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What's Happening MoCo?
An authentic, unscripted update from County Cable Montgomery highlighting items that help residents of Montgomery County. This program features interviews with elected officials, employees, public servants, and residents. It is produced by the Office of Community Engagement from the Department of Technology and Enterprise Business Services. Interviews are recorded live and presented with very few edits to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the conversations.
What's Happening MoCo?
What's Happening with Holiday Magic and Local Experiences with VisitMoCo
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Letitia Engel from Visit Montgomery joins us to unwrap the holiday magic waiting in Montgomery County, Maryland. From the Winter Lights Festival at Seneca Creek State Park to vibrant local shopping, get ready to explore the ways to enjoy local and create unforgettable memories with your loved ones.
Sip and savor the holiday spirit as we wander through Montgomery County's Tastemakers Trail, featuring its thriving craft beverage scene. We highlight must-visit spots like Windridge Vineyards and Fallen Oak Distillery and suggest festive events like Silver Branch Brewery's lively New Year's Eve party. Shake up your gift-giving tradition this year by considering experiential presents, from thrilling rope courses to creative glass-blowing classes and even a round of Topgolf. Let's celebrate the season by embracing the vibrant community and diverse activities right in our own backyard, appreciating the joy and convenience of staying local.
Good day and welcome to what's Happening MoCo, an authentic unscripted podcast from your Montgomery County government. Now here's your host, derek Kenney.
Speaker 2Good day and welcome to what's Happening, moco. In today's episode we provide you with ways to spend your time and money in Montgomery County, maryland. Joining me today is Visit Montgomery's Letitia Engel. Hi there, how are you today?
Speaker 3I'm doing great.
Speaker 2All right Staying nice and toasty.
Speaker 3It's so cold outside.
Speaker 2You know it's hard to do, like, the walk from my car is the longest walk I've had all year long.
Speaker 1And I play golf and I walk a lot.
Speaker 2But when the wind, especially today, today the wind is exceptionally harsh and and it's cold, it's like 30 degrees, 40 degrees, all and all of a sudden, because just a few weeks ago we had 60 degrees and it was, it was beautiful, still t-shirts and jacket weather, and now it's cold, it's the winter it takes time to adjust, but yeah it's toasting here, but that's that's great, though I think it's appropriate for this time of year, and that's why we're here to talk, and you're with Visit Montgomery, all right, and you're the senior marketing manager.
Speaker 2What does that entail? What do you do for Visit Montgomery and what does Visit Montgomery do for those that aren't acquainted?
Speaker 3Sure, so Visit Montgomery is the destination marketing organization for Montgomery County. Maryland is the destination marketing organization for Montgomery County, Maryland. Residents don't always realize that there's a vibrant tourism economy here in the county. Just in 2023, we saw 8.6 million visitors to the county. And what do they do when they come here? They spend money.
Speaker 2Yes, all right $2 billion, to be exact in 2023.
Speaker 1That's a lot of zeros.
Speaker 2Yes, all right $2 billion, to be exact in 2020 and 2023. It's a lot of zeros.
Speaker 3Yes, so it's really great for our businesses and attractions to really help with the thriving things to do in the area. It's awesome.
Speaker 2And there's this thing called staycation, because we're in an area where there's a lot of competing interests. If you're right outside of Washington DC, northern Virginia has a vibrant community with places to shop and things like that, but a lot of people may not know Montgomery County.
Speaker 1It's here.
Speaker 2You don't have to leave here to buy great gifts, to have great experiences for your family, to enjoy the holidays right here in Montgomery County, maryland. So let's jump right into it. But before we do, I would be so rude not to ask you how was your Thanksgiving?
Speaker 3I had a beautiful Thanksgiving in the area local with my family. A lot of fun.
Speaker 2Really All right. Now. What was your favorite dish during Thanksgiving? Was there a dish that stood out?
Speaker 3I love the pies. All right, an apple pie, a pumpkin pie. Thank you. All right, an apple pie a pumpkin pie and for me.
