I spent most of Friday in Washington, DC hanging out with my friend Joe Sandillo who I know from my time at the University of Florida. But it seemed to take a long time to travel just 30 or so miles to get to DC from Baltimore. I took Baltimore’s Light Rail to Penn Station after waiting 20 minutes for the train to arrive. It seemed to take another 20 or more minutes to get to Penn Station. So much time, in fact, that although I left the hotel at 9:30 I barely made it to Penn Station in time to get my ticket for the 10:50 MARC commuter train to Washington. It was a relief to finally get to Joe’s. He recently bought a condo in the Logan Circle neighborhood at N St. and 14th St. and I was excited to see him and his new home. We had lunch al fresco at a nearby restaurant and then took a long walk through his neighborhood up to Meridian Hill Park overlooking the city and then back down to the DuPont Circle area. It was nice to be away from tourists and since I have been to DC many times and seen most of the tourist attractions, I didn‘t really care what we did. I think the highlight of the day for me was sitting outside at a bar on 17th Street, having a few beers, catching up, and talking about old time. Good times; good times.
Drew came back from his class that evening and the three of us, along with Joe’s friend Andrew, went to a restaurant called Marvin in the U Street neighborhood. U Street was historically the cultural center of African American Washington, sort of the Harlem of DC, but today it has become a neighborhood of various groups and seems to be going through a renaissance. Many of the establishments are named for Jazz greats like Duke Ellington and others. Marvin is a restaurant named for Marvin Gay and the food is a mixture of Southern and Belgian food as Marvin Gay once spent several years in Belgium. They had a large menu of Belgian beers and mussels. For dinner, I had fried chicken on top of a waffle. It seemed at first like a strange combination, but I enjoyed the flavor of chicken, waffle, and maple syrup and would have it again. After dinner, we walked down the street to a bar called Nellie’s and hung out on the roof deck for a little while. Drew and I felt like two old men when we pooped out at 11:00 and went back to our hotel. Going out on the town is just not what it used to be when we were young.
Saturday, Drew and I still had half a day before our flight home but had no plans as to what we wanted to do before then. After breakfast we decided to go to the National Cathedral which is a straight shot up Massachusetts Ave. from our hotel in Dupont Circle. As we waited for a taxi in front of our hotel we noticed a long line forming at the Portuguese embassy across the street (Mass. Ave. is often called Embassy Row). We wondered what it was about as they didn’t look like asylum seekers or anything, but didn’t pay to much attention to it. Once in the taxi heading to the cathedral we learned that it was European Union Embassies’ open house day. We passed several more on our way up the street and were especially impressed with the goings-on at the British embassy. We made a quick loop through the cathedral and then walked back down the street to the British embassy. Out in front a children’s choir was singing Let It Be and the gates where decorated with union jack bunting. Once inside, we were able to walk through the gardens of the ambassador’s residence, take pictures, listen to bag pipes, try some scotch, and browse the booths. We probably stayed for about 45 minutes. The anglophile in me was in heaven and I kept wondering what Hyacinth Bucket (from the BritCom Keeping Up Appearances) would think about my getting to go to a garden party at the ambassador’s. We didn’t have time to go to any of the other embassies and by then the lines were getting long anyway. We met my friend Donald Hitchcock for lunch who filled us in on all the political goings-on behind the scenes in DC--he and his partner Paul are very well connected politically--and then drove us to the airport for our flight home.
It was nice to travel with my friend Drew again as it had been sometime since we had gone on a trip together and I found it interesting that my trip that began with a visit to Fort McHenry ended with a visit to the British Embassy. Thanks Drew for a great trip.
Here is a link to some pictures I posted on Facebook (you do not need to be a member of Facebook to view them):
Just click here to view pictures.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Baltimore
Greetings from Baltimore! I am here with my friend Drew who is here for a doctors' continuing education class and invited me along. This is my first real time in Baltimore (I came when I was five to a Baltimore Orioles game with my Dad and uncle and cousin who lived in DC but that's all we did, so I don't think that really counts).
We arrived Wednesday by various transportation modes: we flew into Washington, DC, took the Metro to Union Station, a commuter train to Baltimore, and a taxi to our hotel. We are staying in downtown Baltimore across the street from Camden Yards baseball stadium. Once we finally got settled in, we walked down to Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Baltimore has a natural harbor formed by the Patapsco river which snakes it way into the inner city. The final end of it is almost surrounded on four sides by land. We had drinks at a bar with a great view of the National Aquarium and the USS Constellation, a ship from the War of 1812. We later met up with some friends of Drew's and their newborn for dinner and then walked back to their row house in the Federal Hill neighborhood. Baltimore seems covered with row houses. I had no idea it was such a "real" city like Boston or Washington, DC--very dense with houses right on the street, walkable neighborhoods, and lots of parallel parking. The Federal Hill neighborhood was particularly charming. On a large hill overlooking the harbor, was a large American flag on the spot where there was once a huge union garrison stationed during the civil war to "keep an eye on the rebellious elements in Baltimore." At least that's what the historic marker said.
