Take Me Out To The Ball Game

I spent Sunday afternoon at Orioles Park at Camden Yards. The Angels and the Orioles were playing the last game of their three game series. The Angels took the first two and it looked like the third would be easy since the Orioles were on a 5 game losing skid and hadn't won a Sunday game since April. Wrong. Final score:Orioles 5 Angels 2.
As usual my wonderful wife got me the best seat in the house. This park is the most beautiful of those I have been to. It was an absolute pleasant experience even though there was a rain delay and parts of the game were played in rain.

Took a Little Walk

I took a little walk around Baltimore Inner Harbor on Saturday. I ended up walking so far that I had to take the water taxi back. Not only the water taxi, but I had to take two of them. One only went so far and then I had to transfer at Fells Point to the next one.

I love to walk in unknown places (unknown to me).But before I took off on my jaunt, I sat down at Phillips Seafood Buffet for a little taste of the ocean. Now, if you haven't been to Phillips you are missing a culinary treat. All you can eat crab legs, shrimp, crayfish, crab cakes, mussels, etc., etc. But be prepared because the bill (along with tip) came to about $38; if I remember right. That is with the luscious strawberry and whipped cream cake and a small pitcher of diet cola. After that, I needed the walk!

Besides the tugboats, military ships, and cargo ships along the many piers, I love the seashore architecture. As in many big cities, many of the warehouses and ports have been reborn as upscale restaurants and residences. I was jealous of the inhabitants. If all I had to do was sit on one of the many balconies all day, I'd gaze at the passing sailboats, ferries, and the many ships in port as they passed me by and I would dream of the far away places they might visit while I sip my Diet Coke.

In Fells Point, there was a fish market with fresh catch on ice that reminded me of the many fish markets I visited in Korea, Mexico, and Japan. Funny how less intriguing it was being in the US. But I still enjoyed it.

The cobblestone streets and the historic register homes in Fells Point were probably the biggest treat. As we found in the Mexican ports we visited on our cruises, when I wandered more than a block into Fells Point, I got extremely uncomfortable. No longer were the inhabitants the young and ambitious residents of the waterfront condos. Instead, the working class, kitchen help, maids, mechanics, and others scurried in and out of broken down store front markets and local drinking establishments looking for dinner and a little something to forget the harshness of their meager lives.

At the end of the day, I caught the evening light rail train back to the BWI airport light rail stop and ultimately my hotel room bed. Exhausted, I spent the night traveling to far away places on those very same ships I saw on my stroll through the harbor.

Business Hotels

When you live on the road for long periods of time, you want the place you live in to be nice and comfortable. The last couple hotels we have stayed at have been doing some kind of remodeling. That drives me NUTS.

So here, in Baltimore, we end up, again, the victims of a hotel remodeling. The signs all over the place asking us to, "please excuse our mess while we make things nicer for you" make me want to scream.

To top it all off, this hotels Internet wireless service dies and it takes them two days to get the service guy out here to tell them that a lightning storm toasted the wireless routers. So, we had to go to the Courtyard down the street to use their wireless Internet service. Does that suck or what.

The technician from the Internet provider could not fix our service and yet someone else in the hotel offered to look at the problem and found it to be a bad cable, not toasted routers... problem solved, but not by the people responsible for keeping it on line. That's service for you.

Pizza!

One of the things I like about travelling is the variety of good restaurants you can eat at. Since we mostly travel to small town America our choices end up to be restaurant chains.

Tonight I scored. Pizzeria Uno. Great Chicago pizza.

Thick crust, but not hard, with big chunks of juicy tomatoes, sausage, and lots of chewy Mozzarella cheese. It was as good, if not better, than what I remember eating in Chicago. I an not a big pizza fan, but I love Chicago style.

Escaped

I escaped the monotony of the hotel room for a dinner out by driving myself to Arundel Mall in Anne Arundel County. What strange names. I looked them up on the Internet and they actually have historic meanings. Not historic enough or interesting enough to keep my interest...

The mall is HUGE. I made the mistake of entering the door that goes into the food court so I ended up eating some crappy mall Chinese food. Lo and behold (I always wanted to say that), on the other side of the mall are many good food restaurants. I'll know next time.

