Hot Crabs and Stormy Nights

June 9, 2011

     Today was our second day of holiday! To make sure the interns were getting out and seeing Baltimore and not just hiding in their apartments Rachel the photo collections manger gave the interns a scavenger hunt to day around the city! It’s for points in the Intern Olympics!!! I LOVE COMPETITION! Most people who have played games with me, will never do it again unless forced to because I can get a tad bit crazy when it comes to games. I really just want to win. I can’t help it if I have the drive to win with in my soul. Just kidding. Well any ways, Mary B (there are two Marys at the JMM interning, the other Mary has been renamed Trudy, just 411) and I went out exploring the city in the search of the items on our scavenger hunt.

     First, stop Walters Art Gallery. The Walters Art Gallery is a free art museum in Baltimore. IT WAS AMAZING! First, there is art as in paintings, but then there is jewelry (old, I mean 1^st century old), armor and arms, mummies, animals, and altars, just to name a few different categories of things they have! My favorites were: the painting commissioned for the Scarlet letter book (it’s the Barnes and Nobel cover now I think too, it’s the one where Hester looks evil), the church alters from the 1400s and 1500s, the ancient jewelry and funeral masks, the newer diamond rings and pendants, the mummy of a young girl (creep I know, but the mask is cool), and the armor. There was so much to see and we were hungry to I am planning to go back to see all of it! There are four floors so I am thinking one floor per Saturday. That should give me enough time to see everything.

child's armor

young girl mummy

Beautiful box made with diamonds!

Alter piece

tinny dagger with jewels on it

Lovely statue 

Mary and Me

It's my night and shinning armor finally came to take me away!!

     After the Walters, it was time for lunch. But it is I should take time to mention that it was hotter in Baltimore than in TENNESSEE! I don’t understand this weather. It was crazy. We opened the doors to the museum and the heat hit us like a wall of grossness. It was 102 by noon. Nasty. So, in order to escape the heat we headed down to Fells Point to eat at Ripe Tied by the Bay. I love this place! I got the Chesapeake burger, which is a crab cake on top of a burger with cheese and bacon. De-LICIOUS! After our yummy lunch, it was time to check off the inner harbor! Then we stopped to get gelato. OMG so good. I got dark chocolate and espresso. Italy had the best gelato but this came pretty close!

yummy gelato

     One of the things to check off was to take as many pictures with crabs as you could at the inner harbor. Done, as well as taking pictures with statues and of art. I love taking pictures! However, I did not take as many as normal today because it was so freaking hot I did not want to really do anything! There is an H&M inside the little storefronts at the Harbor to so we popped inside to look! I love their bags and jewelry. It was also a nice way to get out of the heat. Next, we stopped at the visitor center to get some pamphlets and take a picture with the giant poodle bike/boat racer. Then we went over to the HUGE Barnes and Nobel, which was an old factory by the harbor. It was awesome! the old boilers (I think) are now little walk through with shelves in them, so cool. While we were there we decided to get Harry Potter wands. I could not think of a better way to spend 8 dollars. All the interns are planning to go to see the 7^th movie so we needed something to take with us. Speaking of Harry Potter, I forgot to mention that Ryan the guy I intern with plays Quiddich at his college. We are going to start a JMM team! It’s going to be awesome (pictures will be posted when this Awesome event takes place). By this point we were hot and tired so it was time to head back to Charles Village.

First crab we found

Dragon boats you can take in the harbor! How cool are these?!? I really want to rent one, but they are 18 dollars for a half hour!!

Captain Morgan

Arrrrr Matey

Don't shoot! 

Giant Poodle which you can race on land and in the water

NEMO!

     I still had Fluid Movement practice to go to at 5:30, but I got a tiny break to bask in my air-conditioned room. Since it’s been so hot in the city, the city opened the public pools today. We are practicing at the park across from the pools. The park was packed. It was a nightmare getting in. Practice went well tonight. Our director April brought everyone popsicles