Things I love about my State...

[Anonymous]

I am proudly from Maryland. Though when traveling I say I live in the D.C. metropolitan area... and then specify where. I was born in D.C. and raised in Potomac... and though I have thought many times about moving, I have yet to find anywhere that makes me as happy as here. So I thought we could all say what we love about our state (or District), instead of speaking so negatively about it.

-I love that I can take the metro and visit a plethora of free museums in our Nation's Capital... all on a whim.

-I love hiking at Great Falls... especially in the Fall

-I love driving a short 15 minutes and seeing farmland. Actually, I love taking my family out to my Uncle's farm... my DC LOVES riding on the tractor and seeing the animals!

-I love that Calvert Cliffs is only about an hour or so away... and any fossil you find, you can keep. It is one of the largest deposits of fossils in the world!

-Maryland is the 5th Greenest state in the country.

-Montgomery County has some of the best public schools in the nation!

-Maryland has the lowest poverty rate in the country.

-I like that we are really neither the North nor the South

-I love that the beach is only a few hours away...and we can see wild ponies!

-I love that I can visit downtown, but can come home to my house with a yard and ample parking!

There are many, many things that I love about where I am from...and I am very proud to say I am from Maryland!

[zumbamama]

I love my little VA town. Great schools, international markets, a river to kayak, plenty of parking, a buzzing community, cool moms to hang out with, tons of cultural events, pretty neighborhoods, rising skylines, and seeing the monuments glow in the sunset light when crossing the bridge.

[Anonymous]

The Mason Dixon line in in Delaware. Oh yeah, MD is south.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The Mason Dixon line in in Delaware. Oh yeah, MD is south.

True, technically. A Northerner will tell you that MD is in the South, and a true Southerner will tell you MD is in the North.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for starting this.

I'm a Chicago transplant living in MD just six blocks from the district line.

Now I love my hometown. However, there's a lot to love here. In addition to what OP has already mentioned, I am often struck that I live in a place that is so much prettier than where I grew up. There are hills. There is green, and there is green for much more of the year. I grew up not really understanding what the gears on my bike were for (IL is FLAT!), and just assuming that everywhere was brown and gray for five months out of the year at least.

[Anonymous]

I live in NOVA and like it a lot.

It is beautiful. Great Falls and beautiful mountains can be enjoyed with little travel. We are near DC, but no too much.
It is not snobby. The schools are great and the families are heavily invested in seeing their kids succeed. The college choices in VA are exceptional.
My kids are involved in golf, tennis, hunting, fishing, boating, volunteering, working, and still have time to chill around the kitchen table (especially if I make toll house cookies!). We limit our kids exposure to highly competitive environments by stearing clear of "traveling" teams and teams that have personal trainers, etc.. It works well for us and our kids are ..... kids.
Love it here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for starting this.

I'm a Chicago transplant living in MD just six blocks from the district line.

Now I love my hometown. However, there's a lot to love here. In addition to what OP has already mentioned, I am often struck that I live in a place that is so much prettier than where I grew up. There are hills. There is green, and there is green for much more of the year. I grew up not really understanding what the gears on my bike were for (IL is FLAT!), and just assuming that everywhere was brown and gray for five months out of the year at least.

Wow. I don't have a personal stake in this particular comparison, but to me, since Chicago has some of the country's most striking architecture, I can imagine few more beautiful places in the US. I prefer streetscapes and skylines to landscapes, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for starting this.

I'm a Chicago transplant living in MD just six blocks from the district line.

Now I love my hometown. However, there's a lot to love here. In addition to what OP has already mentioned, I am often struck that I live in a place that is so much prettier than where I grew up. There are hills. There is green, and there is green for much more of the year. I grew up not really understanding what the gears on my bike were for (IL is FLAT!), and just assuming that everywhere was brown and gray for five months out of the year at least.

Wow. I don't have a personal stake in this particular comparison, but to me, since Chicago has some of the country's most striking architecture, I can imagine few more beautiful places in the US. I prefer streetscapes and skylines to landscapes, though.

I'm not this original poster, but I also spent several years in Chicago, and I agree with the poster from Chicago. While the city is beautiful and has striking architecture (which, apparently, has gotten even more beautiful since I left several years ago), the landscape is totally flat and -- well, Midwestern. No rolling hills, forests, etc., like there is in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic/South/call it what you will. So I completely agree that, with regard to natural beauty, this place has Chicago beat by a Magnificent Mile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for starting this.