As I walked around the mall, I felt like I was in a different world. East coast fashions are too hip hop for me. I have no use for flat billed NY Yankee or Boston Red Sox baseball caps in wild colors with so many graphics on them it hides the actual team logo. Neon shoes and shirts don't quite fit my look and bling is definitely out.

But there were a couple good shoe stores that carried the kind of work shoes the wife wants me to buy. They were probably even good prices. I just have this aversion to spending money on new clothes...oh, you can tell? I admit it. If I am wearing nice clothes, or more than one pair of shoes in a week, it is because I have such a good wife who takes good care of me.

I couldn't put out the cash for the shoes, but the new diamond stud earring sure looks nice. :}

Church, Eat, Sleep...

Well, this day was quiet. I woke up and went into Church. We ate brunch at the club on base and then I came back to the room and slept...

With limited transportation and the distance into town, that's just the way it has to be. And of course the $27 parking fee at the inner harbor doesn't help much. I will have to figure out the public transportation by the baseball game this weekend.

We are just far enough out of DC and Baltimore to not have public transportation around the corner.

I'll figure it out. In the mean time, I will probably be up all night after napping for 5 hours today.

Oh Say Can You See

We went into Baltimore Inner Harbor today. What a beautiful place. In a lot of ways it reminded me of Cabo San Lucas (although MUCH bigger).

We purchased the Historic Fleet Pass to visit four historic ships moored in the harbor: the USS Constellation, Lightship Chesapeake, USCGC Taney, and US Submarine Torsk. It also included the 7 Foot Knoll Lighthouse.

The stroll between ships and the lighthouse takes you around the inner harbor area. Lots of beautiful boats and yachts. What amazed me about the area was the endless lines to enter the aquarium. People waited hours to get in. When we passed by at 3 pm, the lady announced over the PA that tickets were being sold for the 5:45 entrance time!

As we gawked at all the people and sites to see, I missed my wonderful wife and my friend Kelli, both great traveling companions. I've done some memorable sightseeing and shopping with both of them. They are the only two people in the world who I am totally comfortable with just wandering around.

After touring all the ships and the submarine, we drove over to Ft McHenry. Of course, the fort is known for the battle (the only battle fought at the fort) fought there that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner.

We spent some time sitting on the seawall around the fort and boat/ship watched. We were treated (at least I was) by the passing by of the Norwegian Majesty cruise ship. It, of course, made me yearn for January when Marj and I get to go on our next cruise out of San Diego.

Tanks A Lot For Reading

We visited the Ft Meade Museum after work today. Although I promised myself I'd write in the blog tonight I am very tired from traveling and the first day on site so I need my sleep... instead of taking the time for writing I thought I'd just give you some tanks for reading my blog... :)

Lunch Time Memories

I took a little stroll down memory lane today at lunch time. When hunger pangs struck, and I thought of all the places I could eat, I decided to go somewhere to satiate not only my physical yearnings for food, but also my great need to connect with something or someone.

I’ve worked the greater part of my professional career on both sides of the Salt Lake City airport and have spent many lunch periods with coworkers searching the Salt Lake area for exceptional lunch time culinary experiences on a tight budget (is that an oxymoron?).

Unfortunately, most of my lunch buddies no longer work in or around the airport. So I have to often, the little time I am in Salt Lake City, go to lunch by myself. Today was one of those days.

Driving down North Temple, I tried to think of someone I might have called to share my lunch half hour with. On such a short notice, nobody came to mind. As I approached the State Fair Grounds, I spotted the perfect spot to chow down: Panda Buffet; lots of food, drink, and great atmosphere on a budget (OK, maybe not the best atmosphere).

Upon entering, I was greeted by the same three Chinese (I’m assuming) ladies at the front cash register counter who met me on my first visit and every visit since. Their chattering away in Chinese tonal sounds always confuses me. The loud voices and inflections make me think they are constantly mad and yelling at each other or participating in constant arguing.

Memories? Well, besides all the going away parties, gatherings of friends, and meals with family, I have one especially fond memory.

My friend Kelli and I met at Panda Buffet for lunch on one of her trips up from AZ. While snarfing down on the chow, I found a piece of metal in one of my mushrooms. When I brought it to the attention of our waitress, I got a very curt, “So solly.” Kelli, not to be outdone, had her Diet Coke end up spilling all over the table, and got the same response, “So solly.” I guess the two incidents were only big deals to us. Because they certainly were no big deal to the waitress!

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