Hays House Museum

This "museum" is advertised as a working-farm, etc. They are only opened certain hours and I actually waited for an event to go there. I was so disappointed; there are very few parking spaces, the entrance fee was ridiculous for the tour. There was an overheated kitchen with a few women cooking something. Yet they were too busy chatting to even explain their role in the event. The "farm" part of the Hays house was sold long ago and is actully the Bel Air High school.

Save your money :) and stay home.

Preston's Stationery Inc

This is a very unique stationery store; they have a wondeful selection of business and gift items. If they dont have an item, they will try to order it for you. The prices are a bit high, but I dont think you will be disappointed.

I have also used Preston's for ordering a custom-made rubber stamp; they got the order right the first time, and in a very prompt manner.

Driving Impressions

This store is great for any racing/car fan. They have a lot of tshirts which take up a lot of room. Also, personalized and silly license plates.

The main reason that I shop there is the Zippo lighters... they seem to carry some rare and hard to find Zippos for my husband's collection.

Mr B's Tattoos

My husband has gotten two of his tattoos at Mr. B's; the shop portion is very clean. The waiting room, which I have gotten to know quite well, is just like a living room at home.

They have a ton of books to look through if you need ideas. The ony suggestion that I would have: since there are many artists at this location, stop by to see them in action. Pick someone AfTeR you have seen their work :)

First National Bank

We were first introducted to BCSB when my hubby bought his car. The best rate the dealer could find him was at BCSB. Once we started making payments at a local branch, we were impressed with the bank and moved our checking and savings there as well.

Great employees; have expanded into Harford County which is wonderful!

Raimondi's Florist

Forthuber's has the best roses that I have ever seen or smelled. I have purchased flowers here on many occasions and cannot say enough good about the service and quality.

If you have any needs, they can work with you to design an appropriate arranagement too; although I really love to stop there to buy their roses for any reason!

Greenery Florist & Garden Ctr

The Greenery is a nice place to buy quality flowers and shrubs; you will pay a little more than large garden centers but I think you will be pleased with the quality.

I have found that they do run sales, if you can wait for landscaping needs, etc. They are located on a very congested road, so getting in and out can be challenging!

Lamp Shoppe

I have stopped in at the Lampe Shoppe twice, both times with poor results. For one, the lamps are very overpriced even for the quality. There were a few styles that I really liked but could not get anyone to help me with decorating/design advice. In my mind, the only reason to pay those prices would be to get superior service or assistance in decorating. Quite the opposite; I really felt like the employees were too busy behind the counter doing something to help me.

There was a clearance area with lamps that I felt were reasonbly prices; my second trip was to see if there were still on sale. The salesperson that trip made me feel crappy for trying to buy from the sale section, and I don't like to be intimidated into buying"up" from a sale item; yet she still did not have the time to assist me with my decorating needs.

I ended up buying my lamps at WalMart at a great price.

Champion Billiards Cafe Brewery

Champions is more of an upscale bar, with their own brewed beer.

The pool hall portion is much more expensive than other local halls; there are really nice chairs, though, with spots to hold your beverages while you are shooting pool. The prices of the drinks are okay, not cheap though.

They also attract local bands to the top floor pool room, with a make-do stage and minibar. They tend to charge reasonable ticket prices for these events, so we tend to go early to shoot pool if we are going to hear a band we like.

Long Fence

When we needed to install a fence, we had Long Fence come out to do an estimate. They gave us the best choices for styles, even discussing what types are best for what situations. They helped us to evaluate our needs and altimately we went with a style we had never considered and were extremely happy.

The only down side was the price, but hey, you get what you pay for and we did get good quality!