Speaker 2I'm a food guy so I don't eat it as much as I used to. I'm trying to be a bit better with my food and Dr Keisha, the county's health doctor, told me you know, enjoy your food, do your plate a certain way, but you know, not as much, not as much excess.
Speaker 3So I can have all the pie. But I can have, I can enjoy the pie.
Speaker 2Enjoy a slice or two, and I have all the pie, but I could have, I can enjoy the joyous slice and I can still watch, and I actually like to sit back and watch pies being made and then people eating pies. This is us. It's fantastic. But what you know? What else I like to see, though, this time of year? I love seeing the holiday lights, the decorations, all those things. What about people like me? What do you have to say for people like me that want to get out with our families, get in our car and go out and see some reindeer or a giant Santa?
Speaker 3Claus, or whatever.
Speaker 2What are those things? Are there some things like that in the county, and where can we see them?
Speaker 3Absolutely, and, and as you mentioned um, we're a great resource for visitors, but I always encourage people to be a visitor in their own backyard, right, we're a very large county, um, I live up county but I love to head out, you know, downtown um, and vice versa so exploring in the area, and the most popular thing to do this time of the year is to see the winter lights, and we have a lot of really great places um that you can see the winter lights all throughout the county, um. So, uh, have you been to any of the light shows? Because you might have to start creating a list. You have a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2I need a list. I need a list. I need a list. I definitely need a full list of where to go. I know that I've seen them over the years. There's one where you drive in your car.
Speaker 3Yes, so that's the Winter Lights Festival in Gaithersburg, so you drive in your car. Yes, so that's the Winter Lights Festival in Gaithersburg, so it's actually in Seneca Creek State Park.
Speaker 2Oh wow, it's a three.
Speaker 3and a half mile drive. I like to turn on the holiday music, bring the hot chocolate with the kids in the back of our minivan and go through the three and a half mile drive slow and steady. All throughout the park the trees are lit. There's you know 450 displays that they have. It's really, really magical.
Speaker 2Now you mentioned the minivan, so that makes me think of families. Is this a great thing for families to do? This is a great thing for everyone to do, everyone to do, all right, okay.
Speaker 3And then so that's for a cold day like today. That's a great one, because you're in your cozy car With the heat on.
Speaker 3Yes, absolutely, but we have a few that are just as incredible. When you can go outside and bundle up Brookside Gardens Garden of Lights Okay, that one out in Wheatonon their theme to go along with the garden theme you're you're walking around and seeing um flowers and animals and um just uh, more natural displays within that you would see in the garden. So it's really cool to see, you know, a million lights in all different ways, um, if you make your way through. A fan favorite is nessie um, he's a uh like a fire breathing dragon the smoke comes out.
Speaker 3So it's pretty interactive.
Speaker 2The kids always love that one all right, yeah, that's like the lock, like the lock like the lockness monster?
Speaker 3okay, like nessie. Oh wow, okay, and we have that here. That's right here, all right, you can see nessie only in montgomery county can you see nessie.
Speaker 2That's right in the united states of america.
Speaker 3That's fantastic, fantastic the other side of the county if you head out to only okay winter city lights. It's pretty cool. So what you do there?
Speaker 3lots of things to do there, oh wow okay they basically have um, like like sledding, like pretend like snow sledding, um these, um slides that the kids love. Going down, you walk through and they have like a 52 foot ginormous tree that's playing the music and doing it's a little like dancing to the songs and it's surrounded by tons of fire pits so you're just hanging out by the fire. You can get s'mores kits see this display.
Speaker 3Um, when you've had enough of that, there's a mile and a half trail that you can go through, with all the selfie spots along the way wrapping through this is quite a lot to do.
Speaker 2This is great, though, because you're incorporating not only beautiful areas, but places where people can go and walk.
Speaker 3Be, active.
Speaker 1Be active.
