Woodland Hills
Guru
I’m surprised Chesapeake Harbour has not been mentioned. Not too far from town and with an excellent restaurant on-site.
Mandatory pool is overstating it a little... Certainly in Aug. & Sept., one would be nice, but we don't see it as a deal-breaker. )
I’m surprised Chesapeake Harbour has not been mentioned. Not too far from town and with an excellent restaurant on-site.
I want the time back that I spent on the drive between Annapolis and Reston. It looks a lot better on paper than it does from the ground.
Hot damp summers and cold damp winters. All in all, it was a great area way back when. Awfully crowded now, but a lot of great people.
A couple thoughts on commuting in this area...
You might have a look at Metro viability for Reston and so forth -- I'm not as familiar with Herndon, etc. -- but if the Silver Line that now goes toward Dulles has some useful stops on it... then it's maybe possible to get there from Annapolis.
One option from Annapolis is the commuter bus from a local Park 'n' Ride, either to the New Carrolton Metro Station (continue on Metro) or all the way into downtown DC. The other is to drive to New Carrolton and park there, take Metro to wherever. From elsewhere (e.g., HHN/Deale) the local PnR and the nearest Metro target might be different, but same concept. Overall time could be slightly longer, overall stress could be much lower.
I mentioned Liberty on the South River as being about the absolute shortest commute to Columbia, might not actually be too much different for HHN/Deale to Reston given traffic on US-50 generally moves along OK ('til it doesn't)... but I don't know much about the marina itself other than location... so that's not a recommendation, just an observation... and AC reviews might be more informative about the place. There are a few other marinas in almost the same place (Oak Grove, etc.) that I didn't try to name only because I don't think they have pools, but those could be equally commuter-"friendly" (as it were).
The comment about Bay Bridge re-decking work is on target; long lines, lots o' backups, lots o' complaints, etc. I don't remember how long that's supposed to last, though. If it's just a wintertime project, could well be done and dusted before you get close.
-Chris
I’m surprised Chesapeake Harbour has not been mentioned. Not too far from town and with an excellent restaurant on-site.
These are all great tips y’all. Thanks 3000! We are getting our head around the layout now and will start narrowing down the choices and options.
We still have a couple of questions:
Is Main Street the “main street” where the cool stuff is, or is there stuff spread all over?
Is Eastport a separate town to explore or are the recos to stay there just to be close to downtown?
How is (car)parking in downtown? If we opt for a place like Harrington, would a drive in be futile?
We still have a couple of questions:
Is Main Street the “main street” where the cool stuff is, or is there stuff spread all over?
Is Eastport a separate town to explore or are the recos to stay there just to be close to downtown?
How is (car)parking in downtown? If we opt for a place like Harrington, would a drive in be futile?
If you want to be right on the Chesapeake, Solomons would be far and away my first choice. We were at the Solomon's Yachting Center marina a few weeks ago (and will be back the end of this week to help some friends bring boat down to Beaufort). It was very nice with a pool to boot. There are lots of marinas to choose from.
Have you been to Annapolis before? Because we have and we don’t really see what the big deal about it might be. It’s just another waterside tourist town with the same boring food, the same cookie cutter bars and the same junky tourist stores as nearly ever other shore town on the Bay. It is really crowded though if that is an attraction. We spent just over a week there this summer and that was more than enough to cross it off of our list. In the end we were so bored that we took our rental car and visited DC.
On the plus side there is El Cabrito a fantastic hole in the wall Central American/Oxacan restaurant that is simply amazing. Filled with Latin families and working people you won’t hear a word of English at any table but yours, but ever time we eat there we are blown away by the quality and low price of the food.
As a 'home base' for working around the DMV metro area Solomon's strikes me as a terrible choice. It's a long drive all the way down there. That and there's not anywhere near the same array of sites to visit from there. Sure, lots of fishing/wildlife areas, but if you want on the water action like marinas, towns and such, there ain't bupkis around there. If you wanted to take a boat trip up to Annapolis, Baltimore, St. Michael's and the like you're tacking at least an extra hour onto the start of the journey.
As a stopping point along the way, however, it's quite nice and well worth spending a day/weekend there.
Have And why would you take a boat trip to places more easily and cheaply visited by car?
The commute is really not a big deal. I go into the office about once per month. I might do it a bit more while up that way....but it’s really not an issue.