Last week I spent five days in Frederick, MD. I was there for work and knew I wouldn’t be able to spent much time looking around. Fortunately the people I was meeting with knew places to go to dinner.

The flight over and back was with United Airlines. I’ve flown with them before and it was an enjoyable experience. Over the Pacific Ocean I flew in a Boeing 747 and over the continent it was a Boeing 737. The flight attendants were friendly and cheerful and the food better than average. The flight from LAX (Los Angeles) to IAD (Dulles) was great with a really good main flight attendant who was incredibly friendly and helpful. I managed to sleep reasonably well on all the Pacific Ocean legs.

On the first night I stayed in the Washington Dulles Airport Marriott. It is very close to IAD and very convenient. It was very good value for a one night stop over. On the Monday morning I took a shuttle bus transfer for the 70 km drive from Dulles to Frederick. The countryside was beautiful. The architecture was really interesting.

On the first night in Frederick I ate at Brewer’s Alley. The memorable thing about that night was sitting at a table with a jug for beer that had a core that could be filled with ice to keep the beer cold.

While in Frederick I stayed in the Hampton Inn Frederick. The hotel does a free breakfast and one of my colleagues told me he thought it was great because you could make your own waffles. Having tried a waffle, I’m not so sure.

The waffle was also served with breakfast syrup and I’m assuming it contains a lot of corm sugar. For the rest of my time there I ate a banana for breakfast and read the paper.

On the second evening in Frederick I went to the local Cracker Barrel store and restaurant in Frederick. The menu is great and I chose from the fancy fixin’s area. I asked for the chicken fried steak with hash brown casserole, corn, breaded okra and sawmill gravy. For dessert because it was my birthday I had the house special coconut cream custard pie.

The following night I tried the crab cakes in the hotel’s restaurant. They tasted okay but the next morning I was feeling quite ill.

The following night I went to the Black Hog. This place is known for its barbecue and its ribs. I asked for ribs, brisket and collared greens.

After five days of meetings I took a shuttle back to Washington and stayed at the Melrose Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. I would highly recommend this hotel. It was small cosy and relatively inexpensive. On the Friday evening I went to Macy’s to buy a new bag because my bag was damaged on the flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. I ate dinner at a place called One Fish, Two Fish on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. I enjoyed a small wonton soup and twice cooked pork.

The next morning I enjoyed my best breakfast while in the USA. Crab cake eggs Benedict.

After breakfast I went for a walk and visited the Lincoln and Albert Einstein memorials.

The flight back to Canberra was via San Francisco (SFO) and was uneventful.

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