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Visiting Baltimore

My son Mickey moved to Baltimore over a year ago. Then my son Tim got an assignment in Washington DC. Now that I have started traveling again, it was time for me to go visit them. When Mickey called and suggested that I come out in early April because the Brewers were in town to play the Orioles, I booked my travel. I grew up in Milwaukee and am still a Brewer fan. Mickey is a sports fan in general and inherited being a Brewer fan from me. Besides, I had never been to Baltimore or to anywhere in Maryland. I had never been to Washington DC. There would be lots of new places to explore. And I hadn't seen Tim or Mickey for two years. It was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up.

Mickey bought a house when he moved to Baltimore. Tim and his wife were renting an apartment in Washington DC. I was orignially planning to split my time between Baltimore and DC, but then things changed. Tim and his wife separated, and Tim temporarily moved in with Mickey and Allie, staying in their spare room. Well, I didn't have to figure out how to divide my time anymore. I did have to figure out where to stay though since the extra room at Mickey's house was taken now. That wasn't a major problem. I found a Best Western that was just a five to seven minute drive away. It was pretty easy for me to get picked up in the morning and to get dropped off at night. And now no one had to listen to my snoring.

I flew out on a Wednesday, leaving Boise early in the morning. Everything went smoothly. Both my flights left on time and both landed early. Unfortunately, while I arrived early, Mickey got hung up at work. I ended up having to wait about an hour to get picked up. For some reason, that always seems to happen when I go to visit one of my sons. It was no big deal though. The weather was nice and I just sat outside the terminal and read my book. I'm an old retired guy and I've got lots of time.

It was my first chance to see Mickey's new house. It's quite nice. It's a row house, a little different from houses I have lived in. It's an older house but it has been renovated and the inside is quite new. It's located in Canton, a nice neighborhood to the east of downtown Baltimore. It's near the Patapsco River, which really just seemed like part of Chesapeake Bay to me. As soon as I arrived I was greeted by their dogs - they have three. All of them were really excited to have a visitor. Daisy I knew but this was the first time that I met Pizza and Doug. They also have four cats, but other than Frank, who is my buddy from previous visits when they lived in Wisconsin, none of the cats came out to say hello.

We waited for Tim to get home from work and then all of us walked to HomeSlyce, a pizza restaurant and pub a few blocks from their house. One of the nice things about their neighborhood is that there are a lot of restaurants nearby in easy walking distance. Almost every night when we went out to eat, we would just walk to wherever we were going. I have to admit that I really liked that. After dinner we walked by O'Donnell Square Park, a long, narrow common area surrounded by restaurants, pubs and other businesses. Mickey referred to it as "Canton Square" and we came back several times during my visit when we were looking for a place to have dinner.

The next two days Mickey and I went to visit Civil War battlefields near Baltimore. That deserves its own post and I'll do one on that next.

We met up with Allie and Tim on Friday night after our second day of battlefield touring, . Our plan was to go to the local VFW post. Mickey is an officer at the post and both he and Allie are very active there. We drove to the VFW and parked there, one of the few times we had to drive when we went out in the evening. For dinner, we walked down the street and ate at Papi's Taco Joint. It was a little cool out, but they had a tent set up around their patio that blocked the wind on three sides. We were able to eat outside and it was comfortable. The margaritas were good and so were the tacos, but sadly no one told me how pretty I was.

After dinner we went back to the VFW and had a few beers. Mickey has a good friend there who is a Dwarfer. I'm one as well so just for the occasion I wore my SMEGHEAD tshirt. Mickey's friend was very impressed. It's unusual to meet another dwarfer. They're not very common, especially in the US.

On Saturday Tim didn't have to worry about work and was finally able to join us for the day. He suggested we start with a trip to Diablo Doughnuts. They did have some amazing doughnuts there. For me, getting a doughnut usually means a chocolate bar from Albertsons. These were quite a bit fancier. Since they were cheaper by the dozen, we got a whole box. That was four doughnuts for each of us. It was a nice sunny day and we sat outside while we ate. The doughnuts were awesome, although I could only eat two of them in a single sitting. I saved the other two for later. Good thing we had a box.

