Walking Frederick

We continued our mission of becoming knowledgeable on the local area.  Today we concentrated on the Carroll Creek Park area of Frederick.  Carroll Creek is close to the theater district and has many shops and restaurants along the path.  This park began as a flood control project in the 1970’s and is now a world class urban park.  The park is a brick paved walking path about 1.5 miles long and is on both sides of the Creek.  The west terminus of the park is the Baker Park Band Shell and Bell Clarion.  

The Bell Clarion is a70-foot tower that holds 49 bells that ring automatically every 15 minutes.  The walk brings you past many mini-falls and fountains along with unique art work, historic buildings.  Some of the art work is the Community Bridge Mural.  This mural transforms a plain concrete bridge into an old ivy-covered stone bridge.  The detail in the art work is incredible! 

 Before we started our tour we hit the visitors center on S. East St. so Lori could get more postcards.  This was a fortuitive stop because the visitor center parking is limited to 45 minutes and I figured the tour would be longer than that.  I asked Dave at the visitor center about parking and he pulled out a map and circled the parking garage one block over on East All Saints St.  Dave informed us to bring the ticket back to the visitor center and if our stay is less than three-hours they validate the parking!  The parking garage is at the eastern most end of Carroll Creek Park so we hiked up the southern path to the Bell Calrion and rested a bit waiting to hear the bells.  Heading back on the northern path we decided to stop for a snack.  We noticed a small place that serves pizza by the slice so into Flippin Pizza we head.  Flippin Pizza has several standard choices of toppings you can get by the slice, Lori got pepperoni and I went with the Brooklyn (pepperoni, meatball, mushrooms, and fresh garlic).  You get a thin crust large New York style slice of pizza.  Two slices and two beverages and we were out just over $10 (the governor here gets a cut of everything).  From Flippin Pizza we continued towards the eastern terminus and end at The Delaplaine Arts Center.  The center occupies what was originally a flour mill and then a distillery.  Today Delaplaine Art Center provides the region with educational opportunities and experiences in the visual arts through classes, exhibits, and programs.  Admission to the center is free, though they appreciate donations. 

So as the artwork shows, "Just hang in there"