Baltimore: Come for the Crabs...Stay for the Treatment

A cheeky title, I know, but I was so proud of my little witticism that I had to include it.

So we'd made it. The google mapsmen said eleven hour and nineteen minutes, but I scoffed at that prediction. I'd see us there in just over ten safe and sound...save the car...which I dented...uh...before we left Chicago. My attempts to get us out of the house in a reasonable amount of time had been thwarted and so maybe I was still a little too overheated to reconsider that quick shift into the center lane and right into some poor lady's Chevy Malibu. I did look, and she was in the lane behind me when I did, but alas, she was the quicker mover and I was to blame. Needless to say the wheel was not surrendered back to me for another two hours. Still, we made considerably good time, and while James and Blair weren't sleeping all three of us enjoyed many road games which have that strange way of only appealing to those under the age of twelve and over the age of twenty-one. NOT I-SPY. That game should be shot...in the arm...at close range.

We arrived at the House of Hooper around 7pm that July 22. My mother made us an amazing dinner, paired at every turn with wine selections by my father. We ate, drank, were merry, toasted the cute new dent Blair's car had acquired, etc. After dinner I took James home, then returned to get some sleep for my Welcome to Maryland outing I'd planned for Blair the next day.

If we had breakfast of some sort I couldn't tell you, but I'm pretty sure we were out of the house sometime between 9 and 10am, which is no small feat when you've spent the previous day up at 5:30 and spent 10 hours on the road. I took Blair first to my college, Towson University to show her around. It was a very nostalgic experience, which is strange considering the Theatre Arts building has been completely renovated since I had graduated and I only recognized about 30% of it. So poor Blair had to constantly hear, "No...you don't understand. There was a door here. This wall used to be a classroom. None of this was here," and on and on and on.

From Towson, we went to my high school, Calvert Hall. This experience, however, bore no feelings of nostalgia. It felt rather empty - not empty in a lonely way, but more like nothingness. So, needless to say, we didn't spend too much time there.

We drove into Baltimore and went to Fells Point, which is a nifty little area of downtown that was a favorite spot of mine through most of college. There are plenty of great places to eat, lots of history to be viewed and, of course, my favorite record shop, which I avoided going into...took some doing. We ate at a place called Bertha's Mussels.

We had about 2/3 of a great meal. The mussels were outstanding, the crabcake was decent (not the best but I've been away so long I wouldn't know where to take her), but the sage-brushed chicken livers proved a poor choice, despite our adventurous natures. We walked around a little after the meal bemoaning the fact that we couldn't spend more time in Fells but we had a schedule to stick to, and of course we had to see...

The Baltimore Aquarium!

Chicago you can keep your miserable little Shedd Aquarium, paying waaaaay too much for too little...and lizards aren't nearly as cool as the many-colored frog displays we were privy to. And let's pit your puny little dolphins against the full bottle-nosed power of our DOLPHIN SHOW!

Can your dolphin do this?

After a great time at the Aquarium we went to my friend, and former professor, Steve's house for a little dinner. Steve and Patrick did a wonderful job with dinner and there was much merriment before a titanic storm came and threatened to wash half of the city away. This, of course, didn't deter me from driving us back down into Baltimore to meet up with some Towsonite friends for a late night gathering at Brewer's Art - a favorite haunt of we Towson alumni.

All in all, a wonderful day.