by Troy Wood
The City of Frederick: I’ve visited a couple of times in my life, in particular for a couple AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball games during my childhood at Hood College and a high school playoff basketball game against Tuscarora High School my senior year. Other than that, there is no background history that connects me to this city. My mother absolutely loves this city. She has been raving about how the cost of living is so low here and how she wishes she would’ve considered moving down here back when my sister and I were still living underneath her roof.
“The scenery Troy… it’s absolutely beautiful. That’s the main thing I love up here. Every morning I wake up, make a cup of coffee, light up a cigarette and just sit on my porch and watch the sun rise over top of the mountains.”
My mother grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, a place where everywhere you look you see mountains. I guess the reminiscence of her childhood and her current living situation match hand in hand. Every time I go over her house we have our traditional mother/son talk about how everything is going in our lives. I remember the first time.
I went over to visit her in her new townhouse in Frederick last year. It was around mid-October during the middle of the afternoon. I drove into her development to find a group of neighborhood kids ranging from the ages of 8 to 14 playing touch football in the street. I said to myself sarcastically yet shockingly as they let me pass through, “Kids actually still play outside nowadays?” When I was growing up during the illustrious early 2000s time period we constantly played outside whether it was hot, cold, windy, or rainy. There were no smart phones or social media available to keep us entertained. At the most we had the emergence of Xbox and PlayStation that we could play, but for the most part we had to make the best out of our situation by playing outside. To see a group of at least 15 kids this day and age play neighborhood football reminded me of the glory days of my childhood. I’ve been back at my mom’s house five times since that day and each time I come back I see a group of kids outside playing.
“These kids were just like you when you were younger. That’s another reason why I love living here. It takes me back in time mentally and makes me feel happy to see kids being kids,” my mother told me.
“This is something they do consistently?” I asked her.
“Every single day, Troy,” she responded joyfully.
My mother just moved from Montgomery County, MD to Frederick, MD in 2017. I lived with her all my life until I turned 21. I lived with her during my time in middle school going back to 2006 up until 2015 online gaming and social media emerged significantly in our culture. The amount of kids and teenagers that would be outside playing during this nine-year time span decreased at a rapid pace each year. Parks went from packed to damn near empty, swing sets went from having waiting lines to being completely vacant even on pretty 80-degree days, and outdoor basketball courts turned into ghost towns as my generation started to transition from adolescence to adulthood. Nothing was the same anymore, at least in this part of Maryland. Frederick, however, never skipped a beat and never lost that mindset of kids being able to remain active on a consistent basis. I guess you could call this city Ole Reliable for its ability to maintain the roots of kids truly experiencing what it feels like to be a kid.
City Life & History
Rain, rain all day. This seemed to be a bad day to decide to take a tour of the city, but considering the circumstances, this was the only time that my girlfriend and I could go do this; and by this I’m pertaining to going to visit the Festival of Trees event located in downtown Frederick. This isn’t a one-day thing; a two-week event ranging from November 23rd all the way December 9th.
We didn’t know what to expect before we showed up because neither of us had ever been to a Christmas tree festival before. We had a conversation prior to going about it however.
“You think that the festival is still going to be open? It’s been raining pretty hard all morning Troy,” my girlfriend asked me worryingly. I wasn’t positive, so I did a google search and checked the website. If it ended up being canceled, we could always pay a visit to the Frederick History Museum, which was right up the street.
The word of the day was confusion; that’s what traveling and maneuvering in downtown Frederick brought to me. It was very reminiscent of what life was like in the District of Columbia; narrow one-way streets scattered randomly throughout the city, pedestrians over populating the sidewalks and crosswalks with a side of obnoxious horn honking from impatient drivers who seem to be late for something. As we drew closer to our destination, we became even more confused. The GPS informed us that we had reached our destination, our eyes told us otherwise. We parked our car in a neighborhood parking lot across the street and walked around looking lost like a child who lost their mother in a grocery store.
