See You Again, Baltimore
Baltimore is one of those cities that I never really thought of visiting for the sake of it. It doesn’t really spark images of adventure or anything. So honestly if I didn’t know anyone there, then I would have never have even stopped, which would have been a mistake. It’s a big enough town, but small enough that everything still feels cozy to me. Now that I am in Los Angeles, it’s even more apparent how small Baltimore is, and how disconnected you can be in LA because of it’s sheer size. My trips so far has been really on the meta level, not so much huge touristy attractions or anything like that, or even historic monuments. What I really like about traveling is meeting people, because everyone has a view, hobby or passion and I like that to be shared, because so many people seem disinterested in what other people are into. It’s amazing to see people really open up when you take a keen interest in what they like to do, and often that can get you into cool adventures. Not only that, but natives always have a better knowledge of more interesting things that are off the map.
For instance, Katie is a friend of my friend Abby, and she also happens to be a classically trained musician, which is a stark contradiction to my punk rock school of guitar aesthetic. It made for excellent conversation and even a little debate, but through that I found out that she was an organist for a local church. She is kind of a cathedral organ nerd (everyone is a nerd towards something), and she offered to take me into the organ. Now I knew church organs were big, but inside the organ was a concept I had to check out, right? So, I made the hour walk over to her church one Sunday morning to hear her play and to see the inside of the organ.
Check out the Web Album for More Pics
This thing was incredible with over 7000 pipes, ranging from minute ones about the size of a pencil, to one over 35 feet tall that you could not hear, only feel. We only explored one side of the humongous organ, but climbed around looking at all the pipes and hardware needed to run it, as well as the cockpit of a section used to to play it. She told me some amazing things she collected about organeering (I made that word up). I didn’t know there was an entire profession dedicated just to tuning an organ, and that it can take a week. We climbed 4 ladders and were probably40 feet up from the ground of the cathedral. She even let me hang out inside it while she played some stuff. It was unreal. Katie was very excited to go into the Organ because she had never done it before, and was always curious about the inside of this particular organ. Now there may be a million organs in Baltimore and other cities around the US, but how many of them are you going to get a guided tour inside of? Sure, I could have hung out at the harbor or went on a guided tour of the city, but this was so much cooler. The minutiae of the city is built of humans.
Check Out the Web Album for More Pics
I said something about it in my last post about Amtrak, but I had visited the grave of Edgar Alan Poe, who is buried in downtown Baltimore. Poe has a special place in my heart, not just because he was the first writer I really connected with as an angst ridden teen weirdo, but also because he died on my birthday almost 160 years ago. Not only that, but no one knows how he really died. That’s kind of poetic considering how messed up of a guy Poe was. I went there shortly after finding out about the Natty Boh phenomenon, which is the beer that Baltimore adores. Its like THE beer of Baltimore, and the mascot is just short of the mascot for the city. Looks kinda cheesy on the outside, but whats good about it is the quality isn’t too bad for the price. You can get a 12 pack of it for 6 bucks or so, and a 40oz is only 2. So I bought a couple and drank them in celebration of the most macbre motherfucker to ever walk the planet. (Sorry Lovercraft, as much as I adore you, Poe wins out). Yes, I really did pour some out on the sidewalk for my dead homie.
I love camping, and I went with Abby and her two roommates Beth and Aaron out in western Maryland. We got to our site and it was thunderstorming, but we weren’t going to turn back after an hour and a half drive out of Baltimore. Maryland is a surprisingly narrow state. The campground was nice, but rustic enough, and not busy at all. Once the rain let up we set up camp and went out wandering towards the lake. I had been wanting to swim for months. I dunno what stopped me before, but nothing else was that day. About half way around the lake towards the beach, the rain kicked up, and we tried not to get soaked, to no avail. The rain was freezing, but the lake was incredibly warm. I wanted to swim there, but also didnt want to be one of those assholes that got killed by lightning that struck a lake. How awful of a way to go. Eventually the rain stopped and we swam, which was amazingly awesome, except I don’t have any swimming trunks. I went in my underwear, which isn’t really a big deal, except they are briefs. Briefs take a decent amount of self confidence to wear swimming, let me tell you.
Back at camp we did camperly things like cooking on a fire and playing music. I volunteered to sleep in the hammock to be nice and let everyone else sleep in the tent, but that ened up being the best spot to sleep. It was a little cold in the middle of the night, but the owls and perfect view of the night sky through an opening in the trees made it worth the slight discomfort.
We got up the next morning and headed out on the Appalachian Trail, towards Annapolis Rock. Though we really only hiked maybe 6 miles of its 2,200, it was still nothing short of breathtaking when we got there. You are able to see Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania from this outlook. Not only that, but we got a great view of the lake we swam in the day before.
Check out the Web Album for more pics
There you go again Maryland, bein’ awesome. I have nothing but good memories and feelings towards Baltimore and Maryland in general, though now that I am in LA, I will say that Baltimore is a little on the hot and muggy side. Not a problem when you have so much awesomeness abound.
