THIS POST IS DANIELLE-APPROVED:
Well last weekend Danielle and I packed up an overnight bag and headed for Baltimore. Ever since we decided to move to Philadelphia we have been talking about all of the great road trips and train trips we are able to take from Philly. It is sort of right in the middle of the cultural, political, and historical mecca of the East Coast. So our first choice was Baltimore, a two-hour car ride south through Delaware and into Maryland. We had to finish up a legal memo for school Friday night, so we decided to leave Saturday morning. I actually didn't finish my memo until Saturday morning, but my procrastination is not the point of this post.
The point is that we hit the road and reached the Inner Harbor of Baltimore on Saturday afternoon. We first drove into Little Italy, where we were able to park our car in a ramp for the whole day for three dollars! What a steal, even by Minnesota standards. From there we walked aaaaall afternoon and into the evening. We began by finding a nice Italian corner deli to get some lunch. I had a hot sandwich with peppers, balsamic dressing, and various pork meats, and Danielle had a delicious chicken pesto something-or-other. We shared an AWESOME caprese salad, and finished off the meal with some gelato from a dessert shop down the street.
After lunch it was onward to the Power Plant, which used to be a power plant. The huge building on one of the piers now houses some shops and restaurants, including what we decided is the world's coolest Barnes and Noble. The store is cool because of these reasons: 1) it's a bookstore; 2) it has the original smokestacks right in the middle of the store, and the original exposed structural elements of the plant; 3) it has an awesome aquarium built into the wall at the top of the escalators; 4) the escalators are housed in a clear plastic so you can watch their...inner workings.
From Barnes and Noble it was off to the National Aquarium, which seems to be Baltimore's main attraction. We bought the deluxe package: admission to the exhibits, a ticket to the 4D movie, and a ticket to the dolphin show. The 4D movie was actually the "From Pole to Pole" episode of Planet Earth, which we already have on BlueRay. We do NOT have 4D technology in our apartment, though, meaning we do not have the movie in 3D with the addition of spraying water, smoke, wind effects, and other gimmicks built into our seats. I will never turn down watching Planet Earth, anyway: amazing stuff. The dolphin show was basically what it sounds like: dolphins. They jumped out of the water, splashed some people, and played with balls. I personally was disappointed with the show: half of it was subsidized by a movie which played on two big screens to the sides of the room, and the other half of it was led by a woman who was actually in the room with us, but had a super duper annoying voice. Not her fault, but the Aquarium should find a more suitable job for her. The dolphins seemed nice, though. As for the exhibits, check out our pictures on Picasa! We really really loved the Aquarium overall, don't let my rant on the dolphin show fool you. Anyone who comes to visit us could twist our arms to go again, for definitely. But you can see the dolphins on your own time.
After leaving the Aquarium we walked along the harbor to Fell's Point, where Danielle heard we could catch a free water taxi to Fort McHenry. Along the way we passed by a beautiful wedding at the end of a pier. Unfortunately the weather was dark, gray, cold, and windy, and rain was threatening, but it was still fun to see. Plus it was a chance to have a cutesy reflection on our own wedding, which we had just survived two months earlier! Besides the wedding, the harbor was full of cool ships, from yachts to old WWII ships to little two-person rentals that looked like dragons.
Once we got to Fell's Point we found out that the Fell's Point Fun Fest was taking place. The festival turned out to be a mass of booths and vendors on some of the streets, complete with bands and beer gardens. After finding out that the water taxis weren't stopping at Fell's Point, we walked around for a while, working our way generally back toward our car and enjoying the people watching and site seeing. On the way to our car we passed by a tattoo museum, which was really more of a tattoo shop with a room to the side full of old newspaper articles about tattooing and old drawings and pictures of tattoos. It wasn't much of a museum, sadly, but it was free so who cares?
That night it started raining once we got back to the car, so we found a room at a Motel 6 just outside the other end of town. On the way we got our first glimpse, through the rain and darkness, of Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium, where the Orioles and Ravens play (respectively)! Once at the motel we walked across the parking lot to Loafers, a bar and grill, for supper. We split some pizza and a surf & turf wrap, which was delicious. We also got to play trivia on one of the TVs! We played as a team and lost every round until the very last one, when we won! We realized after celebrating, though, that we were the only people left playing, but we were still proud of ourselves for our perseverance. We planned to watch SNL that night, but we fell asleep early, tired out from walking around all day and from being old.
On Sunday morning we went to mass at the Baltimore Basilica, apparently the oldest cathedral in America. The building was constructed in 1806 in the neo-classical style, to prove that Catholics were just as American as Protestants. I would guess that not only is it the oldest cathedral in the U.S., but probably the only one with that colonial feel to it: the colonial-paned windows, white walls, no stained glass, and not quite as ornate or colorful as you might expect a cathedral or basilica to be. The church was recently renovated (the project was completed in 2004) and it is very nice. We also took a guided tour after mass, where we learned about the architecture and history and had a chance to check out the crypt and undercroft of the church. Check it out: http://baltimorebasilica.org/
After the tour we walked around Mt. Vernon, a neighborhood where we saw some other cool churches and apartments as well as the original Washington Monument. Also we needed to go to a 7-Eleven to get batteries for Danielle's camera. So after that we hopped in the car and headed to Charm City Cakes, the shop featured in the TV show Ace of Cakes. The windows were tinted and the doors locked, but we got to see it, so that was cool.
Finally, we headed home. On the way, as we reflected on our first chance to get out of Philly since moving here, Danielle came up with the title of this post. Obviously we had a great time, not least of all because Baltimore smells SO MUCH BETTER than Philadelphia. Also of note, Baltimore seemed to be much "greener" than Philly in terms of being environmentally minded. That was obviously a big deal to Danielle (and me, but especially D) and it might have had something to do with the smell. Overall, the trip was great. Danielle and I got to see a new city, check out lots of cool sites and attractions, be silly together, and get a mini vacation halfway through our first semester of law school. There are pictures in the album posted below that supplement all of the stuff I talk about in this post, so I encourage checking them out. I guess that's it, though, so ta ta for now!
-Rory
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