I saw a middle-aged man standing outside a restaurant smoking a cigarette and asked him, “Excuse me sir. I’m sorry to bother you but my girlfriend and I are looking for the Christmas Tree Festival. Our GPS says that it’s right across the street but we don’t see it anywhere.”
Laughing, he responded, “Not from here huh? You know what’s funny? You’re the second person to ask me that today. The Christmas Tree Festival is inside of the Frederick Museum.”
I told him it was confusing, and that I didn’t like it up here.
“Do you like it up here?” I asked him.
“Young man, you just came on the wrong day during the worst time of the year. I love it up here, especially during the summer. Have you ever been to Baker Park?” he asked me curiously.
“No sir,” I responded.
“Make sure that you and your girlfriend come up during the summer next year. It’s the big park with concert stage right around the corner. They have a bunch of city cookouts during mid-June and they have a big festival on the fourth of July each year. You guys would have a much better time compared to how you’re feeling now. My name’s Richard by the way.”
This encounter with Richard really made the trip better. My girlfriend and I were still shocked that the Christmas Tree Festival was indoors however. We wasted a good 15 minutes driving past it in a circle on a flat rear tire getting frustrated the entire time not even considering that this could be an indoor event. We walked inside, paid our $8 entry and made our way to the trees. To our surprise, the trees were 2 feet tall and there were only eight trees to view and vote from. It definitely felt like Charlie Brown when all he got was a rock. Still, we decided to make the best out of the situation and have fun since we weren’t walking outside in the rain anymore.
There were only two trees that caught my attention. The first was decorated with the theme of Dr. Seuss. The tree was titled, “A Very Seussical Christmas” decorated by Robin Rose. She described her love for Dr. Seuss books and how decorating this tree reminded her of her childhood and how she hoped that her creation would bring a smile to the faces of all of those who passed it. That it did Robin, that it did. With the Cat in The Hat hat playing its part of the star on top of the tree and the Grinch hanging off the edge of the tree with that devious grin, it was hard not to look at this tree and smile.
The second tree that caught my eye was titled, “Holiday Baubles: A Champagne Christmas” decorated by Emily Dorr. The florescence of this tree was pure eye candy to my eye. The tree consisted bronzish gold ornaments with white and gold ribbons wrapped around it. The fake snow dusted on the branches of this tree gave the tree an authenticity that the others didn’t. The main thing that caught my eye, however, were the white doves hanging off of the edges of the branches that had the ability to chirp. This made me think of my deceased auntie who had just recently passed away. Her favorite bird was a Dove. She had dove blankets and two dove dresses she used to wear when I was younger. Those doves instantly took back to my childhood with her helping raise me. I miss her a lot, and I can’t wait to see her again. I love you auntie.
During our time looking at the other mediocre trees, my girlfriend reminded me that we were inside of the Frederick Museum loaded with tons of history of the city, so I decided to take a look at the artifacts and pictures hanging up on the wall. I wasn’t really intrigued by the information exhibited. I was more intrigued by the signs that said not to touch the historic furniture displayed. I touched everything I wasn’t supposed to. I felt like a kid who was on a field trip to a museum with no fun things to encounter with in the museum. I did however pass a glass case that had a picture of Bugs Bunny in it that caught my attention. The picture dated back to 1953 when Bugs Bunny was denied entry across the Mason-Dixon line by his arch cartoon rival Yosemite Sam because Bugs was considered a Yankee (The Irony). This made me want to look up information pertaining to the Mason-Dixon line. For those of you who don’t know, the Mason-Dixon line is a demarcation line that borders between Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia. According to risingsunmd.org, the first official usage of the term Mason-Dixon line happened during the Missouri compromise of 1820 which symbolized a cultural boundary between the Northern United States and the Southern United States.
