Maryland Archives

The next state with an exchange for me is Maryland and oh my, I think I fell in love when I read the description. Here it is word for word…what do you think!

Nestled in the natural wetlands overlooking the beautiful Isle of Wight Bay, you will discover a very unique and distinct hotel that can accommodate endless possibilities for any occasion.

The Coconut Malorie is a five-story, bay-front resort. With its beautiful marble lobby and waterfall, it offers deluxe suites, all newly designed with attention to meeting your vacation needs. From the building’s exterior to the carpet in the bedrooms, no detail has been left out. Professionally decorated rooms showcase all new furniture, artwork, carpet, bedspreads and curtains.

Located on top of the hotel in the tower, you can enjoy magnificent views of the ocean, the bay and the best sunsets on the east coast.

Ocean City has a boardwalk. At just under three miles, the Ocean City, Maryland boardwalk is a perfect family bike ride, an invigorating walk or run, or a relaxing tram ride. At night, the boardwalk comes to life with rides, arcades, performers and so much more.

And this is the perfect location to see the wild ponies of Assateague. The famous ponies are just nine miles from Ocean City, along with nature trails, deer, foxes and thousands of birds. Oh be still my heart! This is a major wish list of mine.

There’s tons of free events too if the travel pages can be believed. Here’s an excerpt from just one of those pages:

Enjoy our nights of free family fun. In the summer there is a free family event every day of the week. Some of the events include:

Sundaes in the Park with free concert, fireworks and ice cream for a small fee at Northside Park.
Concerts on the Beach every Wednesday evening.
Free Movies Under the Stars Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Family Beach Olympics on Tuesday evenings.
Sunset Park Party Nights every Thursday.
Laser Light Shows on Sundays.
Fireworks on Mondays and Tuesdays.

I’m seeing photo ops everywhere! I think Maryland is giving Colorado a run for first choice. Unfortunately it looks like this location is all booked up for 2014. 🙁 Even in the “off Season”.

Any comments or suggestions from the Maryland contingent?

Maryland is the 2nd “M” state and Massachusetts is the 3rd.

Let’s start with Maryland first.

No… Not really. Maryland is part of what I think of as the political area…It’s close to Washington DC and Annapolis is in Maryland and I can remember going to the Naval Academy with my family to visit my brother.

That’s what I remember the most, that and how impressive it was to see all of the young cadets marching past. I can’t even begin to put into words what I was feeling but I can remember it to this day and it was about 40 years ago, maybe 42. I really don’t remember much else about the visit except seeing my brother and being so proud of him. It was a very emotional visit. So I suppose I could cross it off but I think it needs another visit to be official. 🙂

M is for Massachusetts

Yes..I better say yes. I’ve been living here since 1974. Hard to believe it. I originally came out for company training for 6 months. Once the training ended the only openeing was right here in Malden, MA so I stayed.

Massachusetts has everything you could want; mountains, ocean, cities, rural area, summer sun and winter snow.

We’ve got National Parks and history. My word, we have history galore from Minuteman National Park with it’s Patriots Day Reenactments to Boston’s Freedom Trail. There’s Salem, MA of the historic witch trials, Old Ironsides, Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall.

As if that wasn’t enough we have nature! We have Whale Watches and Deep Sea Fishing, we’ve got seals and zoos and aquariums.

And we’ve got Old Cape Cod with a scenic train and the National Sea Shore and the annual scallop festival. We can even boast great white sharks now!

And we have Lighthouses.

Maine does not have a monopoly there! I believe there are 63 in all.


Annisquam	Baker’s Island	Bass River (West Dennis)
Bird Island	Bishop and Clerks	Borden Flats
Boston Harbor	Brant Point	Brant Point (Old)
Butler Flats	Cape Ann (Thacher Island)	Cape Cod (Highland)
Cape Poge	Chatham	Clark’s Point
Cleveland Ledge	Cuttyhunk	Deer Island
Derby Wharf	Dog Bar Breakwater	Duxbury Pier
East Chop	Eastern Point	Edgartown Harbor
Fort Pickering (Winter Island)	Gay Head	Graves
Great Point	Hospital Point Range Front	Hospital Point Range Rear
Hyannis	Lightship Nantucket I WLV-612	Lightship Nantucket II WLV 613
Lightship Nantucket LV 112/WAL 534	Lightship New Bedford LV 114/WAL 536	Long Island Head
Long Point	Marblehead	Mayo’s Beach
Minot’s Ledge	Monomoy Point	Nantucket Cliff Range
Nauset	Ned’s Point	Newburyport Harbor (Plum Island)
Newburyport Harbor Range Front	Newburyport Harbor Range Rear	Nobska Point
Palmer Island	Plymouth (Gurnet)	Point Gammon
Race Point	Sandy Neck	Sankaty Head
Scituate	Stage Harbor	Straitsmouth Island
Tarpaulin Cove	Ten Pound Island	Three Sisters
West Chop	Wings Neck	Wood End

Head west on RT 90, from Boston and you’ll find Springfield, home to Dr. Seuss and The “Big E” (Eastern States exposition) and the Basket Ball Hall of Fame.

Speaking of sports, Massachusetts is a pro sports kind of place. We have the Boston Bruins, The Red Sox, Fenway Park and Red Sox Nation. Out in Foxboro we have the New England Patriots and we’ve got the Revolution..not the 1776 revolution but the pro soccer team.

We host golf tournaments like the Deutsche Bank PGA tournament.

Heading back to Western Massachusetts Rt 90 rises upward to the Berkshire Mountains. The Appalachia Trail winds it’s way through here and we have Tanglewood and Jacobs Pillow for culture.

There’s still more. Massachusetts loves politics. You can find a political discussion almost anywhere and everyone has an opinion. 🙂 And we have higher education, Colleges and Universities abound.

Harvard Yard

There are too many to list.

Don’t get me wrong, Massachusetts is not all peaches and cream. After all, we had the “Big Dig” too and are still dealing with the consequences.

Talk about a major screw up! Traffic is worse now than ever. And we’re starting to head back to the bad old days of “Taxachusetts”…just when we thought it was safe to take our hands out of our pockets good old Governor Deval Patrick put his hands right in!