Today’s ride took me over to Druid Hill Park and around to the zoo to meet S. and her family. We haven’t seen each other in years and years, but because of The Interwebz we are still in touch. When she had a few free hours to spend in this fair city I was the lucky recipient of escorts for my first trip to the zoo. I biked over and locked up to the bike rack they had right outside the main zoo entrance. Continue reading
Baltimore
View of the Harbor From the Waterfront Kitchen
Friday was one of those workdays when my heart wasn’t really in it, and then there were meetings and then I couldn’t find my wallet and blah~it was time for the week to be over and for me to be on my bicycle, so that’s where I was, down the hill and to the left to join V. and A. for drinks and this delicious mushroom cheese toast thing at the restaurant on the waterfront. We toasted and laughed and complained and took note, over and over again, of just how pretty it is here. And then it was back on the bike to dodge the Inner Harbor promenade traffic for dinner with S. and friends and then BASEBALL. Oh, baseball, I love you. I had to leave before the game ended-gasp-but I could tell we were still winning because shouts were coming from open doors and stoops and bars all along the route home because last night we were all O’s fans, an easy thing to be right now and highly recommended. In a car I would have listened to the game on the radio, but this worked too, and I got that sense of racing as I sped home to see who won. Up the hill and back home with more baseball starting Sunday. Things could be worse, yes indeed.
Tree Growing Out of a Building on Williams & Clement
Today’s ride took me down the hill, around the Inner Harbor, and up into Federal Hill to my favorite overdeveloped mini mall, McHenry Row, for a massage, because I am a decadent little thing. I thought today would be the obligatory “it’s fall, look at the colors!” post, but it’s still in the 80s here, warm and muggy, so instead of looking at leaves I thought about how the air felt warm and heavy around me as I flew down the hill, taking extra special care not to put on the brakes–it’s like flying; nobody told me about the downhills when they were complaining about the uphills. Continue reading
Easter Island Statue on Calvert & 22nd or So
The weather today was perfect for bicycling, so I dragged myself out of my Saturday lazy bed and took the Surly down the hill for a quick run through the gym and then back up the hill to home for lunch before heading back out and down the hill again to the Baltimore Book Fair. I love books and I love fairs, and though I miss the baby animal barn, this event’s kind of made for me. Traffic was terrible in Mt. Vernon, so I got off the bike and walked a few blocks before locking up to a street sign. The lack of bike parking in Mt. Vernon, a biking and walking neighborhood, is pretty amazing. But anyway. I got myself a soft serve cone to put a little “fair” in the occasion before settling to hear Dean Spade and Laura Whitehorn speed through some big, tough questions to the delight of (most of) the crowd. After some wanderings and some snack with some very old friends-like, we used to watch General Hospital together friends-it was time to get back on the bike and head home. I snapped this picture on my way, of one of those Easter Island heads sharing an empty lot with an old bed frame that I think is art too. There used to be a sign advertising new condos here, but that’s gone; maybe the condos are on their way. Today’s ride was mostly about transportationn, but the great thing about being on a bike is that you can stop, get off, and check out this art. Now, who knows where it came from?
Fireworks at Camden Yards After the O’s Beat the Red Sox
I woke up early, worked all day, and then it was time to ride the bike down the hill to Camden Yards, because the O’s are in a pennant race, and it just doesn’t get better than that. Our side gave up a run in the first, but responded with 6, so we just sat back and let it spin itself out, wishing somebody would just finally beat the Yankees. There was the hot dog race, the crab shuffle, Cotton-Eyed Joe, and it was all soothingly predictable, but also a late-season game that mattered. The game was a win and we walked down closer to the field for fireworks spitting out near the bleachers. And then it was get back to the bike and zip past all the people walking the miles back to their cars, a left up the hill to home. Bike, baseball, bike–works for me.
Keep Baltimore Beautiful at Amity & Fayette
Today’s ride took me to Mt. Vernon to meet E. for coffee and a review of last weekend’s bike tour. I’m new to public history, and he’s new to biking everywhere all the time; we talked for an hour, probably could have talked for an hour more, but then it was time for him to get back to work and me to get back on the bike. I followed my memory and then some misleading signs to the Poe House on Amity. Continue reading
Brompty Tucked Away on the MARC Train Between West Baltimore & Penn Station
My car is in the shop–yes, I own a car–getting itself fixed from the break-in it suffered in June. After months of driving around with tape for a back window and opening the driver’s side door through the passenger side, on Monday the door wouldn’t open at all, and it was finally time to face the price tag and get the thing fixed. All of that meant no car for the commute to work, so I got to give the multi-modal commute a try. Continue reading
Facade Under Construction at Broadway & Pratt
You know how sometimes you’re reading the perfect book at the perfect time? That’s happening to me right now, if in 30 minute chunks between my other work. After finishing up some teaching tasks this morning, I settled into the next chapter and read about criticisms of the historic preservation movement that elevated the look of things over the sense of place and community, that froze neighborhoods in a golden age, forgetting the people who actually lived there. Continue reading
Battle Monument at Calvert & Fayette
Today was bike tour day, so I woke up early, kinda nervous, and reviewed my notes for our six-stop tour of historic War of 1812 sites in the city before bringing Brompty downstairs for a good ride over to our starting point at Riverside Park, one of the oldest parks in Baltimore. A small group gathered, and we made our way over to Sharp-Leadenhall, where I talked about the history of African Americans in the early Republic, and especially in this neighborhood, the oldest African American neighborhood in the city. Continue reading
Bikes on Bike Racks at Harbor East
Today’s ride took me downtown to Harbor East, where I locked up my bike to one of the few spaces available–never enough bike racks, for sure. I did a quick turn at the gym and the grocery, and then I got back on my bike to head up the hill. I snapped this picture of a couple of bikes crowding up the racks. That red one is always there. I mean always. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 