Back in June I went to Towson, MD, for training for a new application at my job. My boss asked if I 'was ok with flying' before he even told me why he was asking the question. I laughed and said "normally...but...NOT during COVID". Then I asked why and he told me he wanted me to go for training in Maryland. I asked if it was ok to drive instead and he said that wasn't a problem. There were two of us that went. We rented a car and drive there. When we arrived - we checked in to the hotel - and got settled in our rooms. This is a pic from my window looking over Towson.
Our corporate headquarters is actually in the same complex as the hotel. This is another look from the building. It was the beginning of Cicada Season there and it was something I never experienced before. For those of you who don't know - Cicadas are large bugs that live in the ground and they come out to mate ever 7 years...
This is one that I zoomed in on so sorry it's so grainy but they are HUGE and I really didn't want them crawling on me. The girl I was with ended up finding one in her pocket after we walked across the street the one day. There were SWARMS of them EVERYWHERE. And the LOUD sound they make it really something.
Anyways...on to less creepy-crawly-things, shall we? We were in town for 2 full days of training and after each of those days we had just a little bit of down time in the evenings. Of course, we went out for food, for the most part. This photo might look familiar to some fellow vegans. It's the Vegan Cobb Salad at The Cheesecake Factory. I've only ever been to 2 Cheesecake Factories. One in Buffalo, NY, and now this one in Towson, MD. I really enjoyed the Vegan Cobb Salad when I went to the Buffalo location so I already knew I wanted to order it again while in Towson.
We also went to PF Chang's and I ordered the Lettuce Wraps which were great but for the life of me I can't find a photo of the ones I had back then. There seemed to be 4 Starbucks in 2 blocks where we stayed. I believe we went to 3 out of the 4. I was able to get my hands on this Chickpea Bites & Avocado Protein Box at one of the locations. It was decent.
In the evenings - the weather was so pleasant - but - we were always dodging those Cicadas. We did take some walks. I took some photos of some advertisements that I was drawn to including these two.
They were on the outside windows of a couple shops. Right across the street from where we stayed was the Towson Shopping Center which was a large mall but we tried multiple days/times to stop in and look around. Come to find out they had special COVID hours and closed at like 4pm. We managed to get in there briefly to walk around but everything was already closed.
Eventho we were among the few that were in there walking around we were able to take some photos.
We only stayed for about 10 minutes and had to leave. I really enjoyed Towson. I wish we had more time there. Being so close to Baltimore - I was a little nervous about driving - but it wasn't bad at all.
