Friday 29 June 2012

Weekend on the Eastern Shore

Last weekend, my penultimate in the USA (for now at least), N's boss (let's call him R) invited us to spend the weekend on the Eastern Shore with him. Otherwise known as the Delmarva peninsula, this is an area just across the Chesapeake Bay from Baltimore, with great wildlife and some lovely beaches. So on Friday afternoon we headed over the bridge:



Making a pit-stop at the visitor centre in Cambridge:



Before heading over to the Blackwater Nature Reserve. We saw loads of cool stuff here, including great egrets:



Lots of nesting osprey with their young (N took this photo, it's awesome):



And racoons! Put me in mind of a pretty great cartoon, other 90s kids, you're with me right?



I also saw my first eagles which were soooo amazing! They're massive!



Other notable occurrences included purple martins which are like huge swallows, and being bombarded by swallows when I got too close to their nest! And once again just missing out on seeing a hummingbird.

After Blackwater we headed over to Salisbury (no prizes for guessing which nation colonised this particular area!) to our motel! It was so American! I should have taken some photos. Mind you, if you're going to stay in a motel, one with complementary breakfast, free wifi and a pool is a good one to choose.

For dinner we found a BBQ place, my first taste of proper Southern food, and it was sooo tasty.



The boys enjoyed a massive rack of ribs and chicken wings.



While I thought I was being healthy by ordering a salad, but it was also massive! And of course so tasty that I ate every last bit. Note the cornbread muffin, incredible.



Saturday saw us head out to Assateague Island, which is another amazing area of nature reserves consisting of a long strip of land along the Atlantic.



The beach was beautiful, and we saw loads of pelicans and crabs (the crabs were so much fun), and even some dolphins out to sea (by the way, if you're interested in all the birds we saw you should check out R's blog here. He got a nice picture of the dolphins too)



We also saw some interesting bits and pieces washed up on the shore, including a horseshoe crab which was amazing:



And a Royal Walnut moth, which is the largest moth in North America apparently:



When we'd had as much sun as we could handle (I didn't mention did I, it was HOT!!!) we headed over to Ocean City in search of food and rest. For lunch, our first experience of Maryland crabs:



After lunch R went off to do some more birdwatching, so N and I headed off in search of the boardwalk and massive ice creams. This photo gives you a general gist:



And this one gives away our impression of the place:



Later on we met up with R and went to play crazy golf! Brought back some memories, and I think some people will be happy to hear that I remembered all their advice from over the years, and rocked the first few holes! (We won't talk about what happened after that...)



On our final day we headed back over to Assateague in the morning for more walking and birding.



After which R and I jumped in the sea. My word, it was incredible! I'd forgotten how great it feels to swim in the sea after the summers we've had in the UK the last few years.



Meanwhile, N made friends with this fellow:



Hehe.

Of course the boys had to find a bar in which to watch Italy thrash England (actually even I got quite into it by the time the penalties came around) and we stumbled across this lovely gastropub in Cambridge. Best fries I've ever tasted, hands down!



I went off for a walk during the second half, thinking it might be over by the time I returned. I found a pretty house which caught me eye, maybe because the shutters were the same colour as my flip-flops!



And lots of boats:



On returning to find that the football had gone into extra time I decided that it was time for tea and cake to get me through. However what I was not expecting was this monster! Incredibly tasty, but also very rich, so even with help I didn't manage to finish it :(



And then it was all over, and we headed home, tired and bloated, but also happy and a shade darker...

Have a great weekend!

PS. I took loads of photos, so if this isn't enough for you and you're unlucky enough to be my friend, you can check more out on Facebook :)

Friday 22 June 2012

Star-Spangled Sailabration

This weekend just gone saw the arrival of many ships to Baltimore's harbour in a celebration of the 200 year anniversary of the American declaration of war on Great Britain, in which Baltimore played a large part! If you're interested in the history/importance of this, read this article on the BBC news website from earlier this week.

But before I get to showing you hundreds of pictures of all the pretty boats I need to say a big fat CONGRATULATIONS to my little sister who found out last week that she got a 1st for her degree! Wooo! Go Tamz! So proud!

In other news last week, I was taken on a lovely trip to the mall to return the shoes I bought early on in my trip which turned out not to fit. The anti-shopping trip (turns out shopping is much more fun when you leave with more money than when you arrived!) was preceded by a fun time playing in the park with an adorable little girl (not a random girl, I did know her...) and completed with good chats over lunch. Funny story though, I got stuck in a gorgeous dress in the changing rooms of H+M, and was this close to having to ask the attendant for help! Thankfully I managed to save my dignity and wriggled out by myself, because that could have been super embarrassing!!! It was pretty hilarious though! Shame the dress didn't fit, it was only $7 in the sale, and so pretty.

On the Friday I was persuaded to accompany N into work to be a guinea pig for his experiment. I'm not going to talk about how fun it was, because I don't want to put off potential participants, but we did have a pretty fun morning after that! We went for a beverage (chai tea latte, yum!) and because it was a beautiful day, in contrast to last time I went over there, I took some better pictures of the view of downtown from up there.







And then I took a walk while N did some work, and took some photos of the pretty main hospital building, before we met up again to get Chinese food for lunch. Naughty but nice!



So, you're all waiting with bated breath to see these ships aren't you?! I thought so. Here's a Brazilian tall ship!



