, running and walking clubs and lifetime fitness (24hrs). I'm sure you will enjoy it.....check out this link....and welcome.:D

http://www.columbiamd.org/
 
Congrats on your promotion. I live in Rockville, MD. I don't get to Columbia very often but it is a nice place. Maybe once you get settled in we can organize a get together. The other great thing about living in MD is that your Cathe stuff arrives in 1 day.
 
Thats so weird, we have been in talks to go out there too. And I live in N. CA. We work in construction, what do you do? Just curious.

Also, if I'm that close to Cathe darn straight I'm heading over there! I think I need to run a lot more and work up to doing all of the "Jumping!!!"
 
Congrats in your promotion! Woo hoo!

I moved from California to MD back in 1982 (be prepared for humid weather in summer and ice storms in the winter). We moved just west of Columbia in a rural area. Talk about culture shock! Columbia is nice; I lived there after graduating from college for a few years. However, I moved back to California back in 2000 and am thrilled to be here. :)

I must say that every time I fly back to MD to visit my parents, I insist we go to the Great Sage restaurant in Clarksville. Roots grocery store is fabulous as well (kind of like Whole Foods but the cost is closer to Henry's Marketplace). Great Sage is an organic vegetarian restaurant with excellent meals. I haven't had a bad one yet! :)
 
Hello! I lived in Columbia for several years and just last year moved to Odenton (about 15 miles away, but you can't really tell since it all runs together). There is a lot to do around here, but it is definitely a different culture! :) There is running at Lake Elkhorn and Centennial Lake, and there are a few (but not many) biking trails near the airport. They have a lot of 5k-10k running events in this area (about one a week at least) during the spring/summer/fall months. There are sporting events and concerts here all the time, so it's not a boring place to live! If you need anything, email me! :)

MC
 
And Ditto-ing Lorraynne, today was quite humid, although it has let up a bit.
And I agree with MC, it all runs together. I live in Baltimore County Maryland, but work in DC.
If you lived in CA, are traffic issues may see minor. That is the most thing I complain about. The least little thing can disrupt the system, but overall I love living in this area.
 
lorrayne said:
Congrats in your promotion! Woo hoo!

I moved from California to MD back in 1982 (be prepared for humid weather in summer and ice storms in the winter). We moved just west of Columbia in a rural area. Talk about culture shock! Columbia is nice; I lived there after graduating from college for a few years. However, I moved back to California back in 2000 and am thrilled to be here. :)

I must say that every time I fly back to MD to visit my parents, I insist we go to the Great Sage restaurant in Clarksville. Roots grocery store is fabulous as well (kind of like Whole Foods but the cost is closer to Henry's Marketplace). Great Sage is an organic vegetarian restaurant with excellent meals. I haven't had a bad one yet! :)
Click to expand...

OMG! OMG! OMG! I LOVE Great Sage!!!!!!!! I live in Virginia now, but my sister is in Maryland and every time I visit we go to Great Sage!!!! I used to live in Columbia too, but not when Great Sage was there :(

They have AWESOME incredible food!!!!!!! A vegetarian's (me!) dream!
 
Well ladies, all of you have MADE MY DAY. The best news I have heard is that Columbia has Trader Joe's. I was absolutely moritified that I would not be able to get the food I really like. I am also quite happy with the idea of Great Sage - we LOVE vegetarian food.

I imagine it will be pretty different from California - I'm in Sacramento - not too big of a city in comparison to Washington DC and Baltimore. But ladies, many of you mentioned culture shock and for me to be prepared. I figure it will be different - and I can handle humidity. I grew up in east Texas for goodness sake. But what is so different? Be specific so I don't freak out!!

And once I am there, I promise to post another thread. We can plan a Maryland Catheite outing!!

We are very excited about moving - we are SICK of California and all its problems. And the cost of living continues to rise. I actually had a choice between Maryland and Fresno, CA. You can see why I chose Maryland . . . no offense to any Fresno people but it is HOT - even hotter than good old Sacramento. . .

So okay - lay it out for me. What is this culture shock - what is so different???
 
I lived in Columbia for 10 years, and owned a condo in Bryant Woods, right near the mall. As far as culture shock.....Columbia is a "Planned Community". The Rouse company basically sat down one day and decided to build a town. So, it has all the amenities, nice houses lived in by nice upstanding people, a great big mall, lots of shopping, bike trails, etc etc, but to me it just never had the feel of a hometown or community. It's hard to explain, but it just never felt "homey" to me. And of course, that is just me.

You said you were going to live in Columbia initially...maybe rent a place near the mall (you could easily walk to there, Cheesecake Factory :D the movies, library, lake, Merriweather Post Pavilion) and explore some of the other towns just a mile or two down the road, like Ellicott City, Clarksville, etc.

For example, Ellicott City is an older town, with a main street, antique stores, little coffee shops. That's just personally more of my speed. I live in Virginia now, in a 50's house near a college and lots of antique stores nearby, which reminds me of Ellicott City. That's just more of my style, it feels very old-town and comfy and I LOVE it. It just depends on what you want in a town.
 
First of all, I am just thrilled to see so many other fans of Great Sage! I make a "pilgrimage" to Clarksville at least once a month to shop at Roots market and to eat at Great Sage. It's nice to know that I may have been dining with fellow Catheites and I didn't even know it!