Speaker 2Even though it's this time of year where you eat more. You're eating more sugar, you're eating more pies, the s'mores and the chocolate and the marshmallows melting and the graham crackers.
Speaker 3You have an excuse to eat those when you can pair it with a mile and a half walk. A mile and a half walk through the lights.
Speaker 2This is wonderful. And of course, you said Brookside Gardens as well, and they have about a mile or so of trail where you can walk as well. So that's great, all right, cool. So we talked about a few of the places where you can get into the holiday spirit, with the lights and the fire pits and all those things that we associate with the season. What else do we associate with the season, but shopping? Oh boy, and oh boy. I'm guilty.
Speaker 3That's one of my favorites, I didn't start shopping yet.
Speaker 2I haven't started shopping yet and I don't know what I'm going to get. I know there's one guy that deserves a PS5, so I'm going to get that for him. So, Um, I know, I know there's one guy that deserves a PS five, so I'm going to get that for him. Uh, so, you know, my nephew, you know, you just look, Santa Claus has got you covered, buddy. Um, but other than that, you know what? What can I do if I wanted to give the gift of something from the County?
Speaker 3Okay, we have a lot of great shopping centers, downtown areas. There's the Clarksburg outlets, but there's also a lot of local small boutiques. To find that unique gift If you have a foodie in your family, Shafa Blends here in Rockville has their own custom teas and spices.
Speaker 1Wow.
Speaker 3Joyful Bath does handcrafted small batch like uh body care items so um bath bombs and scrubs and soaps that smell amazing. They have their own fragrant blends. If you head over to Rockville Town Square the shop local is part of the Women's Business Center at their handmade gifting items. It could be their glassware, the ceramics, their jewelry decor, and it gives them a brick-and-mortar spot to sell these items to. So it's a pretty cool program.
Speaker 2You can get one-of-a-kind gifts. Are we able to access that, like walking through downtown Rockville, or is that a place we have to schedule?
Speaker 3It is a storefront, you go right in. Yes, it's wonderful, that's fantastic.
Speaker 2So shop local, shop small, and there's particularly an incubator program where we can support people that are the next big thing, absolutely A lot of big things. Started so small. You know, started so small.
Speaker 3They have to start somewhere, right yeah?
Speaker 2And then you could say I bought, I knew them. When I bought mine, it was authentic, made by the owner right. How about that?
Speaker 3Another fun thing that people don't think about to find a unique gift is we have a number of museums throughout the county that have gift shops. Okay, so you could head to Josiah Henson Museum and Park, if you have a history lover, to learn about the story of, story of the underground railroad books and other things that you can find um, as well as heading to the mansion at strathmore. Brookside gardens has a as a gift shop, sandy spring museum. It's a great way to support these museums, um, in a unique way and find something different that your loved ones wouldn't expect those gifts.
Speaker 2Right, right and you can give a gift to your children the gift of education.
Speaker 3Education.
Speaker 2that's right, or for your family when you have those long 10 days or not long 10 days, of course the kids' short 10 days of Christmas break where you're able to do. You know you're not in school, but you're not. You're not, you're not sedentary, you know you don't necessarily want to be in the house all that time.
Speaker 3And they're conversation starters too. You can talk a little bit about where you got it and why you got it, and then possibly might spark interest for them to visit the museums in the future.
Speaker 2And if you have family in town, you can show them some of our treasures, which is the wonderful and rich history of Montgomery County, Maryland.
Speaker 1Oh wow.
Speaker 2Now, some people, kind of like myself, like to enjoy themselves a little bit during the holiday season and kind of associate it with the fellowship part. I like to have a nice local brew, some wings. I like to have a nice local brew, some wings. You know, what do you have in terms of celebratory activities for people that want to? I don't want to drive into the city, but I want to go out and have a drink and have fun with my friends and family.
Speaker 3Montgomery County has a really diverse and vibrant craft beverage scene. We have breweries, wineries, distilleries, cideries. Did you know? We have a meatery.