Next we continued the trip's historical theme with a visit to Ft. McHenry. Before my visit I hadn't realized that it was virtually in the city of Baltimore, at the end of a peninsula extending into the bay. We started by watching a short film at the visitor center that gave an overview of the history of the fort, especially the British attack on Baltimore during the War of 1812 and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner after the battle. A large British fleet shelled the fort for a full day and night but when it didn't surrender, they eventually left. Although they tried to make the movie suspenceful by playing up the possibility of a British landing after the bombardment, the British didn't really have that option. When we toured the fort it was clear that after the shelling didn't work and an overland attack was blocked miles away, the British had virtually no chance to take the fort with an amphibious assault. Don't take my word for it. That was Tim's professional opinion as well.

There was also quite a bit on the history of the national anthem and the symbolism of the American flag. I sometimes have disagreements with some of my friends over national anthem protests. Whether I agree or disagree with the thing being protested is irrelevant. While I agree that someone has the right to make such a protest, I strongly disagree with their choice to do it. Our visits over the past two days to Gettysburg and Antietam provided an important reminder of how powerful the symbolism of the flag is. One story that stuck in my mind was of a regiment that lost seven flag bearers during a single charge. Clearly the flag has a strong meaning if someone will pick it up seconds after the last man who was carrying it was killed. Just my opinion, but whatever your cause, disrespecting the flag is in very bad taste.

While touring the fort I learned that the name of the commander during the battle was George Armistead. Since I had just been to Gettysburg two days before, I wondered if it was the father of Lewis Armistead, of Pickett's Charge fame. After all, the name isn't that common. Turns out I was close. It was his uncle.

After visiting Ft. McHenry, we stopped for lunch at a nearby pub named Barflys before heading back to the house. Mickey and Allie had a commitment for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Before my trip was planned they had bought tickets to a comedy event. I certainly didn't mind but it meant that Tim had "Dad Duty" for the rest of the day. He suggested a walking tour and that sounded good to me. We spent the rest of the day following his usual running route.

My first impression was - man, he sure runs a long way everday! But then my next impression was - the inner harbor area of Baltimore is actually quite nice. A lot of the area has been rebuilt and there are lots of attractions: the National Aquarium, the American Visionary Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Industry and the Pier Six Pavilion (a concert venue). The stadiums where the Orioles and the Ravens play are nearby. All along the waterfront there are hotels, condos, parks, restaurants and bars. There are even concessions where you can rent boats shaped like dragons to sail around the bay. It's quite pretty along the water too. I was surprised because I had always thought that Baltimore wasn't a very nice city. Tim did say that the nice area doesn't extend very far. If you go just a few blocks from the water you can quickly find yourself in a pretty bad neighborhood.

And yes, to become thoroughly acquainted with the area, we had a drink in one of the bars and later had dinner at Abbey Burger Bistro/Fells Point. For some reason the name appealed to me. Too bad they didn't have a tshirt.

On Sunday we all took the train into Washington DC. I had never been to the capitol so I had to take advantage of this opportunity. The number one thing on my "to see" list was the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Tim had visited it a number of times and said he would act as our guide. Unfortunately when we checked the Smithsonian website to find out when it was open, we learned that it was completely closed. Apparently they were doing some kind of renovation and it was not scheduled to reopen until the fall.

Well that sucked.

When we arrived in DC after a long train ride, everyone was ready for a pit stop. Unfortunately as we walked around we couldn't find any public facilities. In desperation we went into a Starbucks but they kept their bathrooms locked. Tim volunteered to buy a coffee so he could get the key. It took a half hour for him to stand in line for coffee and then for all of us to cycle through the line for the restroom. Such is life in a city with a large homeless population. Good thing that we weren't on a tight schedule. Also good thing that none of us really had to go.

We spent most of the day walking around to see the major sights. It was cool, breezy and mostly overcast - not a nice day but not unpleasant either. Our first stop was Lafayette Square, where the view of the White House was disappointing. There was a temporary barricade set up half way between the fence and the White House so I didn't get any good photos. There was a lot of activity in the square but it was different than I expected. There were plenty of tourists of course. I expected to see vendors selling souvenirs or food or drinks or whatever but there weren't any. Maybe the Secret Service keeps them away. Instead there were some very strange people with displays pushing various weird political issues or conspiracy theories. Not really sure how any of them thought they were accomplishing anything but that didn't seem to discourage them.

