Baltimore

We went to Baltimore this afternoon. Steve (my brother) wanted to show Christine (my SIL) around the Inner Harbour, etc. I always forget how much I like (most of) Baltimore. Today we only really went in the touristy bits, but it was still lovely. And the weather was not too bad - not very hot, just a little hot. This is a general view of the harbour, World Trade Center, Constellation (one of the historic ships in the Baltimore Harbour)...



As we went past the Hard Rock Cafe, there was live music playing outside - not sure who all the band was, but one of the singers from Heart (the blonde one - I never remember which is Ann and which is Nancy) was singing with them outside - Heart were doing a concert tonight on the Pier 6 (or whatever) venue. We heard them later on the way back to the car...



Here's one of the dragon boats in the harbor. We didn't go in one, though the girls kept dropping hints - "Is it a pedalo? I've never been in a pedalo..."



More live music outside Harbourplace, this time a band doing a very fast (but decent) cover of Moondance. We were standing listening and chatting to my friends Margaret & Ned, who I just bumped into in Harbourplace (it was bizarre - I was walking towards the door and saw this woman and thought - wow, she looks like my friend Margaret - and it was. To be fair, Margaret lives in Catonsville (just outside Baltimore), so it wasn't as weird as it might have been, but still - on a summer Sunday in Baltimore with 153gazillion tourists...)



Here's the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse, which you can go in for free (so we did). It's cool.



This is the flag flying at Ft McHenry. [Apparently, it's not - it's Federal Hill - but I'm still leaving this bit in, because it's still interesting, even if I've got my harbour locations somewhat wrong...] For those of you not in the know about Baltimore and Fort McHenry, the flag flying there is very important historically, because that's where the flag was flying which a certain Francis Scott Key wrote about when he wrote:

Oh say can you see
By the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight's last gleaming

Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming

And the rockets' red glare
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there

Oh say does that
Star Spangled Banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave

Not to mention the other verses. He was in the harbour on a ship when he wrote it, but the flag was flying at Fort McHenry (it's not the same flag, of course - the actual flag is in the American History Museum in downtown DC - or at least it used to be).






Anyway. Another of the historic ships in the harbour is this submarine, the USS Torsk.



And there's this mock pirate ship you can ride on, for a price (we didn't).



And, one of my favourite signs for today - The Surprisingly Interesting Baltimore Public Works Museum. We didn't go in, but really, we should have, don't you think?

We finished off our lovely day with a gorgeous dinner at McCormick and Schmick's. Really nice food!