Speaker 2A cidery. A cidery and a meatery. They're really actually quite awesome. Should we break this down a bit? Let's break it down because a cidery I'm assuming that's apple cider or some type of fruit or something right?
Speaker 3Of a hard cider.
Speaker 2Okay, wow.
Speaker 3Yep, yep, yep. Ok, Wow, yep, yep, yep. So what? So? Visit Montgomery has created what we call the Tastemakers Trail, which is a self-guided craft beverage trail throughout the county that highlights the urban and farm breweries, wineries and other producers, so it's a great way to go and explore and learn about all the different types of producers and makers, these local families who are having a lot of fun creating these different brews and blends. I love heading over to Windridge Vineyards, so they have a beautiful tasting room with panoramic views of Sugarloaf Mountain.
Speaker 1Oh, really Okay.
Speaker 3And they have both gas and wood-burning fire pits outside, so you can still spend a nice cozy time around the fire out in the wintertime, which is lovely. Many of the breweries farm breweries like Lone Oak and Bordaca have Instagram worthy yurts, so tents that you can hang out in. So you bring our phones and you know I get our selfies going and pictures of the fire pit, because it's not worth doing if you can't take a selfie and share it.
Speaker 2If it's not worth a selfie and a share, then why go Right? You know, that's what's the point of going. Okay, I agree.
Speaker 3So so those are awesome places to head out to Lone Oak Hashtag visit. Moco has also opened Fallen Oak Distillery, which is a wonderful addition to their brewery. So their brewery is very family style. You bring your, you know your friends and your you can bring your kids are welcome to run around. There's a playground, dog friendly. On the other side they've just opened Fallen Oak Distillery, which is a more elevated experience.
Speaker 2Adult only Elevated. Elevated, okay, yes.
Speaker 3So if you have a hot date and there may actually be a speakeasy there, so I mean, I'm just saying if you want to find something fun and interesting there may be a speakeasy, all right.
Speaker 2All right, leticia. All right, you heard that here. Ok, you guys happen to find out.
Speaker 1Let me know, All right.
Speaker 2Let us know and hashtag visit MoCo All right, yeah, there's, there's.
Speaker 3There's lots of places to go and see. Silver Branch Brewery and Silver Spring is doing a fun New Year's Eve party so they're going to have have buffet food open bar, so that would be a fun way to roll in the new year.
Speaker 2So wow, that's awesome. So we have things to do. We have places to go to see the lights and all the beautiful decorations that associate with this time of year. We've talked about places where we can shop local and small and supporting micro businesses and still learning how to refine their craft, of their businesses, which is the gift of giving is even better when it benefits a growing business in such a way. And then we also know places where we can go and fellowship, both as a family, of course, you know, visiting and walking the trails or having a beverage with our family and friends, and there may even be a speakeasy somewhere Speakeasy.
Speaker 2There are people that don't know Speakeasies are referenced a lot to what the 1920s that's right. There was prohibition and you could not drink legally in America. So there are these places where we're usually found behind hidden doors. Absolutely, there are these places where we usually found behind hidden doors, where you can drink your finest whiskey or bourbon or maybe beer. But you know if you're going to go for it, you know why drink beer.
Speaker 3And they're just associated with just finding that hidden door and just experiencing something really fun, like what is going to happen behind that door, and it's so cool and it's a warmer atmosphere than a lot of the big clubs that you might go to or big bars you go to.
Speaker 2It's a comfortable environment and I think the eclectic feel to it as well kind of adds to the excitement. And again I will say Instagram worthy, tiktok worthy. You know, if you're a TikToker, maybe you might want to go find that and see.
Speaker 3You know, if you're a TikToker, maybe you might want to go find that and see, you know, and then hashtag visit MoCo. So I'm just saying, speaking of of of those experiences, um, it's this time of the year, you know, when you have your family and friends who just have everything. What do you give them, right?
Speaker 2That person.
