Though Baltimore is just down the road from my suburban, Washington DC-centric life, I hadn’t really seen the city.
A recent day spent walking through Baltimore’s past and present, provided a bit of a correction.
There were, of course, old buildings made new.
Buildings preserved, like the historic Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Tower…built in 1911 and inspired by the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy.
(Though bromo-selzter is probably not the best calling-card for a tourist town).
And buildings as backdrops.
Some buildings were allowed to languish…
(Unlike my other home town–Victoria, BC–American cities appears to have lost interest in providing public “comfort”)
We saw cool window art — with this store honoring filmmaker John Waters, Baltimore’s Pope of Trash.
A Baltimore walk will also get you to museums off the beaten track.
Where the body is the backdrop.
And Geppi’s Entertainment Museum… a pop culture explosion of images, guaranteed to take you back.
This privately run museum near Camden Yards is 16,000 square feet of fun, with six million pop culture artifacts arrayed from floor to ceiling.
Most of all, walking in one of America’s oldest cities is a form of time travel.
And to our surprise, we landed on the Privateer Festival.
A community celebration of Baltimoreans who take their dress-up seriously…and have fun doing it.
This guy’s finger fetish aside, we learned there is a difference between pirates and privateers.
Of course, what these seafaring adventurers have in common is…? (drum roll!)
No, not dogs…
Parrots!
All in all, a spring back-in-time weekend in Baltimore…
is a present day treat.
Which reminds me. Baltimore is also the home of baseball’s greatest ballplayer.
Safe at home…
iShorr 