Baltimore Oct. 23, 2004

Flew into BWI last night after an uneventful (good) flight, although it was like riding on a cobblestone street for about half the flight. No big dips, but lots of jouncing. Pilot kept trying to change altitude to get above the storms, but once you're up to 41k feet there's noplace else to go. Caught the Supershuttle in to the city. Interesting ride. Driver spoke Carib-glish and had a peripatetic right foot, so we kept lurching all the way in. The had a full load of seven passengers, and the shotgun seat was a 70+ year old local lady who just loved describing the sights to the rest of us. She was VERY proud of her city, and her enthusiasm was infectious. I asked if she could give me a private tour. She praised some former mayor as having sparked the downtown renaissance, and then castigated him for some unstated failures when he became governor. She highly recommended some local Mexican restaurant as her favorite. I pointed out that I was from Los Angeles and the last thing I wanted to eat in Baltimore was Mexican. Didn't she know any good seafood places? Nope, she can't stand the stuff. Originally hails from Western Pennsylvania where the surf definitely is not up. We were the last two to get dropped off, so got a great circuitous tour of the downtown due to all the one-way streets. Having observed the driver shake his head in disgust when the penultimate passenger walked off without tipping, I made sure to slip him a few bucks which made him smile broadly. I also tipped him that he should take the van straight to the garage and have the brake pads replaced as he was horribly scraping metal on metal all the way. He allowed as how he would do just that. My advice is to avoid van # 724 if you happen to come this way.

Loni beetled off first thing this morning as she had an 8:00 seminar, so I lazed about with the paper wondering why there were no West Coast football games scheduled. All these lousy Eastern teams. We're about two blocks from the Inner Harbor, which is a redeveloped area where the van lady confided that "good people didn't used to go" before the rebirth. Anyway, it's terrific. You can walk for several miles along the harbor, with museums, the National Aquarium, the USS Constellation, a submarine, and dozens of restaurant, shops, etc. I took a self-tour of the Constellation and felt I was in the "Master and Commander" movie. Very neat. Don't miss it if you are here. That was one tough life that they led. They have youthful (isn't everybody else youthful these days?) docents who are dressed in period (circa 1850) naval costumes and who speak (somewhat annoyingly) in the present tense (that's present as in 1850) when answering your questions. They were uniformly cheerful and very enthusiastic. As the day was picture perfect, I took a couple. I'm not sure I know how to insert a picture in the body of this text, but I'll give it a go. ***** Nope, that didn't work. I'll have to try posting them as separate posts. Bummer.

Anyway, I walked around the harbor and climbed Federal Hill, a nice promontory that overlooks the Inner Harbor and downtown. The sign at the top says that's where 4000 citizens met for a picnic in 1784 (?) to celebrate the joining in the Union. The whole top is a park with a walkway around it for about a 250 degree view of Baltimore. I took a shot from up there as well, so look for it later.

I have to say that this town appears to be about the friendliest city I've been in in a long time. Everyone seems to like their city and their job. What the heck is in the water? Guess I'll close this segment and return to the tube. Boston College just scored to pull close to Notre Dame. Later.