Memorial Day in Baltimore: Day One

Okay, it's not far. But for a three day weekend, there's something to be said for nearby locales, so you don't spend two of the three days on the road (Sarah's first choices were Williamsburg and New York, which wouldn't work for just those reasons) and also given the fact that gas now costs more than some cheap wines.

So as already noted we're spending the Memorial Day weekend in far away, exotic, Baltimore! For those of you not from this part of the country, it's about 55 miles from Washington and maybe 65 or 70 from our house. It's a day trip, but we always do the same stuff on the day trips, so we decided on a three-day. It helped that we had enough frequent traveler points with Hampton Inn/Hilton to stay two nights free if we stayed in the suburbs. So, while we could have gotten one night free in downtown Baltimore, we got the whole weekend free in Glen Burnie (It's A on the link) at a Hampton Inn that is literally built into a mall (the ground floor is shops). Maybe 20 minutes or less south of the Inner Harbor, so not bad. We could have gotten one night at the Inner Harbor, but the same points got us two nights in Glen Burnie.

More on this tomorrow; it's 12:30 and everyone else is asleep. We did three major things: Lunch at Lexington Market, since Sarah fell in love with urban markets at Reading Market in Philly last November, and then after that (she had spaghetti) we went to Fort McHenry. I need to blog at greater length about this since we stumbled into a special Memorial Day ceremony where we all helped bring down a full-size copy of the enormous flag that flew there when the Star Spangled Banner was written, and Sarah was one of four kids (the only girl) to help carry the flag to storage. Also she really got interested in the place more than on previous trips, and I want to write about this at greater length.

Then we went to our hotel, and after a period of relaxation back to Baltimore to eat in Little Italy. You may recall that last summer Sarah went wild about a restaurant in Little Italy, (now alas confirmed to be closed), but this time we ate at a small but great place called Caesar's Den, which, despite the tacky name, was very fine. Sarah had (surprise, surprise!) spaghetti and meatballs. I had gamberi arrabiati, shrimp in a spicy arrabiata sauce, and Tam had veal marsala. We aren't telling Sarah about those just yet. Meatballs are cheaper.

Two quotes I want to preserve before I forget, but then more on today tomorrow (if that makes any sense):

1. We stopped briefly to pick up some beer since in MD you have to buy it at liquor stores and I thought they'd be closed Sunday. Sarah said, "can you get me some licorice?" I didn't register why, but they didn't have any, and then she said, "why would a liquor store not have licorice?" Interesting question.

2. We saw a bunch of War of 1812 reenactors at Ft. McHenry. (I know, of all the wars to reenact... why the one in which we basically only one one land battle, New Orleans, and lost all those around here, getting the White House burned in the bargain?) I asked Sarah what she thought of the reenactors. She said the uniforms were silly: the hats (shakos? the tall cylindrical hats the US army wore in 1812 and still as late as some units in Mexico I think) in particular. "You should see what a British grenadier was wearing," I said. I'll try to link to photos or paintings of these later to make my point.

More on today tomorrow or, since it's late, I guess later today.