Baltimore, Maryland

Well, contrary to popular belief we found no evidence of rioting in Baltimore. No shenanigans, no creepsters and I have to fess up that I didn't even care to make a stop in this city. It sounded boring & rather unsavory after all the rioting a few weeks prior to our arrival. Ha! Little did I know that the inner harbor area of Baltimore is an absolute gem! I can't recall the last time I've seen a city so well planned out. It accommodates in every way and looks on the newer side. (Minus the historical spots) We could access everything on foot, from the aquarium to historic sights, foodie restaurants, shopping, some lip smackin' cocktails at the Four Seasons on a balmy afternoon, and even an edge-of-your-seat Oriole game at Camden yards. What a stadium that was! Neat and clean as can be. The marina was well laid out and rather quiet. They had a great set-up of beautiful beach volleyball courts alongside the marina as well...set, spike and a night of gaming was there for the taking should you want to imbibe. 

      Heading into Baltimore harbor. 

Below is fort Mc Henry which is where the star spangled banner flew during the battle of Baltimore...the Brits vs the Americans. We saw the original flag that flew that fateful night, and it is housed at The Smithsonian in DC. 

Bish was busy taking his turn of captain duties. A captain and a fabulous chef all in one...I just may have to pinch myself!

Now I can't paint you too rosy of a picture...These little black specks are skeeters!! Time to spray down before exiting our bateaux. They have a nasty bite. 

  Still oodles of naval ships to be seen. 

Funny how the stern on both of these naval ships look like an anchor. 

And we arrive in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. 

That's the aquarium on the right in the angular building. 

The most important part... Fueling up our water expedition principessa! 

And the Canandian geese were out in full force. Honking away every chance they had. 

We made our way across the marina to find our slip and turns out it was right on the opposite side of Fort Mc Henry. Just below the flag (where you can see the long strip of sand) are the volleyball courts. They light them up for evening games. 

               I spy... Sea Dragons? 

         Only a little bit o' kitsch here.

        There was lots of art as well.

This large historical ship called the Chesapeake is actually a functioning lighthouse. There was a movement years ago to utilize old ships and turn them into lighthouses where needed. Kinda cool!

A slice of Baltimores inner harbor sanctum. 

The old power plant sure is well utilized. 

And a beautiful sculpture a stones throw from the Four Seasons. 

         The infamous...(drumroll please)

                 Camden Yards! 

What a great view inside the stadium walls!

We finally made it. Game night is upon us. This calls for our signature pose...The dorks we are! 

We invited Bish to come with us. All of us had rounds of laughs at a group of boozed up peeps sitting below us. I had fun photo bombing their selfie pictures as they were too buzzed to notice. That is until...they posted it to Facebook and then looked behind them at me.. Their photo bomber. Ha-ha! They asked to "tag" me and I politely declined. Luckily not being on FB worked in my favor. 

           And then... Game on! 

It's so fun to experience sports on the east coast. The locals have such a strong   affinity for their home teams and are as loyal as the day is long. The energy and camaraderie are contagious! So is Brad for that matter. 

     There are all kinds of happy places.

      Ice, Custard, Happiness anyone?

Or something Fruity perhaps? What a crack-up. Does an agency actually get paid for this branding?

Someone may have been listening to Aerosmith when they thought up this doozy logo. Those wings are reminiscent of their old album cover. 

Then...nightfall was upon us. What a gorgeous twilight! 

Ever since we hit Virgina, bricks are the construction element of choice. Bricks and more bricks... Everywhere in the northeast!

We decided the best way to catch all of the historical sights at once was to catch a "hop-on, hop-off" bus. The hands down best way to take in a new city and suss out what you'd like to go back and explore. However, we ended up being the only tourists in their limo-like bus and had the most boring driver you can imagine. He had the perfect monotone voice, and yapped incessantly. You could have crafted a whole SNL sketch on this yah-yo. Too funny. We finally shook him loose and he snapped a pic of us to capture the moment. 

And then we were off on foot to traverse their aquarium. What a great one it was... I'd go as far to call it gatortastic!

               Flowers of the deep. 

We could even spot our beauty from the hi-rise aquarium. 

          But around the next turn...

      Their live dolphin show was great!

And then I came upon this character as we left. Clapping & singing himself silly. He loved the attention and was just having fun. 

We walked upon some kind of a police "kerfuffle". Not too sure what happened, but the alleged perp was told to stand against the po-po wagon. 

We headed back to the boat as Bish was cooking us up dinner. It was beyond tasty!!!!  In fact, it was...

Baltimore's Inner Harbor was soooo much fun! I highly recommend it should you find yourself in that area.