We are not in a position to be able to travel a lot, but it's usually a lot of fun when we do. Nicole and I joined the rest of my family last week and took my brother to Annapolis, MD for his induction into the U.S. Naval Academy. We had a great time in Annapolis and I'll have another post about that entire experience, but Nicole and I decided to spend a couple extra days in Maryland and head up to Baltimore, the Charm City.
Baltimore was a quick 30 minute drive north of Annapolis and we spent most of the day Friday and Saturday there. We booked a room through HI Hostels and stayed in their hostel, which was downtown and not too far from the Inner Harbor area. The accommodations were decent (although hot) and provided the basics we needed: a bed to sleep in, a bathroom to shower, and a place to park our car. We didn't spend much time in the hostel but they seem to do a good job of providing resources and things to do for guests and I'd definitely consider using them again when we travel to other cities where H.I. offers accommodations.
Baltimore was a quick 30 minute drive north of Annapolis and we spent most of the day Friday and Saturday there. We booked a room through HI Hostels and stayed in their hostel, which was downtown and not too far from the Inner Harbor area. The accommodations were decent (although hot) and provided the basics we needed: a bed to sleep in, a bathroom to shower, and a place to park our car. We didn't spend much time in the hostel but they seem to do a good job of providing resources and things to do for guests and I'd definitely consider using them again when we travel to other cities where H.I. offers accommodations.
Free Art!
When we weren't sleeping, we tried to do as much exploring as we could. We visited the campus of Johns Hopkins University and checked out some of the local highlights around that area, including an ice cream shop that served veggie ice cream and the Baltimore Museum of Art. The woman working in the ice cream shop was very rude and their ice cream was nothing special (a hint of vegetable in vanilla ice cream) but the art museum was really cool (and it happened to be free). I know very little about art and find most of it boring, but it's fun to see things from other perspectives and it's usually good people watching to say the least.
Little Italy
Baltimore seems to be divided into multiple neighborhoods/communities and many of them have their own unique culture and identity. We weren't able to spend much time in many of the communities, but we definitely wanted to visit the area known as Little Italy. It was one of the coolest city neighborhoods I've seen. As we walked down the streets, we were hit with the amazing smells of Italian food cooking in numerous restaurants that sit in nearly every street corner. There were benches where people could sit by the street and hang out for an afternoon and a public bocce ball court where elderly Italian men challenged each other in some very competitive games. We even saw people gathering in a parking lot for what appears to be a Friday night tradition in Little Italy - there is a large sheet on the side of a building that serves as a movie screen and hundreds of people set up their chairs to have a spot for movie night right in the middle of the neighborhood. The movie night also sits between a local pizza shop on one side and a pastry shop on the other - classic. Everything about the place promoted community and family.
Camden Yards
Along with hanging out in Little Italy, we tried to hit the other major spots in Baltimore. We took a water taxi to Fells Point, the historic neighborhood that still has cobblestone streets. We went through the World Famous Lexington Market, a market full of food vendors, profanity, and Baltimore character. We walked around Camden Yards, the beautiful baseball stadium that is worthy of a much better team. And we took in the sites of the Inner Harbor, which is the most obvious tourist spot in the city but still cool. The Barnes & Noble on the harbor is the coolest B&N I've seen, featuring a warehouse design and patios where you can sit and look out over the water.
On the Harbor
We can't go somewhere without trying lots of food, and Baltimore was no different. Aside from the ice cream we had at Dominion Ice Cream, we had some excellent food. We decided to be crazy on Friday night and have dinner at Fogo de Chao, the famous Brazilian churrascaria. We took the healthy(er) option of the salad bar and skipped the meat portion of the meal, which saved us a lot of money and allowed us to gorge ourselves on their amazing salad bar. I'm pretty sure Fogo will receive a few "Best Thing I Ever Ate" posts in the coming weeks. And when I previously mentioned the cool pizza and pastry shops in Little Italy, I forgot to mention we visited both. I had an awesome meatball sub from Isabella's, the pizza and sandwich shop, and we tried the cannoli (which I thought was the best), cream puffs, and napoleons from Vaccaro's, the pastry shop. We could spend years trying all the other restaurants that looked good and I hope to be able to get back to Baltimore to see what other great food they're serving.
Charm City Circulator
One thing that made our two days in Baltimore so enjoyable was the ability to use public transportation. The city offers bus service to the main neighborhoods and attractions on a service called the Charm City Circulator. There are three routes running through the main parts of the city with multiple stops and you usually don't have to wait more than 10 minutes for a pick up from any of the locations. The stops are well marked, the buses are clean, and the drivers are friendly. And the best part...using the Charm City Circulator is FREE! It made getting around the city very easy and it enabled us to see more of the unique things Baltimore had to offer. Being able to ride the bus kept us from worrying about walking everywhere and figuring out if we'd need to take our car and then find a place to park. I was extremely impressed with this service and I hope many other cities will work to offer something similar to this.
In all, it was a great getaway for us. The weather ended up being nice and we were able to see many different things. We hope to get back sometime and see even more!
In all, it was a great getaway for us. The weather ended up being nice and we were able to see many different things. We hope to get back sometime and see even more!
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