Next we walked around to Constitution Avenue. We could see the White House better from the back but it was pretty far away. There was some event going on so the Ellipse was blocked off with a long line of people waiting to enter. We kept on going to the Washington Monument, which I thought was pretty cool to see. From there we walked by the World War II Memorial, which features a granite column for each state at the time of WWII. We thought at first the columns were just arranged randomly until Tim figured out that they were in the order that the states entered the Union. Well done Tim. Next was the reflecting pool but it was drained and undergoing maintenance. It was pretty ugly actually.

Finally we reached the Lincoln Memorial, where there was quite a crowd. Having just studied the Civil War in preparation for my trip, the monument made a strong impression on me. The Vietnam Memorial was nearby and it also evoked strong emotions, walking along the wall and reading so many names. Tim located the name of someone related to a friend of his and we took a photo with him pointing to the name. The memorial is interesting because although it's made of dark marble, it is highly polished so that when I looked at it, I saw my own reflection behind the names on the wall. It made me think back to a night when I was in college, watching tv for the results of the draft lottery, to find out if I would be going to Vietnam or not. I wonder if the designer of the memorial made it so reflective on purpose.

By now it was well after noon and we were all ready for some lunch. Surprisingly we had trouble finding a place to eat that was open in the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday. We finally ended up at a hole in the wall bar named The Bottom Line. They weren't crowded and the food was good so we were happy.

After lunch we walked down the National Mall towards the Capitol and even spent a short time in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The exhibit that I enjoyed the most was the original flag from Ft. McHenry that had flown during the battle in 1814. It's thirty feet by forty two feet. That is one big flag. It was amazing to see it after visiting Ft. McHenry the day before. I also enjoyed touring the exhibit clled "The Price of Freedom" which was about America's wars. It was quite extensive. In fact, we lost track of Tim in there and it took us half an hour to find him again.

Once we were all together we caught the train back to Baltimore. We walked down to Canton Square again and had dinner at Looney's. It's a pretty authentic Irish-style pub. They even had Guiness on draft, although that didn't matter to me since I don't like Guiness. The food was good though. Then it was back home for the evening for some drinks, conversation, playing with the dogs and watching tv.

We spent some time at Mickey's house most evenings. I was able to get reacquainted with Daisy. She is a really good dog but she is getting older and is starting to slow down. I also got to know my two new granddogs, Pizza and Doug. They are both loveable but a little wild and can get into mischief. I also had My Buddy Frank sitting on my lap a lot. I am a dog person. I don't like cats. But for some reason, Mickey's cat Frank likes me. Whenever I am around, Frank comes and sits on my lap and wants to be petted. I don't understand it but I certainly have to be nice to someone who is so friendly. So he's My Buddy Frank. Tim, on the other hand, claims that Frank tries to kill him.

When we were at Mickey's house we drank plenty of National Bohemian beer. Referred to colloquialy as Natty Boh, it's a local institution. Ninety percent of its sales are in Baltimore. Interestingly enough, since I'm a Milwaukee boy, National Bohemian is currently brewed and marketed by Pabst Brewing Company.

At night we did some serious tv watching. I forced Mickey to watch the entire first season of Red Dwarf. That's not as tough as it sounds since it's a British series and the first season only has six episodes. He was determined to resist becoming a Dwarfer, but by the end of the week he reluctantly admitted that he thought it was pretty funny. We also watched the first episode of Halo. It's on Paramount+ which I don't have at home, so I was anxious to watch as many episodes as had ben released so far. It turned out that I didn't like the first episode though so that was that. The beginning was cool, an action sequence with a battle between the Spartans and the Covenant. But after that, the main storyline was that the United Nations Space Command was corrupt and evil. Master Chief spent more time fighting the human government than the aliens. That's not the Halo I know from the game and the books. It was just as well. I didn't have to worry about going home and subscribing to Paramount+.

I had done a lot so far and after the weekend I only had a couple of days left. Now it was time for baseball.