Baltimore/Washington DC/Annapolis

Charm City (aka Baltimore) had its charms for sure. It also had its toads. First, the neatest part of the trip was watching our nephew get his commission into the Secret Service. Here are a few pictures of the day. For security reasons, I have been asked not to blog his picture. Sorta cool, sorta scary. He went through an interview process that was straight out of an interrogation room in the movies and seven months of grueling training. What an accomplishment!

Things I liked about Baltimore:

• Nephew’s graduation. Extremely interesting (see above).
• Hanging with family that I don't get to see often enough.
• The people. Everyone was so friendly! This was unexpected in a city this size.
• Fells Point. Very old with cobblestone streets. Cool old homes and businesses, yet still a little gritty around the edges. I imagined this is the same feeling it had two hundred years ago. Not too genteel. Just a working class waterfront neighborhood full of people trying to make a better life for themselves.

Things that I will pass on next time:

• The Inner Harbor area. One of the locals hit the nail on the head when he said, “This isn’t Baltimore, this is Disneyland.” Chain stores, chain restaurants, and too many tourists. Can you say, “boring"?
• G and M Restaurant. I found this on what I thought was a local magazine “Best of Baltimore” survey as having the best crabcakes. There was a line out the door when we got there, so we were anticipating a great meal. Ummm…that would be a huge yuk. We were all really disappointed in our meals and the crabcakes were mostly breadcrumbs, although the seasoning was very good (according to my loving, wonderful, studly husband!).

Next stop was Washington D.C. This city is overwhelming if you only have a day and a half. So much to see and do. Decisions, decisions, decisions…

Things I liked about DC:

• The Holocaust Museum. This is an incredibly moving experience to the point where I had to take a break from it while I was walking through. It is unnerving to think about the atrocities that happened in the past and that are still happening in the world today to other groups of people. It was also very graphic, so this is not for small children. The museum did an excellent job of explaining the history leading up to the Holocaust and how people were so convinced what Hitler was doing was justified. How chilling to realize we are not immune from seeing history repeat itself, especially based on what we are fed by influential people in the government and media-now or in the future.
• The history. It is everywhere you turn. Okay, okay…I admit it. We took one of those cheesy double-decker bus tours. But since we were so short on time, it seemed like the logical thing to do since you can hop on and off.
• Arlington Cemetary - Interesting and emotionally moving.
• The Metro. Easy to use and a great way to get around.
  

Things I didn’t like about DC:

• We didn’t have enough time and I didn’t plan very well. Would have loved to go to the Nationals baseball game.
• The cheesy double-decker bus ride. This is fine for many people, just not my favorite way to see a city. Our tour was prerecorded and did not use a live guide, so half the time you didn’t know what building/site to look at.

Our next stop was Annapolis. This was definitely a favorite.
Things I liked about Annapolis:

• The historical society in this city has done an incredible job preserving the historical buildings here. The early 18th century homes of four signers of the Declaration of Independence are here and preserved.






• The friendly people. Again, everyone was so nice!
• The walking tour. Very educational and informative. Can you tell I love history and old stuff?
• Lemongrass Thai Restaurant – Very yummy Thai food! This time the “Best of Annapolis” survey came through.
• The $4 bus ride to BWI. Who doesn’t like saving an $80 taxi ride? I came across this on the MTA website and, amazingly, the locals at the Visitor Center and hotel didn’t know about it. I get the feeling these locals don’t use public transportation much (the haves vs. the have-nots, I suspect)
• Some really amazing neighborhoods with old homes off the beaten path.
  

Things I didn’t like about Annapolis:

• Very touristy downtown, but at least it was a lot of local businesses and not chains.
• Middleton’s Tavern. A 200 year-old tavern (cool!), with mediocre food (not cool). For some reason, we couldn’t find great regional food this trip. I think it was me...not totally into seafood.
• Not enough time. Again, I didn’t plan very well, so we missed some things we wanted to see. (see the next bullet)
• Missing the Midshipmen processional for the noon meal at the Naval Academy. We were told that this is amazing to see the hundreds of midshipmen line up in formation and march into Bertram Hall to “Anchors Aweigh”.

Hbomb and Conzo were pretty upset that they didn't get to go with us this trip. We told them if we skip Christmas presents, maybe we can go Spring Break before Hbomb leaves on his mission. I am keeping our fingers crossed that we can take them. It would be a fun trip.