Our next stop was Baltimore, Maryland for another week-long sit down. I, for one, was happy to be in a city with a little less to do and less to spend money on. Our hotel was also only a few minutes from the theatre and cutting out public transit time meant more time for other important things. Like sleep. We played to mostly sold out houses in the the beautiful and historic Hippodrome.
We were staying in the downtown area and we learned that the homeless folks of Baltimore are a lot more aggressive than the homeless in New York City. For the most part, if a New York homeless person asks you for change and you don't answer, they leave you alone and move on to the next person. In Baltimore, if you don't answer they follow you down the street and continue to talk to you. The girls of the cast quickly learned not to walk alone, no matter the time of day.
A big highlight of the week was visiting the Nation Aquarium of Baltimore, right on the beautiful Inner Harbor. We managed to make it through most of the aquarium in under 3 hours, but we were told that if you stayed and read every piece of information and really spent time at each exhibit, it would take you over 24 hours. We paid the extra 3 bucks to see the dolphin show. Worth. Every. Penny. Of course, when we sat in the "Splash Zone" we thought that there would be a possibility of getting a little wet, we didn't realize that it was part of the dolphins' routines to soak every person sitting in those sections. We ended up spending a good chunk of our visit in the new jellyfish exhibit. I wonder if my landlord be against me having a few as pets..
Early on in our stay, we made our way to the awesome neighborhood known as Fell's Point. If I lived in Baltimore, this is where my time would be spent. It was on Wednesday that I met the hat that I knew I had to make mine. It was at the Hats in the Belfry, a great place managed by my new friend Daine, who put it on hold for me. I told myself that if I didn't eat out the rest of the week, that on Saturday I could come back and get it. Luckily, there was a Whole Foods (heaven) where I was able to stock up for the week.
 |
| Whole Foods makes me whole. |
 |
| Attempting the challenge |
We made a couple trips back to Fell's Point thorough the week and didn't manage to quite do everything, specifically experience the night scene, there definitely seemed like there was an awesome bar scene. Highlights of Fell's Points included Mr. Yogato (Domo arigato?), a fun frozen yogurt joint where you could do challenges to get discounts. The main one was to balance on the tip toes of one foot for 15 seconds with your eyes closed to get 50% off. Being dancers, we thought this would be an easy task, but discovered that closing your eyes makes balancing nearly impossible. We were all talk, no game. Of course it wasn't until after we bought our yogurt that we saw all the other things you could do for discounts... we'll get you next time, Mr. Yogato!
The best coffee we found was at The Daily Grind. I should say that I'm probably biased as there is a great coffee shop in my hometown by the same name, and I have also discovered that almost every city has a coffee shop called The Daily Grind. Still, it was clearly where the cool kids were getting their caffeine fix. They also gave me info the Vegtober, a festival going on that weekend to celebrate and promote vegatarian and vegan lifestyles. I was incredibly impressed that a city like Baltimore would have such an event, but after my visit to Fell's, there's obviously quite a population of healthy eaters.
One clear example was Liquid Earth, a vegetarian restaurant that also catered to vegans and even had a whole section of their menu for raw vegans. They also had two pages worth of raw juices and smoothies, which were served in pint measuring cups. I got a vegan BBQ pulled tofu sandwich, and while nothing can touch my dad's pulled pork, this was a pretty solid meatless option. I'm always so happy to see places like this outside of the major cities, and see that health is becoming more important to people.
 |
| Great farmers market in Fell's Point |
The best part of my stay in Baltimore was having three of my hometown friends visit me from DC. Morgan, Brendan, and Josh came up to see the Sunday night show and we went out to dinner at Alewife across from the theatre. It's so wonderful to see old friends, to have have their support and be able to share with them what I do. I can't wait to see more friends across the country!
 |
| Oh, I got my hat! |
Off to Jacksonville, FL! Clinging on to the last bits of summer before fall really hits us!
Early on in our stay, we made our way to the awesome neighborhood known as Fell's Point. If I lived in Baltimore, this is where my time would be spent. It was on Wednesday that I met the hat that I knew I had to make mine. It was at the Hats in the Belfry, a great place managed by my new friend Daine, who put it on hold for me. I told myself that if I didn't eat out the rest of the week, that on Saturday I could come back and get it. Luckily, there was a Whole Foods (heaven) where I was able to stock up for the week.
The best coffee we found was at The Daily Grind. I should say that I'm probably biased as there is a great coffee shop in my hometown by the same name, and I have also discovered that almost every city has a coffee shop called The Daily Grind. Still, it was clearly where the cool kids were getting their caffeine fix. They also gave me info the Vegtober, a festival going on that weekend to celebrate and promote vegatarian and vegan lifestyles. I was incredibly impressed that a city like Baltimore would have such an event, but after my visit to Fell's, there's obviously quite a population of healthy eaters.
One clear example was Liquid Earth, a vegetarian restaurant that also catered to vegans and even had a whole section of their menu for raw vegans. They also had two pages worth of raw juices and smoothies, which were served in pint measuring cups. I got a vegan BBQ pulled tofu sandwich, and while nothing can touch my dad's pulled pork, this was a pretty solid meatless option. I'm always so happy to see places like this outside of the major cities, and see that health is becoming more important to people.
No comments:
Post a Comment