Re: Culture Shock. If you've never lived in the DC Metro area/Maryland before, and you've been out west for a while, it's just going to be really different! I grew up in Denver and have sort of shuttled back and forth from the southwest (Texas) to Maryland during graduate school. I just finally really settled in Maryland a few years ago. I love it here, but there are lots of things I miss. Wide open spaces, wild parakeets, people who say "Y'all" and "I'm fixin to do (something)" without being ironic, Texas Rio Star grapefruit, Austin's Central Market, tres leches cake, the Rocky Mountains, skiing...

I've visited California and it is definitely a unique and special state! I'm sure you'll miss lots of California things. As Govtgirl points out, Columbia is a planned community, and as a result has a different "feel" than many of the other towns in Maryland - many of the major towns in MD were settled between around 1650 and 1800, so a community established in the 1960s still feels young. But I really, really liked it anyway. Give me a clean, functional apartment, plenty of hike & bike trails, access to a vegetarian restaurant and a grocery store run by nature-loving hippies and I'm a happy camper.

Other pluses: the job market is pretty solid here (compared to everywhere else, it seems), and there are plenty of things to love if you're open to the possibility. I live in Annapolis now, and I love it here. I love the libraries (the libraries in Columbia are also AWESOME. Seriously), I love the Chesapeake Bay and the Bay Bridge, I love the Enoch Pratt library in Baltimore, I love the Walters art museum, I love the Eastern Shore (roadside farmstands especially, but also the outlet mall and the shore), I love the C&O Canal Trail, I love downtown Annapolis, I love the new Annapolis/Parole Town Center, I love Mount Calvert Archaeological Park, I love the cherry blossoms in Centennial Park in the spring, and I super-love the vegan cinnamon rolls at Great Sage for Sunday brunch! I could go on and on. But I think I'll stop now!
 
Ironically, I moved from Maryland to California. I only moved because my fiance lived out here, and it was easier for me to move than for him (we're married now). Do know that the cost of living in Columbia will be pretty close to that of Sacramento. The Bay Area is more expensive, but Sacramento is about the same.

Culture shock - East Coast people are a lot pushier and they do tend to be a little cliquier - they are a bit harder to get to know - but once you do get to know them, they will do anything for you. Just know it's not you, and have patience.

Traffic - even in the Bay Area at it's worst, I have not seen traffic like that of Maryland/DC/VA. I've had it take me 3 hours to drive the 45 miles between Bel Air, MD where I lived and Columbia where I worked.

The area in general - LOTS of trees. We have a lot more wide-open here in California. The trees are very beautiful, but it can be a little claustrophobic until you get used to it.

Balmerese - the folks from Baltimore have a language all of their own - you don't hear it as much any more, but you will occasionally (I happened to like this part - I like unique people).

And there is a faster feel to Maryland, especially south of Baltimore. You're sitting pretty much on the pulse of the Nation with DC so close and you can feel it. It's interesting. I liked that, too.

Oh yeah - and you can SWIM in the Ocean in the summer - the water is warm enough - not the frigid cold water around Northern California and the boardwalks are so much more fun.

I really enjoyed my time in Maryland. California has much better weather, but Maryland is very pretty and the folks, once you get to know them, are golden. The focus is a lot less on money, too (at least from the Bay Area). Oh yeah, and the CRABS!! Dungeness crabs have NOTHING on Maryland Blues. YUM! The locals will be happy to help you learn to pick them.

Oh, and some of the best cycling I've ever done was in Maryland. The Eastern Shore just begs to be cycled - it's absolutely flat and a gorgeous trip between waterways. Maryland has a lot of shoreline.

Just an odd side note - I jokingly call Maryland the "Drive through" state - because if you mention to people outside of Maryland that you live there, the response enevitably is "Oh Maryland? I've driven through there..." It sits between the North East and the many vacation destinations in the south.

Enjoy your move!

PS - I'm still a fan of the Ravens and Orioles. :p
 
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Lisa,

Not only do they have Trader Joe's in Columbia, but they also have MOM's (My Organic Market) and Bloom grocery stores in the area that carry a lot of organic stuff. Plus, there are a lot of local farmer's markets and this climate is FABULOUS for growing some of your own veggies if you're interested. Almost everything grows in MD easily.

My family's originally from California, so I can say that Maryland is different in the following ways (that I've noticed):
- MD people are a bit pushier
- MD has a somewhat odd accent that can be tough to understand (or tolerate!) at first
- MD has somewhat less of an interest in health than CA (so gyms aren't AS ubiquitous as in CA, same thing with organic markets and vegetarian restaurants and their ilk), but it seems to be getting better lately
- MD is less "trendy" feeling than CA, which I consider a plus

All in all, I have liked it here. I've lived here 6 years. I hope you like it, too!

MC
 
Thanks for all the great information. I got the impression that this community would be similar to Sacramento - and yes, the traffic will be awful - but that has steadily increased here to almost intolerable!! We are going to try to get a small apartment around my office initially for 6 months and spend some time getting to know the area before we try to buy something.

Also - I find it curious about the "pushier" Marylanders. I find Californians to be some of the rudest people I have ever met. I've been here 11 years and have found them to be quite obnoxious and distant - lots of fear around here. But then again, I grew up in Texas where EVERYONE says hello and EVERYONE smiles at you. Here - people purposefully avoid you if you are walking toward them on the street. Very weird.

Ah well - it is what it is. I will keep everyone posted when I get there!!
 
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