When I read about the Sail250 extravaganza at the end of last year, I went ahead and booked a hotel room in Baltimore on the dates. Later, several people from my sailing club booked spots at a marina in the port for the same reason. Friday, I drove up to downtown Baltimore. The traffic was huge, but while I was slugging it out on I95 towards the city, they were practising for the airshow Saturday and Sunday, so I saw regular flights of fancy planes swooping across the sky.
After dropping my bag, I set out to look at the ships and to rendezvous with the club and their boats. The club tradition is potluck happy hour with heavy hors d'oeuvres, so I wore a backpack with my contribution. The marina was almost three miles away by a direct route, but I followed the shoreline and made it much longer, stopping to admire many beautiful tall ships along the way. However, I was ready to be done somewhat before I got to the marina!
I was greeted with enthusiasm by club members, and a very boozy Painkiller was quickly in my hand. As I hadn't had much lunch, the first few sips went to my head and that was enough drinking for me. Joining us on the boat was the brother of a club member, who was in town because he had a technical role for airshow logistics - very interesting to hear his stories. Not long before sunset, we all piled on to a the wide deck of a trimaran and took a slow tour by water of the harbor and the boats.
The next day, I set off by water taxi over to Fort McHenry (site of "by dawn's early light", war of 1812, not it's 250th yet!). There I set up on a sloped hill centered on the airshow "box", and picnicked on a pastrami sandwich from a local deli. It had been forecast to rain, and while there were a couple mild sprinkles, it didn't thunder so the air show went on. The park had many people but was far from crowded. Sadly, I realized I hadn't applied sunscreen (because of the cloudy skies, I reckon), so after a while I put on my black rain jacket and sweltered but didn't burn. (Except for my very red nose!) The fast and noisy jets were a lot of fun to watch - the British, the French, and the American teams. Many people had brought hearing protection, and I had in my earbuds. Surprisingly to me, my Airpods 4, which are advertised as not blocking the ear canal completely, still have remarkable effective active noise cancellation. I have a decibel meter app on my phone, and the noise peaked at 113 db! Definitely feel-it-in-your-bones and maybe-damage-ears territory. But thrilling!
For dinner, I visited a unique "Halal Fusion Tacos" place in downtown. Very cool and very delicious! Later, in my room, I watched the Congo-Uzbekistan World Cup match, where Congo came from behind in a thrilling and important victory.
I think Baltimore has a whole lot to offer and recommend it as a place to spend a couple of days. I managed to get over 12,000 steps each day I was there! But I was never far from a place to sit and have a drink or an ice cream. Very fun.
2 comments:
What a fun trip!
Sounds great!
Liz
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