Speaker 3Maybe an experience. All right Okay. All right Okay. So there's a lot of that, too, that you can do. You can gift experiences like going rope through rope courses and zip lining through the trees at the Adventure Park.
Speaker 1Oh, wow.
Speaker 3You know doing a gift card to a glass blowing class at Glen Echo Park for the artsy creative type there's a glass blowing class, there is Okay, all right. So I haven't done it, but it's on my bucket list. Why not?
Speaker 2Why not? Why not make your own vase or vase?
Speaker 1or glasses, or whatever or whatever.
Speaker 2whatever you can make at our, you know, as a beginner. Wow, that's cool.
Speaker 3That's right For for someone who's a little bit more outdoorsy adventure. You could do a gift card to whitewater kayaking at kaleva. So what they do is they take you um on river tours or whitewater kayaking down um the potomac river oh wow.
Speaker 2So it's pretty fun give the gift of adventure of experiences.
Speaker 3That's right. For someone who might not be as adventurous, Topgolf is always a good idea.
Speaker 2You know what, if anyone out there wants to send a gift in and I can't accept anything over $25, but you want to send a gift card for Topgolf, you'll accept it. I'll grudgingly accept it and go hit a lot of balls into the net and roll a few off the tee box. But that's awesome. That's really good for the golfer in your life or people that just love to get out and have fun. That's right. I think soft golf is for everyone.
Speaker 3And there's a lot of performance venues doing shows at Strathmore Roundhouse Theater, olney Theater doing performances throughout the year, and so you can always get um season tickets for someone oh wow I've never, I've never, you know, I haven't thought about that as much.
Speaker 2You can buy tickets for a particular concert or just for a venue. Um, that would be a gift that keeps on giving, or or more or less, an experience, as opposed to just buying them um a watch. You know, here go, let's go go see this artist that's very popular and is very meaningful this time of year as well.
Speaker 3It's a way to make memories, yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, and it's a lot more. I think there's this thing now, where people are. You know the, the. It's not even now, as it's been for a while. You only live once, you know and where you wait. Experience is a lot more than things you know. You just get out there, get out the house, go do something, see some things, enjoy some things and maybe they'll take you with them how about that? Hey, go, here are tickets to an artist that I really like there's two of them tickets here's.
Speaker 2Here's a gift card to top golf that you may may not want to be gift to you. All right there you go all right, good, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3Leticia, all right. Lots of ideas, lots of great ideas there.
Speaker 2So a lot of this gift giving not common ideas either. So you look like you're a very thoughtful giver and I think the thoughtfulness, or you know you thinking about the gift that you give, as opposed to just swiping a credit card and running through a store very quickly or hopping on Amazon and quickly buying something during Cyber Monday, means a lot more to people than just if you actually go out and think about it or go out and get them a ticket, something that's not common, that's easy or easier to do.
Speaker 3Absolutely. They're going to remember it a little bit more. They'll hopefully enjoy it more, and then you're supporting local businesses, right?
Speaker 2And by easy I mean you're putting more thought into it.
Speaker 1But to buy the tickets may be able to be done online or to a quick visit to the venue to get those things done.
Speaker 2So okay great, all right.
Speaker 3Wow, this is a lot to consume it is a lot to consume we have put together.
Speaker 3Visit Montgomery has a holiday hub where you can access all of these resources right so if you go to visit montgomerycom holiday, uh, that's just a lot of resources and more like a lot more options. Um, there's an events calendar of all the things going on throughout the area. Um, every weekend we're, um we're finding fun things to do throughout the County. Um, this weekend we know there's a lot of tree lighting ceremonies there. Uh, they're doing, uh, fireworks over the lake front at Rio. Uh, you know you can find Santa's workshop at Westfield, montgomery like. All of these events, um are on our calendar. So it's really great way to be able to plan your weekend of shopping and of having fun.
Speaker 2All right, fantastic. So let's say that one more time. I think it really helps to say it a few times because this is going to be a podcast.