Today, I took a water taxi to Fort McHenry at the opposite end of the harbor. The fort was heavily bombarded by the British during the War of 1812. During the bombardment the flag flying over the fort was not damaged and Francis Scott Key wrote a poem about it, called "The Star-Spangled Banner, " which was eventually set to music and became our national anthem. The flag that inspired our anthem is now in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian but there is a replica of it flying over the fort. It has fifteen stars and fifteen stripes for the 15 states that were part of the union at the time. Before heading to the fort I stopped at the visitor center for a short film. When the film was over, the curtain to the right of us parted revealing a large picture window with a perfect view of the fort and the flag. We were asked to stand and the national anthem was played over the speakers. I thought it was a little hokie and wondered what would happen if I started to sing, "There'll Always be an England?" But I didn't and actually, the rest of the day I couldn't get the national anthem out of my head. There were several elementary school groups there on field trips but somehow I managed to avoid them by seeing various parts of the fort at just the right time. After seeing all I wanted, I took the water taxi to the historic Fell's Point neighborhood where I had lunch at a pub. I took a long walk after lunch, partly by accident, back to the harbor. After walking around the Mount Vernon neighborhood a bit, I returned to the hotel for a nice nap.
When Drew got out of his class we took a free shuttle bus to an Irish pub by the harbor for a beer before going on to Obrycki's restaurant back in Fell's Point for a traditional Baltimore Blue Crab dinner. We got three jumbo Blue Crabs as well as two crab cakes. I had never had a traditional crab meal before and while it was delicious, I think it was the messiest meal I have ever had. We went through a whole big stack of paper napkins and had crab and goo all over our hands. I have since washed my hands three time and they still smell like crab. But it was a lot of fun and we got some good pictures and had some good laughs. Tomorrow Drew goes back to class (something with cadavers and tracheotomies) and I am heading back to Washington, DC to spend the day with my friend Joe. Stay tuned for more.
We arrived Wednesday by various transportation modes: we flew into Washington, DC, took the Metro to Union Station, a commuter train to Baltimore, and a taxi to our hotel. We are staying in downtown Baltimore across the street from Camden Yards baseball stadium. Once we finally got settled in, we walked down to Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Baltimore has a natural harbor formed by the Patapsco river which snakes it way into the inner city. The final end of it is almost surrounded on four sides by land. We had drinks at a bar with a great view of the National Aquarium and the USS Constellation, a ship from the War of 1812. We later met up with some friends of Drew's and their newborn for dinner and then walked back to their row house in the Federal Hill neighborhood. Baltimore seems covered with row houses. I had no idea it was such a "real" city like Boston or Washington, DC--very dense with houses right on the street, walkable neighborhoods, and lots of parallel parking. The Federal Hill neighborhood was particularly charming. On a large hill overlooking the harbor, was a large American flag on the spot where there was once a huge union garrison stationed during the civil war to "keep an eye on the rebellious elements in Baltimore." At least that's what the historic marker said.
Today, I took a water taxi to Fort McHenry at the opposite end of the harbor. The fort was heavily bombarded by the British during the War of 1812. During the bombardment the flag flying over the fort was not damaged and Francis Scott Key wrote a poem about it, called "The Star-Spangled Banner, " which was eventually set to music and became our national anthem. The flag that inspired our anthem is now in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian but there is a replica of it flying over the fort. It has fifteen stars and fifteen stripes for the 15 states that were part of the union at the time. Before heading to the fort I stopped at the visitor center for a short film. When the film was over, the curtain to the right of us parted revealing a large picture window with a perfect view of the fort and the flag. We were asked to stand and the national anthem was played over the speakers. I thought it was a little hokie and wondered what would happen if I started to sing, "There'll Always be an England?" But I didn't and actually, the rest of the day I couldn't get the national anthem out of my head. There were several elementary school groups there on field trips but somehow I managed to avoid them by seeing various parts of the fort at just the right time. After seeing all I wanted, I took the water taxi to the historic Fell's Point neighborhood where I had lunch at a pub. I took a long walk after lunch, partly by accident, back to the harbor. After walking around the Mount Vernon neighborhood a bit, I returned to the hotel for a nice nap.
When Drew got out of his class we took a free shuttle bus to an Irish pub by the harbor for a beer before going on to Obrycki's restaurant back in Fell's Point for a traditional Baltimore Blue Crab dinner. We got three jumbo Blue Crabs as well as two crab cakes. I had never had a traditional crab meal before and while it was delicious, I think it was the messiest meal I have ever had. We went through a whole big stack of paper napkins and had crab and goo all over our hands. I have since washed my hands three time and they still smell like crab. But it was a lot of fun and we got some good pictures and had some good laughs. Tomorrow Drew goes back to class (something with cadavers and tracheotomies) and I am heading back to Washington, DC to spend the day with my friend Joe. Stay tuned for more.
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