Monday, May 30, 2011

Sun Burns, Animals, and Pubs.... OH MY!


          These last two days have been a whirlwind of adventure in Charm City.  On my first night in Baltimore I looked up free things to do in the city because I am poor and free is always better! Did you know there is a free bookstore in Baltimore?!?! That is right FREE (you are allowed to take no more than 15,000 books at day, I checked) and it is about a five-minute drive from my apartment! Its only open Saturday and Sunday, so we had to check it out. It was awesome. You go in and look through about four or five big rooms of books. They are laid out by subject, so you do not have to dig (which may be fun). I found a couple of nice cookbooks and some novels. Bonus there is a big section of trashy romance novels. After hitting up the bookstore and taking out a box, each we headed to the Baltimore Farmers Market. It is under the expressway, which is a little odd, but it was cool. They were packing up by the time we got there. However, we did score some great strawberries and the best chocolate milk I have ever tasted. I also got a pretty button bracelet from a woman there.
            Now there are many museums in Baltimore (nice to know, if say you are a Public History major) so we had to pick one. We decided on the American Visionary Art Museum. The museum is home to art by people who have little or no trainning in art. Some very cool folk art. Their big exhibit now is on laughter, so all the pieces tie into that theme. One section is all about fart art. There is a whoopee cushion bench for patrons to sit on. It was funny to watch the kids sit on the bench but even funnier to see an elderly man go around the whole bench making farting noises (he was laughing the whole time). It was a great way to get people to laugh, which was the theme! After the museum, we went to the Rusty Scupper for dinner. It was yummy. The view was beautiful of the harbor. In addition, Baltimore’s state cake (who know there was such a thing) is  six layer yellow cake with chocolate frosting called the St John cake (I think).  I am thinking Tennessee needs to pick a state cake because I may have to move to Maryland just for the cake. While we were eating, I noticed this little boat sitting in the water. The man was wearing a weird hat, so being the natural born snooper I took a picture. He was wearing a pirate hat. Well that was weird, but hey if that is what he likes cool. But then he pulls out a sward. I thought oh lord, I am about to see a man reenact Pirates of the Caribbean. That is when we noticed the pirate tour boat coming towards the little boat. Yup that’s right they had a mini battle in the harbor. I want to take this tour! After dinner, we got tickets to take the Seadog speedboat tour of the harbor. It was nice, our captain was Captain Jake (not Jack, but just as cute!). Our tour was ok, but more bad jokes than history. The tour guide opened with the two muffins in an oven joke. After this, we headed back to the apartment. Unfortunately, my clothes had not put themselves up and I still need to clean up.
            Today, got up and headed out to Fell’s Point. Fell’s Point is one of the oldest sections in Baltimore, it reminds me a lot of Charleston. It was very pretty and there are 120 pubs in the area. We did a little shopping. I picked up the best hat, which is a crab hat (I know you are jealous). I think I will come back to Fell’s Point later on, there are lots of new places to try out. Plus there is a good coffee shop called The Daily Grind. After looking around, we went and picked up my good friend Angela, who is living in Baltimore. I love, love going to zoos so we went to the Baltimore Zoo. It was cool. I almost got to feed a giraffe but it walked away and would not come back, much to my sadness. But we did see a baby elephant and a baby lemur (sooo cute and fuzzy). We stopped to have a coke and a pretzel and there was the fattest squirrel I have ever seen watching people at the concession stand. It was eyeing my pretzel like a southern eyes sweet tea. I was a little afraid it was going to attack and get my pretzel but it just left to go sit in the shade.  There are also lots of statues and things to take pictures with so we had to take some good pictures while there. Mom and Angela said to act normal, but apparently, we are on two different wavelengths on what normal is J. I unfortunately forgot sun block for the trip and I now have two lovely burned shoulders. I did mange to pack aloe vera, thank the heavens. After the zoo we were all pretty beat so we came back to my apartment. There is a little restaurant called Donna’s across the street so we had a late lunch there. It was quite good. A little pricey, but good. After that, we came back up and played some card games for a bit. We just got one called Spot It. Its super fun, and I am good at it. Then we played Scrabble Slam and Angela kicked our butts. We decided to go get some drinks in Fells’ Point to end the night. We decided to go to Riptide by the Bay for drinks. It was good and the service was super nice. Our waitress and the other waitress both stopped by and talked to us about Baltimore. They were nice and the food and drinks were good and fairly cheap. I think I have found a good place to go on the weekends! Well it is getting late and I have a ton to do tomorrow. First is to get a parking permit for my neighborhood. I don’t want to have to pay to park everyday all day! More to come tomorrow!
View from the dinning room

Ship in the Harbor

Domino Sugar Factory (It smells like melted sugar near the factory.)

At the harbor

The mirror beside the bathroom at the AVAM

Good Place to eat and drink and the have a cool sign.

At the zoo. Just acting normal.

Mom said act natural....

Could not resist the temptation to climb in the nest.

New hat, I know you want one too. 

Mom and baby Lemur

Fat squirrel 

2 comments:

  1. I love you Morgan!! I am so glad your doing this blog! I can look forward to coming home every night and laughing, thanks to you :) Looks like your having a blast.

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