Speaker 3If someone's in their car trying to memorize, visit Montgomery dot com, forward slash holiday backslash, whatever it is whichever the slash is that gets you there holiday, holiday, holiday, holiday, um just holiday, holiday.
Speaker 3Okay, just holiday, yep we also have a visit uh, visit moco app. Okay. So what I love about the app is all of these resources that we have up on our website get fed directly into the app. We find that it's a great planning tool where you can find these businesses, plan your weekend. You can create an itinerary so you find a few things that you like an event or a restaurant or a winery you just add it to your plan. You've created an itinerary. It helps map it out for you. You can send it to a friend so that they're in the loop itinerary.
Speaker 2it helps map it out for you, you can send it to a friend so that they're in the loop and and you can does it, so you so you can download that at any of the app stores.
Speaker 3Visit searching, visit moco on um at the apple app store or google play store, um. So that's a great resource and we're seeing that um, the people who downloaded are using it, because I see about 80 percent of our the users are repeat users, so they're coming back. They're finding it helpful.
Speaker 2Now are there things in there I think you may have mentioned it, but other things like incentives, that like coupons or special codes or discounts or a frequent flyer miles. I don't know Are there things in there that would be really fun to have frequent flyer miles.
Speaker 3So there are. There is a section for deals and discounts, but what I have, what I'm excited about right now, so we activate the app a few times throughout the year and right now and by that I mean what we do, is create these fun ways, we gamify the experience to get you out and to explore Montgomery County, and right now we have a holiday drink tour. Digital passport passport all right.
Speaker 3So there are over 20 businesses, uh, that are participating in this where they have holiday drinks alcoholic, non-alcohol. You get hot chocolate, you can get, you know, your holiday cocktail. So you go visit these places. You check in at the location, on the app, you say'm here, and every time you check into one, you're getting entered to win up to $600 in giveaways to these businesses.
Speaker 2That's a great way to have a winter adventure where you can do your little micro blog on your Instagram account and you just 20 different drinks that you had via the Visit MoCo app.
Speaker 3That's right.
Speaker 2And then you hashtag Visit MoCo the entire time through, and whether you hashtag Visit MoCo the entire time, through Every time. And whether you're having hot chocolates or you're doing cideries or whatever you're doing out there, all those wonderful drinks you can have this holiday season. It's great. It's right there in the app.
Speaker 3It's a great way to mix between your holiday shopping, your ice skating, your visits to the lights and stopping along the way at all these different places while you're doing that.
Speaker 2So it's and it's fun.
Speaker 3It's fun.
Speaker 2The game, the games are fun. The scavenger hunts or the uh, the, the trails or the walks really really add a different, uh level of engagement to what you're doing, which otherwise might be a monotonous time for some people. Not all of us are blessed with families locally, Not all of us are blessed with enough time to go and visit, but there's things to do here in Montgomery County, Maryland, whether with yourself or with a loved one or loved ones, or, if you do, bring your family in or get out and meet people.
Speaker 1Get out and have some fun.
Speaker 2Get out and have some fun. You know you're having trouble with those ideas.
Speaker 3visit Montgomerycom okay, trouble with those ideas visit Montgomerycom Backslash or forward slash holiday.
Montgomery County Leisure Activities
Speaker 2You get all your ideas there. So thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate this. So now I have all these things to do, I started the day off with trying to figure out what I'm going to get for gifts and figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of my month to have a little bit of time off. Now you know. But now I don't have to necessarily leave Montgomery County to have a good time. So thank you so much for being here today and thank you guys for out there, for listening and for sharing and for liking and for subscribing.
Speaker 1Thanks for listening to what's Happening, moco. Please subscribe via your favorite podcasting platform and follow us on Facebook. This podcast is brought to you by County Cable Montgomery, your source for news and information from the Montgomery County Government. Connect with us via cable, facebook, instagram or YouTube by searching for County Cable MoCo.