Last weekend my g/f and I decided to take a couple of days off, have a long weekend and get out of town for a few days. We decided to go to Baltimore and D.C.
As I said there wasn’t any particular reason, just to get away and go somewhere else. Perhaps we’d get some good food and fall colors along the way. We got flights on the cheap (about $215 round-trip) and most of our hotels were paid for with travel points – hey, sometimes it’s nice to have to travel for work!
Since we both work from home we have flexible schedules. We left on a Wed night so I didn’t have to take a day off to get there. We also came home Monday night, which allowed me to work from D.C. that day and again, not have to take a day off for travel.
Once we got to Baltimore it was raining. It pretty much rained the whole time. I don’t mean it started and stopped the whole time, I mean it freaking rained the whole time. I think Sunday was the only day we got any relief from the rain. It also didn’t get above 50, but all of that was fine with us because we both love the rain and cooler weather.
Of course, the leaves were starting to turn so there were some beautiful colors to be seen in the trees, especially the maples.
We spent the first two days hanging out on the Inner Harbor. Free shuttle rides from the hotel and the occasional taxi got us everywhere we needed to be. As I said it was raining but it wasn’t so bad. My g/f was smart enough to bring and umbrella so we were able to keep most of the rain off of us.
We checked out the U.S.S. Constellation, which is still in the restoration process but you can check out the whole ship and it really makes you think about what life was like before HVAC, electricity and running water – all of the things we consider the staples of life in the USA today.
We also checked out the U.S.S. Torsk – that was cool, but not as cool as the U.S.S. Constellation. The Torks was more of a walk-through and see some stuff. You couldn’t get to certain parts of the sub and there wasn’t much hanging around to tell you what all the stuff was. I knew a little about diesel subs from reading books so I could explain the basics, but we were on from there.
We also hit the aquarium and I have to say it’s one of the largest and nicest aquariums I’ve ever been to. They have excellent displays and atriums depending on where you are in one of the buildings (they are interconnected and one ticket gets you all-access).
One of those nights we ended up in Canton Square at a place called Mama’s On the Half Shell. This was a most excellent place to dine. Wonderful food and a cozy atmosphere that lacked the touristy personality so many of the places seemed to have. In other words, it was just about perfect and I’d highly recommend that you go there to eat if you are in the area. One word of warning, the food is pretty rich and you can quickly end up with an upset stomach even if you are used to eating rich foods.
Next, it was a train ride into D.C. where we spent the rest of our time. My friends that I met in Montana now live in West Virginia and were able to drive in for a night and my g/f’s friend who lives in D.C. was also able to meet us. We had dinner at Restaurant Nora, which is the first certified organic restaurant in the U.S.
The had “happy beef,” and “happy chickens” as well as organic vegetables. The prices were a tad expensive, but the quality of the food was excellent. Everyone enjoyed their meal and nobody complained about the price. I would say it is easily comparable to any other place that is pricey, except you get all organic food. It was also nice to see some of our friends which we hadn’t seen in a while.
Over the two days that we were there we must have walked about 12 ~ 15 miles. That doesn’t include the public transportation and taxis we took a few times. There is just that much to see and do once you are in D.C. Most of the stuff is right there on the mall with the museums and monuments.
We ducked inside the Smithsonian museum of Natural History and checked out a few things but it was so packed we decided to leave. If you had a week you could spend the entire week in that one museum for 8 hours a day – and there were three other Smithsonian museums!!
We walked to the capitol building, but didn’t go inside. Apparently they “whisk” you through there and you can’t see any cool stuff since congress is in session – what is the point? But we were some of the die-hards that stood there in the chilly rain and took photos anyway. “Ahhh….here is where it all gets fucked up,” I said – which pretty much won me an unfavorable glance from my g/f. J
We also saw the Lincoln memorial – twice. Once during the day and once at night. I highly recommend you check it out at night. They did an excellent job lighting it and the difference between the two is like….well….night and day. It’s an excellent monument and you can’t get a feel for how big it is until you walk inside. Pictures just don’t do it justice.
The WWII monument and the Vietnam Wall were also both pretty amazing, but in completely different ways. It’s a pleasure to see that we still pay homage to the people who have fought and died for our country.
One of my favorite highlights was the National Archives and getting to see the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence. I won’t bore you with details as you can go read about that somewhere else but there were a few things that I really liked about the display:
1) you can get right up on the displays and take all the time you want. As long as you don’t touch the glass, you can lean on the frames and put your nose almost on the glass to see the documents which are just a few inches underneath.
2) Some of the documents were originals and some were copies – the specific pages are rotated in and out as to help reduce the deteriorating effect of light on the pages. No flash photography and it’s fairly dim in the room
3) Other documents were on display, such as the drafts of the Bill of Rights or the Constitution – in some ways these were more fascinating that the final drafts as you could see the mark-ups, scratch-outs, linear notes and all kinds of things that went into drafting the final documents.
The Constitutions is in fairly good shape, but the Declaration of Independence is so decayed that you can barely make any of it out. Not surprisingly, John Hancock’s signature still stands out and is still legible. So I can tell you that, believe it or not, there is still a Constitution – it’s shredded and in a waste basket, but you can still see it.
Also on display is one of the remaining Magna Carter documents. It’s the only one that resides in the U.S. and, if you are not aware, represents about 700 years of English common law that was used as a basis for our Constitution.
Stops at the white house were mandatory and as much as I tried to get a quick meeting with Obama to straighten his ass out, the secret service would have none of it. The view is much better from the rear than the front, but you get a lot closer to the front. There was some old lady that had been out there in a plastic tent protesting the use of nuclear weapons – since 1982 or something. I think she also hadn’t seen a dentist since 1982 as most of her teeth were missing and she was very difficult to understand. No other crazy nutbags were out there, but my g/f tells me used to see them all the time.
A police officer (no I was NOT in trouble) told us to hit a bar on 15th street called Old Ebbitt Grill. This was a great place. It had a beautiful bar and warm atmosphere. We didn’t eat, but checked out the oyster appetizer menu as well as the regular menu. It would be easy to see “backroom” meetings happening here during the wee hours of the morning over a nice single-malt scotch or aged whiskey.
Oh, and I mentioned it was raining right? On the first day in D.C. when we hit the National Mall they were giving away free umbrellas. We already had one so I turned it down and we kept sharing the one we had. It was a travel umbrella so it wasn’t that big but it worked well enough. However, me being a complete dumb-ass, I left it at one of the bars we stopped at to have a drink. No umbrella and it was raining. We got completely soaked, but it was still fun even if I was kind of in the dog-house over it.
I figured by the time you added up all the tips, taxis, and metro rail stations we still made out far better than renting a car and paying for parking in either Baltimore or D.C. So if you go, try the transportation.
All in all, a good trip and a nice weekend getaway. Someone asked me why I would go so far away. Considering that airline tickets were fairly cheap, my truck only gets about 13+ mpg on a good day, and our hotels were practically free I said it cost about the same amount of time and money to go there than it would be to drive somewhere in Texas.
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