When you’re in Washington, D.C., you tend to spend your time in Washington, D.C. I had been there several times, but had never seen any of the outlying areas that surround it. That always bothered me a bit, because I had heard so many good things about these communities. I went to see a friend who lives in Bethesda, Maryland, but as it turns out I needed a place to stay. I didn’t foresee that before I arrived, so there I was in the airport realizing that I needed not only a vehicle, but a Bethesda hotel room. I also wanted to take a day to see some of the neighborhoods in the area so that I could get a feel for what it was like to live in these different spots. A lot was happening all of a sudden, so I needed help finding a hotel room in Bethesda fast.
I grabbed my phone and logged onto an app I saw called HotelTonight. I wasn’t sure what types of choices for Bethesda hotel rooms it would provide, but within a few seconds, I was very impressed with the options available. I was even more impressed when I went through the extremely fast and efficient booking process. Within a few clicks, I had my Bethesda hotel room all reserved and ready. By the time I met my friend outside in his car, I had a place for him to take me. We dropped off my things at the hotel and headed out to see what there is to see in Bethesda.
Bethesda is a short drive from Washington, D.C., and that means that there is a lot of federal government influence here. The famous Bethesda Naval Medical Center is here, as is the National Institutes of Health. Downtown, there are a lot of professionals going through their routines and more restaurants and spots for nightlife than I could count. There is also some residential living occurring here, and most of the people coming out of the condominiums, and the like, appeared to be young professionals. This is a vibrant, fast-moving city.
Our next stop was Rockville, a city of approximately 65,000 people. There were some lovely parks in the area, and that was good because after so much time on the plane, I wanted to get out and walk around a bit in the fresh air. We found one park that had a hiking path that was something special. It wound through the trees and crossed over streams several times. It was a little piece of the backwoods in the middle of our national hub, so it seemed. We walked around a bit, stopped for a quick coffee and then continued on our daylong journey.
Gaithersburg is a city just up the road from Rockville, and it’s about the same size. We stopped here at a community museum, which provided us with a nice opportunity to learn how this community came to be. We also needed to find somewhere for lunch. We asked some people in the downtown area what they would recommend, and everyone was very helpful. A big juicy burger sounded good to both of us, so we picked a place that someone said specialized in them that was nearby. After taking our first bite, we agreed that they deserved to be known as hamburger specialists. It was a delicious meal.
Germantown was a bit farther down the road from Gaithersburg, and it was the biggest city we had seen outside of Bethesda that day with a population of approximately 90,000 people. There were a lot of families walking around and enjoying the nice day. There was also an orchard that many of these families seemed to flock to given all that there was to do there. We spent quite a bit of time there, as well, marveling at the options for picking your own produce and the drinks and food that were available for people who were not completely full due to a recent hamburger feast. This was a neat community, and one that deserved its own day if not more.
We decided to make our way back to our starting point, but we wanted to make one more stop. We decided on North Bethesda. Once again, we realized we were hungry. We stopped and walked around a bit and then asked about where we should go for dinner. We were told about a seafood restaurant not far from where we were, and that sounded perfect. You can’t do the mid-Atlantic seaboard without having some food from the ocean. We sat down and ordered, and we both got quietly excited when the food arrived. It was a pretty quiet meal, as well, as we were both busy eating. It was a great meal, and at that point we called it a day.
As I walked into my hotel room after saying goodnight to my friend, I thought about the fun day we had enjoyed. We got to see a lot of the communities surrounding Bethesda and to enjoy a lot of scenery as well. It was so engrossing that it wasn’t until that moment that I remembered how I was a bit stressed when I landed and found out that I’d need a hotel room in Bethesda for the night. I had forgotten about it because HotelTonight made the process so simple. I was thankful for that along with the day I had.
