07-09 June 2024 Pittsburgh and Baltimore

After leaving Ohio I continued heading east. The first day I made it to Pittsburgh just in time to have dinner with good friends from “way back”. Enjoyed a lovely evening with them and then headed out the next morning and drove another 4 hours east to Baltimore. I had always heard so much about the lovely Inner Harbor there and had never been.

I began my Baltimore adventures at Fort McHenry. Lily Nygren had recommended several places for me to see and I was thrilled to discover that Fort McHenry is a National Monument – those of you who have been following along with my adventure will know that I love National Parks but have discovered that National Monuments are often just as awe inspiring without some of the national park crowds.

Not only was Fort McHenry instrumental in protecting Baltimore Harbor, but it is where Francis Scott Key wrote the words that became the US national anthem during the Battle of Baltimore in 1814. Start humming “ Oh say can you see by the dawns early light….”. Yup - that one! The words came to him when he looked over the harbor in the early morning to see that the US flag was flying after a brutal overnight battle. And the Key Bridge is just off in the distance - named in honor of Francis Scott Key, this is the bridge which was knocked down by a collision with a container ship back in March of this year. Erie to see the bridge on either side of the channel and nothing in the middle.

After Fort Henry, I drove around to the other side of the harbor and checked out the Fells Point neighborhood. Cute little area with cobblestone streets and lot of waterfront bars and an old market area.

From there I went to the Inner Harbor and walked around the beautiful waterfront. There was an Ecuadorian tall ship in the harbor that allowed free access so u hopped aboard. Students had sailed this beautiful ship all the way here and were proud to show it off. I also climbed up Federal Hill (steep!!!) to get a good view of the city at Sunset.

But I couldn’t let a trip to Baltimore pass without having blue crab. I found a restaurant and the bartender was kind enough to set me up with my giant paper “ placemat”, hammer and debris bucket. The smallest order of crabs they have is 6, so I got that and received a tutorial on just how to deconstruct and eat a crab. Thankfully I’ve got lots of lobsters worth of crustacean deconstruction training! It’s a lot of work for not that much meat but it sure was delicious!