Our unusual Baltimore date
After initially planning on spending almost a week dating Baltimore and being a tourist in D.C., I got my wicked ear infection that put me in bed for 3 days. I was feeling run down our first foray in and wasn’t super excited about what we saw. We landed in the Museum District, which is awesome if you are museuming, but it didn’t strike me as a place to live. Lots o’ Cheesecake Factory type stuffage on the water. But as we shifted our attention just a few blocks away, it got MUCH more chill. Baltimore is VERY neighborhood focused and we found ourselves strolling with residents around Little Italy, Fells Point, the harbor area and Camden – all were really cute with local fare and such. So we liked it ok, but planned on coming back…then I got the damn ear infection (and now I understand why kids just cry when they have them). I forgot to take pics, so please enjoy our dogs instead.
Sidebar on DC – Once I was better, we took the train into D.C. to visit one of my most favorite NASA peeps and stumbled upon our good buddies, Cory Booker and Hakeem Jefferies, staging a 12 hour sit-in on the Capital steps chatting about the gutting of lil programs like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. We got some good soul food seeing our friend and decided to stay an extra day to come back and see the African American Smithsonian. I’ve been nervous that the ‘disappearing’ of national treasures and true history will end up like the ‘white washing’ and flat out misinformation on government websites. While Smithsonian made a public statement saying they weren’t removing artifacts, we saw dozens of the signs pictured below. What was the most disconcerting is that usually those types of signs say where the artifacts were loaned out to or if they are being used elsewhere, being restored, etc. And there was no explanation. Having said that – 5 stars, 2 thumbs up, Just Do It. It’s a must see.
One of the big draws to the NE is the proximity to see and do cool shit in cool cities. I loved being able to take a quick train in and spend the afternoon meandering about with history and can’t wait to get back and see more. Baltimore is 45 minutes to D.C. and an hourish to Philly. It was super cool to have so much art, history and nature so close by.
Left with only one day to see Baltimore again, I was a little dubious on how it was going to turn out. First stop was Hampden, which is known for its food, art and li’l festivals and fun free stuff. It was artsy and full of great shops. They had some decent town homes and virtually no condos and we ultimately decided it was more of a cool place to have in your town versus somewhere we’d want to live. We then pivoted back to Fells Point because there was something about it that stuck with us. And we are as enamored with it as we were with Richmond, but for slightly different reasons. Baltimore is definitely more urban and a little more packed together. Which, I thought I wouldn’t like. But, there is something about being right on the harbor that was a little intoxicating. The almost constant breeze cuts through the humidity and there’s great walking paths and a cutie little park where they have concerts and such in the summer. The proximity to shops, adjacent neighborhoods and even a holistic healing/physical therapy place built within an historic church had it feeling way more homey. AND Camden Fields is just 1.5 miles away. And John Hopkins drops the mike on healthcare. Oh – and the affordability is just stooopid.
So Baltimore has a sketchy reputation and we found several of our friends warning us about how small the neighborhoods really are and that you can get in dicey areas. That is true as I have found in many socio-economically struggling areas (urban or otherwise). The mayor has shone a light on it with some pretty amazing programs and the YOY crime rate is down over 35%. And frankly, it ain’t like we are roaming the streets at midnight. It’s just a non-issue for what we are considering. Also forgot to take pics AGAIN, which is super lame considering how beautiful the area was!
So…yeah…we loved it. Baltimore and Richmond are on to the next round and we are off to Wilmington & Scranton. More soon.