Good Morning, Baltimore!

(Only you Hairspray fans would start singing after that title, Thanks Meevy!)
Nick and I recently returned from a long weekend in Baltimore with our friends, Stephen & Laura Price. Some ask, why Baltimore? Well, its a very quick plane ride from Raleigh (50 mins!), they have a MLB team, they have history, and a friend of mine from high school, Tom, lives there. So, why not?

Well, the timing got a little crazy considering I had been in Boston for work on Wednesday and Thursday. I flew home at 4:30pm, went to pick Camille up from school and spend an hour with her before turning around and getting back on plane to head to Baltimore after dinner. So, the trip began with exhaustion and missing Camille even more than usual.

We arrived in Baltimore Thursday night after a very turbulent flight :( We stayed at the Sheraton Inner Harbor, which was very nice. Here are the views from our room- The Ravens and Orioles stadiums!

On Friday morning, we made our way into Fells Point for breakfast to eat at the Blue Moon Cafe. All you Food Network Fanatics would recognize this restaurant from its feature in Diners, Drive Ins, & Dives. Yes, Nick & I got the Captain Crunch French Toast- delicious!!!

After our filling breakfast, we started our day full of walking. We walked EVERYWHERE.... we think we ended up walking close to 4 or 5 miles. Whew! (and it was a very hot day) Here are some pictures of what we saw along the way:

As you can see, the architecture is beautiful! Nick picked on me for taking a picture of the "stair-step" condo building- but that was one of the most impressive styles to me :) This is the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse that dates back to 1855, but was moved in the 80s to the Inner Harbor area to be on land and preserved.

We had lunch at Vaccaro's in Little Italy. They are best known for their desserts, but lunch was quite good too! It's a local favorite.

The Inner Harbor is a very fun area as you can see here.....

On to more sightseeing for the day....

And this is a picture of the Baltimore Shock Tower.....

After all that walking, we needed a break. We made our way up to Federal Hill to check out the awesome views over the Inner Harbor. You will notice I am squinting in ALL of the pictures- I forgot my sunglasses!

We met up with my friend Tom for dinner on Friday- and took his recommendation to eat at Nick's- which is a great seafood spot on the water. We had the Baltimore specialty- steamed crabs! It was a first for me- quite fun the first go round- but a lot of work for a little meat. Delicious none the less.

After dinner, we headed to Camden Yards to catch the Orioles vs. Tigers game. We had great seats. The game ended up being close- but the Tigers took a win in the last inning.

Needless to say, busy day. Saturday we started out with breakfast at Miss Shirley's. They were also a Food Network feature. The food was delicious and the Spicy Shirley (signature Bloody Mary) was amazing!

After breakfast, we headed to Fort McHenry. I have to admit, it was one of the more impressive forts I have seen- mostly in terms of the size and structure.

After the tour of the Fort, we headed to LP Steamers for lunch... not until getting poured on by the skies! We had 1/2 mile to walk and ended up hanging out under the awning of a funeral home while the skies let loose! It was a downpour! We still got pretty soaked- but made for some laughter later. So, no pictures were taken from the walk until after lunch due to the storms! After drying off, we headed to the Power Plant which houses a very cool Barnes and Noble.

The weather stayed pretty dreary the rest of the day, so we stayed indoors doing some shopping & browsing in the Inner Harbor. We ended up having dinner at Rocco's in Little Italy. The service was super slow, but well worth the wait for our delicious three course meal! As we were walking out, we noticed that Shaq had eaten there b/c there were pictures of him with all the owners and staff. Very cool!

Sunday ended our trip, but we were very happy to get home to our sweet Camille.

Goodbye Baltimore!