I went down to the Inner Harbour to check out what was there on the Thursday and caught part of the U.S Navy band during the opening ceremony.



After taking a walk up Federal Hill to see what I could see, I wandered around the rest of the Inner Harbour to have a closer look. Indonesian tall ship:



Ecuadorian tall ship:



U.S. Navy boats I think:



On the Saturday we met up with N's boss and his daughter (ie. the adorable little girl, see I do know her!) It was soooo incredibly busy down there so unfortunately we didn't brave any of the queues for the free ship tours. Still fun though and lots of cute pictures taken.





On Sunday we walked over to Fell's Point to see what was docked there, but it turned out not much other than this huge Canadian ship:



In a way the most boat-related fun was on Tuesday morning, when I went down to see what I could catch of the Parade of Departure. I walked over to Fell's Point and didn't see much of anything, but on my way back through the Inner Harbour I was lucky enough to see the Lady Maryland and Pride of Baltimore (I think) just heading off, and barges heading towards the Mexican tall ships, so I decided to stick around and I'm so glad I did.



The Pride of Baltimore gave me a shock with her first blast of the cannon!



Look at the crazy Mexican sailor dudes!



They stayed like that the whole time!



I was hoping they might let the sails down, but unfortunately not. Still cool though!



Oh and I saw some Canada goslings, awesome!


So now we're all caught up, I'm off to the Delmarva Peninsula for the weekend! Looking forward to telling you all about it when I get back!

Thursday 21 June 2012

Hot hot heat

I had an interesting first week of June. I experienced chatting with my Grandma on Skype for the first time (via my uncle and aunt) which was fun! I had an inspiring and uplifting meeting with a friend of one of N's colleagues in Cardiff who works at the University of Maryland. And I had my arm trapped in a revolving door by an Amazon delivery man when I helped him a catch a box that was falling and he continued through the door before I got my arm out!!!

That week was a scorcher (like this week, incidentally) and luckily I got added to the lease of our apartment which meant that I could get my pool pass. N and I tried out the pool, and man is the water cold! But once you're in it's pretty nice. I really wanted to go in today, especially as the temperature outside is currently 36C, but the pool has a leak so they've had to drain it!!!

Other exciting news from that week is that I finally joined the Enoch Pratt library, the central branch of which is less than a five minute walk from our back door! If you're interested in what I've been reading see my Goodreads page here.

At the weekend we continued our Friday dining fun by going to La Tasca for tapas. I was so excited by this that I forgot to take pictures of the food, but believe me, it was awesome! My first tastes of both chorizo and smoked salmon (which is sooooooooooo expensive over here!) since I left the UK were incredible! Lovely views to the left and forwards:





Saturday was a quiet one for me, as N went out to watch The Netherlands lose their first match of the Euro 2012 football tournament on one of his colleagues' tellies. It was too hot to do much anyway. On Sunday however, not that the high temperatures had abated, my wish for nature was fulfilled when we went out on the light rail to discover the Robert E Lee park. This is an area to the north of us with a big lake and lots of trees and grass, and we only covered less than half of it!






Can't wait to get home to the UK so I can spend more than an hour outside without feeling like I might collapse of heat exhaustion any minute!

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Dining in a thunderstorm

On the first weekend of June, N and I decided we would continue the fun Friday theme and eat out together on the Friday evening. However, what we weren't anticipating was the sheer volume of rain, thunder and lightning which would materialise during the course of the evening! However, scared of rain we are not, so armed with raincoats and brollies we ventured out anyway. I'm so glad we did, because even though we got rather soggy, we had a lovely evening at an Irish pub in the Inner Harbour. This is the view we enjoyed from said establishment:



And this is the food I enjoyed, chicken and shrimp with greens and the most amazing roast potatoes I have ever tasted! This meal was sooooo good!



Finished off with ginger and Guinness cake which was so amazing I even forgot to stop and take a photo! One thing I cannot believe is how warm the rain was! It felt tropical!

The following morning was a complete contrast, pleasant and sunny. We ventured down to a flea market at the American Visionary Arts Museum, hoping to pick up some bargains, but it turned out to be terrible, and full of stalls selling super-expensive art, not what one expects from a flea market.



We made a good morning of it though, taking a walk up Federal Hill, wandering around the souvenir shops in the Inner Harbour and making a visit to Barnes + Noble, as always (I seem to advertise that place a lot!). We ended up at the sushi place in the Inner Harbour again for lunch. This is the view from their terrace, as opposed to our view the previous evening:



We enjoyed some miso soup:



and N ordered these balls of octopus for me to try (edited to add that these are called takoyaki, thanks N!):



Very tasty, but look, I ate tentacle!



Bento boxes for the main course, nom nom nom



On Sunday morning we took a much more successful trip to a different market, having finally made it to Baltimore's main farmer's market. It is, as everything round here, just down the road from us, and I really wish we'd made it there sooner, it was great! So much bigger and busier than I was expecting!



We had a browse and bought some beverages, which we enjoyed while browsing a book stall at length, selling all books for only $2 each! We also came across a potter's stall selling some gorgeous mugs with bicycles and birds on, two of my favourite things. By the time we'd taken ten paces away we'd already decided we had to have them in our lives, so after buying a very tasty omelette we headed back and purchased the mugs. Look how pretty!



My most extravagant purchase in a long time, but totally worth it!