I'm a Chicago transplant living in MD just six blocks from the district line.

Now I love my hometown. However, there's a lot to love here. In addition to what OP has already mentioned, I am often struck that I live in a place that is so much prettier than where I grew up. There are hills. There is green, and there is green for much more of the year. I grew up not really understanding what the gears on my bike were for (IL is FLAT!), and just assuming that everywhere was brown and gray for five months out of the year at least.

Wow. I don't have a personal stake in this particular comparison, but to me, since Chicago has some of the country's most striking architecture, I can imagine few more beautiful places in the US. I prefer streetscapes and skylines to landscapes, though.

I'm not this original poster, but I also spent several years in Chicago, and I agree with the poster from Chicago. While the city is beautiful and has striking architecture (which, apparently, has gotten even more beautiful since I left several years ago), the landscape is totally flat and -- well, Midwestern. No rolling hills, forests, etc., like there is in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic/South/call it what you will. So I completely agree that, with regard to natural beauty, this place has Chicago beat by a Magnificent Mile.

I think Lake Michigan is much more beautiful than the Potomac River.

[Anonymous]

A lake and a river are two completely different things....

[Anonymous]

I'm the Chicago transplant that posted earlier. Don't get me wrong. Chicago's achitechture is amazing. Lake Michigan is a beautiful inland freshwater sea that is truly breathtaking and I miss it a lot. But get away from the lake for a while and drive out to say, Bolingbrook. I have never lived anywhere with green rolling hills before. It's so lush here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the Chicago transplant that posted earlier. Don't get me wrong. Chicago's achitechture is amazing. Lake Michigan is a beautiful inland freshwater sea that is truly breathtaking and I miss it a lot. But get away from the lake for a while and drive out to say, Bolingbrook. I have never lived anywhere with green rolling hills before. It's so lush here.

I agree. I lived in Chicago as a kid (well, technically Elmhurst), and it is so much prettier here. I had never lived in this area, but DH had, and when we moved here his first remark was "I had forgotten how many trees there are in Maryland." This state has everything, shoreline, forests, mountains and cities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the Chicago transplant that posted earlier. Don't get me wrong. Chicago's achitechture is amazing. Lake Michigan is a beautiful inland freshwater sea that is truly breathtaking and I miss it a lot. But get away from the lake for a while and drive out to say, Bolingbrook. I have never lived anywhere with green rolling hills before. It's so lush here.

I agree. I lived in Chicago as a kid (well, technically Elmhurst), and it is so much prettier here. I had never lived in this area, but DH had, and when we moved here his first remark was "I had forgotten how many trees there are in Maryland." This state has everything, shoreline, forests, mountains and cities.

Well, it has Baltimore, which maintains some ghosts of its lovely past but pales in comparison to living cities like Chicago. I guess Annapolis would technically qualify as a small city, but I think only metropoli(ses?) deserve the term.

[Anonymous]

My state is amazing. One hour from the beach. One hour from the mountains. No wonder the people are so happy! The civil war has been dead and buried for well - over 100 years (imagine that)! They know who won and act accordingly.
People don't pretend to be something they are not. People are truly highly educated and well traveled - not insular. People are friendly and don't look right through you. Most of the people here have never even been there and think anyone not from "here" must be from a small town. Wrong. Ah, the sacrifices we must make. They know about that, too - sigh.
Oh, and it's REALLY expensive to have a vanity plate, so not everyone has to annoy others with what kind of car they own written on the plate. Oh, and they don't pretend they don't know what you're talking about. Gosh, I could go on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the Chicago transplant that posted earlier. Don't get me wrong. Chicago's achitechture is amazing. Lake Michigan is a beautiful inland freshwater sea that is truly breathtaking and I miss it a lot. But get away from the lake for a while and drive out to say, Bolingbrook. I have never lived anywhere with green rolling hills before. It's so lush here.

I agree. I lived in Chicago as a kid (well, technically Elmhurst), and it is so much prettier here. I had never lived in this area, but DH had, and when we moved here his first remark was "I had forgotten how many trees there are in Maryland." This state has everything, shoreline, forests, mountains and cities.

Well, it has Baltimore, which maintains some ghosts of its lovely past but pales in comparison to living cities like Chicago. I guess Annapolis would technically qualify as a small city, but I think only metropoli(ses?) deserve the term.

I didn't say huge a huge metropolis, I said a city. Baltimore is a city, heck small places like Greenbelt are considered cities. Just because you don't see how smaller cities qualify, doesn't mean they aren't cities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City