By Nick L.
When I first considered moving to Maryland with my family I didn’t expect much. I checked some of the basics about the state such as schools and property values, but then my wife quickly noticed how close we would be to Washington D.C. and learned all the museums were free! This pleasant surprise got us to pre-filling our weekend calendars with trips to the Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian, the Lincoln Memorial, the International Spy Museum (for me), the National Museum for Women’s Arts (for my wife) and more. The wealth of information, art and history is a treasure in itself, but there’s even more.
No More Snow Please!
Whenever my family has moved in the past, we were care free and sort of just went wherever the wind blew us for jobs and education. But there was something different this time around. There were a couple of more votes beyond my wife’s and mine. Our kids had a say in where we lived. Although they were too young to really grasp the concept of moving to a new state, we had to consider their education, their safety and above all their happiness. Would they be happy in Maryland? How are the Schools? What’s the crime rate like?
These are all questions we obsessed over before moving to this great state, and it turned out that all the categories that concerned us as parents were heads and tails better then where we were leaving (Northern California). Everything just seems better out here in Maryland except for one thing, the weather.
The snow storm of the century was a little disturbing. My family isn’t the only one that feels that way. Most of the folks in the office were freaked out, my neighbors were freaked out, in fact the whole state just seemed to freak out by closing everything. It was very unusual to say the least! At first it seemed exciting. That first big snow was great. Icicles adorned our roof edges. We felt like we were living in a crystal cottage. Our kids jumped out into the snow to be completely gobbled up with all the white powder. You could barely see there little bundled heads above the snow line. It was great! But then the second snow came along where I jumped into the snow, and I was the one who got gobbled up! It was dreadful! I, like the rest of the state, cannot wait for the spring.
So what’s there to do in the spring in this eastern oasis of good museums, good schools, and good living? Well, I’ve been told by a number of co-workers and neighbors that Spring has in store for us a ton of great festivals, gardening events, and more. We’ll be able to see the lush eastern landscape take flight, and really enjoy the better weather Maryland has to offer. Hopefully the state doesn’t freak out and close everything if the pollen count gets too dense (just kidding!).
So that’s it for now. Year one was great, and my fingers are crossed that next year will be just as great, minus the snow storms.
