Three Beautiful Things 05/07/16: Visit to Flying Dog, Touring Downtown Frederick, *Homicide: Life on the Streets*

1. The Deke and I climbed into the Sube and headed north and west for a day trip to Frederick. At our initial destination, Flying Dog Brewery we shared a flight of excellent beers, ordered ourselves a most tasty couple of steak and cheese spring rolls from the food booth on the patio and ended our visit with a half pint each of Ella, the latest in Flying Dog's single hop series. Flying Dog's tasting room is airy with a spacious patio and staff eager to help. We arrived soon after it opened on purpose, knowing that Flying Dog is popular and the joint might fill up fast -- and it certainly was doing just that.  We left very happy and look forward to heading out there another time.

2. We eased into the bustling downtown of Frederick, a cozy knot of specialty shops,cafes, and watering holes. Today was MayFest in Frederick and lots of cheery people were out and, after we scanned the shelves at the Curious Iguana bookstore,  we ducked into Jo Jo's, a restaurant and taproom, and the Deke had some soup and I had a plate of corned beef hash with two poached eggs, a buttery biscuit, and a couple cups of coffee. The Deke then strolled down Patrick Street to The Knot House, a yarn store she loved, and I went to the parking garage, retrieved the Sube, and picked the Deke up and we headed south to Rockville for a glass of Surrender Dorothy Rye IPA at 7 Locks and then returned to our apartment home and fed our hungry dogs. It was a fun outing. We enjoyed the thrill of going to places we'd never been and getting to know our new home state of Maryland a little bit better.

3. Once we got settled in back in our apartment home, I watched the first two episodes of the first season of Homicide: Life on the Streets. It's compelling -- the story lines are absorbing, the acting is peerless, and the writing is often perfectly off beat, always shrewd, rhythmic, with its own police station cadence, its own music. I'm really happy that I decided to give this series a shot after reading David Simon's book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.