Baltimore

July 13, 2006

The National Aquarium
Guster



It’s truly amazing what you can pack into a day, especially when you are in a city as cool as Baltimore where there is so much to see and do. We spent just about 30 hours in the city and it feels like we did enough for a week’s visit.

The Tobin Family
Kathy & Christina

Of course before we could even get to Baltimore, we spent a final afternoon with the Tobin family boating on the Magothy River, located a mere 45 seconds from their house. They treated us to a wonderful trip to this cool deserted island, with its own private beach and cliffs that jutted upward from the river and commanded an amazing view of the entire area. We had a great time lounging on the beach and playing in the water. It was tough to say goodbye, but we had somehow managed to get 10th row center seats to see Guster and Ray LaMontagne at the Pier 5 Pavilion in Baltimore, so we had to make the short drive in the late afternoon.



We stayed at a nice hotel, the Brookshire Suites, just 2 blocks from the Inner Harbor and an easy walk to the concert. It was the opening night of their summer tour, though you would not have known it from their amazing show. If Guster is coming to a town near you, I suggest you get tickets asap. If you are not familiar with them, I will post a link to their website so you can check them out.


The next day we did the tourist thing, first enjoying lunch at a restaurant overlooking the harbor, then catching the water taxi for a trip to Fort McHenry. The fort, which sits at the entrance to Baltimore harbor, is an excellent historic site. It was the site of the American victory over the British fleet in 1814 (during the war of 1812), that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the “Star Spangled Banner”. It is easy to get a sense of what it must have been like because the National Park Service has done an excellent job of recreating the original fort and its content.

Fort McHenry

Next it was back on the water taxi to the National Aquarium. This massive, well designed, exceedingly impressive aquarium must rank among the very best in the nation. It is simply huge and has a plethora of interesting creatures, all displayed with a bent towards conservation, which is very important to us. If you are anywhere near Baltimore, this place is worth a visit, in fact it is worth being the reason for a visit.



Our final stop in Baltimore was a dinner engagement with another of Kathy’s college friends, Dave Reamer & his lovely wife Deneb. We met them at this wonderfully funky little diner called the Paper Moon Diner. Thankfully it wasn’t too busy because we were there for about 3 hours catching up with them. It was far too short a time and we are hopeful we can get them down for a Key West visit sometime soon.

Kathy, Dave & Daneb

http://www.myspace.com/guster