Return and renewed
Oh so nice to be home sleeping in my own bed . What a wonderful time I had in Baltimore with
fullygoldy the food alone was worth the trip. Spending time in upper Maryland always does me good. It seems about every 10 yrs or so I have to just spend some time remembering the past and appreciating the present. I am not sure if everyone experiences strong ties to there birthplaces but for me these are some of my strongest and most dear memories shoot I can still remember the phone number of where I grew up some 40 miles north of Baltimore. It is nice to be home again now, hopefully the renewal will give me a boost in strength , energy and resolve.
ChesapekeBay area has one of my favorite regional cuisnes. For me its hard to top fresh seafood,especially shellfish. I have emotional ties to this as well, remembering as a child sitting at the long wooden benches that line the end to end wooden tables, with a small wooden hammer in my hand wacking at crabs and coaxing the meat out of the cracked shell. I can remember my mother sitting across from me with a round tray in front of her, filled with steamed clams with accompanying drawn butter and crusty thick bread.
I believe one of the reasons this has such a connection with me is the condition of the city when I was 6 or 7. There was no beautiful inner harbor area like today where tourists from all over wander the dockside shopping for overpriced trinkets and dining on outdoor terraces. The area you had to go into to get these tasty delights was then called the warf. The buildings were old and dirty showing there signs of being abused by the sailors and seamen from the shipping industry.One could almost imagine Pirates sitting right next to you. Everything looked like an ashcan painting, dark grays and sooty black, glassless doors leading into smoke filled halls. In the warmer weather you could get you food served on a deck outback the overlooked a polluted sludge filled bay. It was scary, and at the same time for a 6 yr old, adventurous and exotic. Why whoever had seen these strange bug like creatures that had been dumped onto the table in front of you? Sitting at a table of strangers who dissected,and hammered there dinners all slurping and sucking on different parts of shell. Eating it all with your fingers Holy Cow this is great. Mom never lets me do this !
The city has changed so much since then. Today it is an eclectic mix of colonial brick, 60's project style high rises and modern day glass encrusted high rises and hotel style convention centers. It is hard to feel unsafe in the touristy parts of town, the Baltimore police presence is obvious on foot, on bikes, in small electric cars, on boats everywhere you look it would be hard not to see one. That must tax the city's budget but I guess if you are the city with he highest violent crime rate and a historic background that will and does draw attention this is what you have to do. Perhaps the OUTRAGOUS parking fees fund the police dept. I could see this being the case. Parking fee's closing in on $70 were one of our biggest expenses. Light rail is so the way to go I will be sure to research every city I visit for this convenience.