Day 7: Westminster, MD

Today is an absolutely glorious day, weather wise.  Blue sky, low humidity, puffy white clouds, temps in the 70's.  The kind of day when you wish you had a red convertible and no timeline.  Well, guess what!  I did!

 

My plan for today was to go to a rubber stamp show (I make handcrafted greeting cards) in Westminster, a show I have attended before and at which I usually find great new stamps to add to my collection.  I was on the hunt today for masculine stamps, to aid in the community service project that some friends and I do to support Operation Write Home (www.operationwritehome.org).  I did find some great stamps, including golf, steam locomotives, and fishing.

 

Before the show, I parked the car in downtown Westminster, (www.westgov.com) which is the county seat of Carroll County, and home to McDaniel College, formerly Western Maryland College.  Then I set off down the street.

Sidewalk joint, not a curb.

Sidewalk pennant

When walking in older

small towns and neighborhoods, it is important to keep an eye out for trip hazards.  They are everywhere, so look down and ahead frequently, or you may end up on the pavement.  Also, there were obvious signs that I was in a college town, because pennants periodically pointed the way to McDaniel.

 

Westminster's historic downtown consists of many long blocks strung together, with a mix of professional, residential, and commercial use buildings, but nothing appeared to be clustered centrally.  It was anchored on one end by the majestic campus and on the other end by a not-so-majestic Sheetz convenience store.  Not much was open on a Sunday morning, but occasionally I would hear church bells on my hour long walk, and one or two cafes had morning patrons drinking coffee.  I'm sure all the college students were still asleep.

 

I found two things on my walk that were surprising to me.  First, I encountered a number of ginko trees.  In fact, there were many trees along Main Street, thanks to a streetscaping project in the mid 1990's.  Second, I found not one, but two phone booths!  They were British style, obviously old and imported, but sadly, no phones inside. 

 

I enjoyed my walk in Westminster, and I'm sure I will return again.

 

 

 

 

 

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Visit my web site: camscamerashots.zenfolio.com

Cam's rules for the Daily Photo Walk:

1. walk every day
2. the walk must be in addition to any other planned activity for the day
3. post a photo every day
4. use my Nikon P7100 (it is a very convenient size and weight)
5. no weather excuses