Food
“Where exactly do you want to go eat?” is a question that I find myself asking my girlfriend on a daily basis. Trying to reason with her when it comes to food is like arguing with a five-year-old who only knows McDonald’s and pizza. If it’s not Chipotle or Chick-Fil-A then it’s a no go for her. I explained to her that I had to dine at a restaurant in Frederick for my travel writing class at school two weeks ago.
Frustrated, she asked me, “Well, where are we going to eat? Because I don’t want to eat at a place I’ve never been before.”
I didn’t know how to answer that question because I know for a fact that my initial response to her question would spark the illustrious answer we all love to hear: no. I told her to just get dressed and get ready to be surprised (little did she know I was winging it the entire car ride). We found ourselves in Frederick County Square Shopping Center. This shopping center is one of the greatest shopping centers I have ever been to; this area of Frederick is legit. We got off Highway 70 at the West Patrick Street exit. As soon as you get on the strip you instantly get bombarded with restaurants. McDonald’s, Red Lobster, The Red Horse, Famous Dave’s, Burger King, Popeyes, KFC, Denny’s, Sonic, Outback Steakhouse etc. all directly near one shopping center. Out of all of these possible destinations we decided to go to Casa Rico Tacos & Tequila.
“I don’t want tacos, Troy,” my girlfriend told me.
Laughing, I responded by saying, “Just give it a shot. You never know, you might like it.”
We got there at 8:41 p.m., but the restaurant closed at nine. When we entered the restaurant the hostess automatically assumed we were going to order food to go. Her face displayed a discomfort in knowing that we were going to keep her there longer than she had expected, but nonetheless we got seated. The reason why I chose this place was because the sign outside of the restaurant emphasized “Tacos & Tequila.” I, for one, love tacos and tequila shots, so this was right up my alley.
The scenery inside of the restaurant had a Hispanic heritage vibe to it. The bartender and all of the servers were of Hispanic descent, Carlos Santana songs and other various Hispanic musicians controlled the speaker, and the Halloween decorations that were set up had a “Coco” look to it. The authenticity of this restaurant was top notch. I ended up ordering Baja Fish Tacos (tilapia with guajillo chile, chipotle cream sauce, cabbage & cilantro) on flour tortillas. This entrée came with brown beans, house rice, Pico de Gallo, chips & salsa. The tacos along with the house rice were absolutely amazing. The black beans, however, had very little flavor and looked runny and unappetizing. The seasoning of the rice and the texture of the chips made up for the slack that the beans created.
I have no clue what my girlfriend ordered, but as always it wasn’t it wasn’t a better choice than what I made because she ate just as much of my food as she did her own.
“Mmmm baby your tacos look so good,” she said.
Knowing what was going to be said next was like a line from any “SpongeBob SquarePants” episode, I simply jumped the gun by responding, “No”. Her response and reaction were one of a spoiled cute puppy; “Just one bite… please?” I gave in. I couldn’t resist. And of course, as we all can imagine, that one-bite turned into me losing one of my two tacos.
After we left I went on Yelp.com to check out the reviews. To my surprise I found out that if you checked in at Casa Rico on the Yelp app before you go dine at their restaurant you get a free fish taco. The irony. Guess who didn’t check in on time before the kitchen closed? This guy. When I go back to Frederick you better believe I’m getting my free taco. Casa Rico has a four out of five rating on Yelp.com, and I believe this is the perfect rating. The food was really good and the service was exceptional. The only problem I had was that this experience was an expensive one. Two entrée’s, one shot of tequila, 1 beer, and an extra side of sour cream cost me $37.44. If the prices were a little cheaper I would’ve given this restaurant a perfect five out of five rating, but it’s all good I definitely recommend this restaurant to the next Average Joe who loves tacos and tequila like I do.
All in all, the overall experience of my time in Frederick was a successful one. The main objectives of finding a good food spot to eat at and to find a fun activity worked out perfectly. The people I got to share this encounter with also made this a special mini vacation. The second time visiting wasn’t the best time to go because of the inclement weather, but maybe a third visit during the summer time might need to happen.
More Than Maryland 