Baltimore

Yesterday, Dustin threw me another of his surprise, spur of the moment, “Let’s go spend the night in a hotel and take a day-trip…”  –and this time to Baltimore!  I guess we were made for each other, because, my reaction is always, “Fun –Let’s go!”  I like to know ahead and plan, and look forward to things, but this way I don’t have to wile the time away waiting for a special event to happen…I get instant gratification!  (Yes, I know, that is a problem with our age –which could be another whole post of its own –but never mind…Let’s keep to the topic at hand!)  So, once again, I had about twenty minutes to pack my bags, and then after the evening church service, we headed straight to Baltimore.

This time however, it was not just any hotel…the Hotel Monaco, with four stars, and for a great deal at that!  I don’t know if any other Hotel Monaco guests ever ordered Domino’s Pizza, but we did!  We also took pictures of the things all the bigwigs just kind of brush by –like ornate ceilings, the decor of our room, and the beautiful balcony.

We spent the day EATING, of course, among other things…you have to take advantage of the scrumptious food big cities always offer.  We went to Potbelly’s sandwich shop for lunch which was delicious.  We both had their Italian sandwich with lots of toppings.  We also tried their Southwest chicken soup.  Leaving there, we did some walking and sight-seeing.  Lots of places were closed, it seemed on Mondays (at least in the winter), but we still got to know the city to some extent.  We walked around the Inner Harbor seeing several historic ships and a submarine.  We also saw the Flag House where Mary Pickersgill sewed the Star-Spangled Banner.  We ended off the day in the Little Italy part of town, at Vaccaro’s Italian Pastries, a specialty Baltimore is famous for.  Here Dustin ordered a Belgian waffle topped with delicious, light  and fluffy ice cream, whipped cream, and walnuts and strawberries;  I, on the other hand, could not get away from their éclair.  O dear heart, hast thou known a morsel more lovely?  It was about eight inches long by four inches in diameter, and the majority of that space was creamy, smooth custard!  The pastry itself was very good, obviously fresh and homemade, and it was topped with a thick layer of chocolate icing.  Then, upon removing it to a plate to serve it to us, they drizzled chocolate syrup over the whole plate and sprinkled powdered sugar over it!  I could only eat half!  I brought the rest home, and ate a few more bites, and maybe tomorrow I will take the remainder to work and share with my friends…they must be friends, too, for me to share my éclair with them!  It was a wonderful day!