We’ve been using a GPS for about 18 months now and I really like it. Most of the time it is a great help, particularly if I am by myself and it is dark. But if you have one yourself, you know there are times when the GPS will take you places you had not planned to go. In the interest of saving a minute, if you have it optioned for the “fastest route” it may take you on back roads instead of staying on the main highway! Such was our arrival in Baltimore. I-70 ends at the loop around Baltimore and instead of sending us south on the loop, it told us to go straight…..the sign said to a park and ride lot. Okay, worse thing we figure we’ll come back out to the Beltway. But there was a local road and so we went on. First we drove through a heavily wooded area with signs for trailheads. And then into the slums of Baltimore. We were on Northern Avenue, traversing about 3 miles of mostly empty rowhouses; some with plywood boarded up windows and doors, and some with glassless windows. The streets were full of people, and I only could wonder if all the children would ever escape the life of poverty they must have.

We got to the B&B, Phoenix Rising, and it was in an area of similar rowhouses, but these were well maintained and the street had an aura of affluence. Our hostess, Jo, is an amazing woman. She loves to travel and the B&B is decorated with artifacts from the Caribbean, the Southwest, and Africa. We stayed in the Serengeti Room.

We had a delightful meal at the corner bistro, b, and recommend it to anyone who travels to Baltimore. The food was wonderfully prepared, the service was attentive and friendly, and as ate at a table out on the sidewalk, enjoying the evening weather.

That evening we got a surprise phone call. Liz Hance, a close friend in New Jersey since 6th grade, was in Washington, DC for a meeting and when she realized we were about an hour away, she came to visit for the day. We walked from Bolton Hill to downtown Baltimore and the Inner Harbor, enjoyed some crab cakes and shopping, and then she grabbed the train back to DC to get to her meeting.

Graham, who had been in a couple of meetings with colleagues, picked me up at the station and we headed out to a winery near Baltimore. We enjoy going to local wineries that are typically small and don’t have a large bottling output. We have tasted some great wines around the country and had packed an empty carton to hold 12 bottles. At Boordy we picked up two.

We then headed over to The Ambassador Dining Room. A patron at b, as well as one of the winery employees at Boordy had heartily recommended it as a great Indian restaurant. Located in the area of Baltimore near Johns Hopkins University, the building used to be a hotel but is now apartments. The restaurant is on the first floor with a large dining room as well as a covered terrace, where we enjoyed our meal.

Next morning we drove over to Fort McHenry. This was the location of the bombardment during the war of 1812 when, after burning Washington, DC, the British failed to get past the fort to destroy the larger city of Baltimore. We know the story well, as the author, Francis Scott Key, observed the battle from a truce ship where he and 2 others were held following the release of one as a prisoner. His poem, put to music, became the national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. The fort continued in service through the Civil War, when it was a prisoner of war camp and World War I, when it was a hospital.

An aside here----from 1978 to 1982 I worked for an engineering and planning consulting firm and several of my planning assignments were plans for expansion capability for a number of military installations. Together with an engineer who would examine the capacity of the mechanical systems of whatever fort we were examining, my assignment was to help determine how much more population the mission of that installation could have. The photo of the WWI hospital mission at Fort McHenry clearly had packed the peninsula fully in wartime.

Finally, we set our car heading to the Eastern Shore, stopping only for lunch at a great roadside crab shack, the Crab Depot on the Ritchie Highway. They will ship crabs, picked crab meat, and crab cakes. Let us know if you want the info so you can order some.