Weekend Getaway Frederick, MD

 

Harbingers of spring- Redwing Blackbirds always remind me of my father. I bought this card at a gift shop in Middletown, MD.

We had another fun, couples getaway this weekend. Our destination was Frederick Maryland. Two friends and I had just been to Frederick in January but this time Kay and I went with our husbands. 

The "rules" for choosing a destination are few. We try to make the drive not more than three or so hours from home for a weekend getaway. We also look for a place that has somewhere to dine out, a nice indoor (or outdoor for summer) space to relax in the evening, and something of interest for the husbands as well. Frederick has a vibrant downtown area, a few nice antique shops, plenty of restaurants, a few brew pubs, and many more little shops of interest.

On our drive Friday, we stopped for lunch in Strasburg, VA. Over the winter, Steve stumbled upon a restaurant during one of his drives home from a work trip. It is called, Blue Wing Frog. Ever since, he has been raving about one of their dishes called, Shakshuka. He talked about it frequently and hoped to eat there again one day. his was the day! The place has a fun, hippy vibe and the food is delicious. Steve had the Shakshuka of course, I had black bean and sweet potato quesadillas, Tim had a shrimp po'boy, and Kay had potato pancakes. After lunch, we crossed the street to a vegan bakery and bought delicious Boston Cream Pie cupcakes. We ate these while seated on a bench outside on the sidewalk. 

Arriving in Frederick, we stopped at Kathy Makers shop, Primitive Homespuns, again and then on to our rental. For dinner, we ate at Dutch's Daughter. It was definitely high end dining for us. We all ordered fish of one type or another and the food was delicious. Then, we settled in at our rental for the evening.

On Saturday, we made the rounds to three antique shops outside of town. We lunched at a brewpub and then worked our way toward Frederick. We ended the afternoon downtown at the Antique Emporium as well as several shops along the main street in Frederick. Frederick was a happy, bustling place on this Saturday with families and couples like ourselves. We visited a few gift shops and the Irish Imports store. A man played the fiddle in the store and it was all around fun. We needed no dinner after our big lunch so we relaxed for the evening at our rental. 

On Sunday morning we packed up and began the drive home. We stopped in Harrisonburg at a familiar antique shop called, Rolling Hills Antique Mall. Then we lunched on pizza at a place right next door. Two hours later we were home, but not before getting a coveted ice cream cone at Bruster's for my birthday. Two scoops! Butter pecan and chocolate turtle. As we made the drive home, Kay perused Airbnb to see where our next excursion might take us. We chose to go to Warm Springs, VA in a couple of months.

I spotted this Grenfell rug at an antique shop near Frederick, MD. It is large- maybe 24"x24" and priced at $185.00. The Grenfell hookers used the tiniest loops!