Wednesday, June 30, 2010

The Grand Tour of Baltimore

Janet took Amanda and me on the Grand Tour of Baltimore today. She loves history every bit as much as plants. I'm so lucky I have her for my neighbor, as I love people that know all about history and plants! She showed us so many things that only a native would know. We even saw where her grandparents lived and the place where her grandfather's shop (memorial stones) used to be. She told us all about shopping downtown when she was a girl. Those stores are all long gone, but it reminded me of shopping downtown in Billings (except for on a much grander scale).

We started at Fort McHenry, where despite the lack of rockets' red glare, we saw the Star Spangled Banner yet waving. We'll return with Butch sometime to get the royal tour there. He and Janet met while they worked as tour guides there.


After that we went to Federal Hill, which has a great view of the Inner Harbor. You can see the grass is so yellow here. We left the west, but we brought the dry weather with us. It hasn't rained for weeks now!

 Next, we dropped by the library of the Peabody Institute (of Johns Hopkins University). It is so beautiful. I don't know if you can touch any of the books. It's almost like a museum rather than a library.Other than the reference books, everything was locked behind plexiglas.


On Mt. Vernon Square Baltimore has a great monument to George Washington, the first monument to the first president , on which construction began in 1815. However, due to some dilly-dallying, it was completed after the monument to George completed in 1827 in Washington State Park (also in Maryland).

After that we walked over to the Waters Art Museum, which is free and has every bit as good of naked men as any museum we saw in Europe.  There were a lot of churches along the way that were very beautiful inside and out.

Baltimore also has a beautiful public library, the Enoch Pratt Free library. There are a ton of philanthropists that enjoyed showering their money on Charm City  (Baltimore).



We stopped by Westminster Church, where Baltimore's favorite son, Edgar Allan Poe was buried. Is there anything as great as a graveyard where a really scary guy is buried?



On the way back to the car we walked through Lexington Market, which has been here for about 230 years. It was like a trip to Mexico, with the open stalls inside. We bought a Berger chocolate topped cookie there, because it is a famous Baltimore treat, and because we needed strength to start the walk back to the car.

We had lunch at Miss Shirley's in Roland Park. It was well worth waiting for. I had the chop salad with a half almond chicken salad sandwich. It was the best lunch ever! I'm posting a picture of it for you, just so you'll believe me!












3 comments:

  1. I loved reading this! I have been here about 14 years and have only seen a couple of those things! What a nice neighbor you have! Thanks for sharing, your captions are simply a pleasure!

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  2. Remember when you and I use to go out together for our birthdays, and we would always take pictures of the food?

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  3. Baltimore has such a rich history. You may never run out of sites to see! Edgar Allen Poe's grave creeped me out--isn't that great:)

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