Tamzy in Baltimore

Once we came home from New York, Tamzy spent about a week staying with us here in Baltimore while I got in a few days at work before we headed out on our big trip (which I'm sure y'all are gasping to hear about, all in good time :) ). I had fun partially showing her around and partially sending her off to visit the nicer parts of town. On my first day back at work I showed Tamz around the lab, showed her some melanoma cells down the microscope, then took her to Lexington Market, partly for the experience, but mainly for Faidley's lump crab cake, the best crab cake I have tasted!

On the Friday N finnnalllyy came home from all of his trips (Spain on this particular occasion), so we took the opportunity to visit Arundel Mills, a mall near the airport which has lots of outlet stores and a camping shop, to stock up on stuff for our trip "on the way" to pick up N. The camping shop turned out to be pretty rubbish, but we did spend an awful lot of money on some amazing bargains in the Merrell outlet, getting us both hiking shoes and me a lightweight waterproof. And having now used both I can testify that they were awesome purchases. I also may or may not have made an impulse buy in the Levi's outlet, but who can resist jackets this pretty, with so much money off?! (I went for the purple, not both, although I did also love the green and was very tempted!)

The Saturday started with a lazy morning, during which Tamz told us a story about how in Liverpool she cycles past a car on the way home from work every day with a bumper sticker saying "Eat Bertha's Mussels", and had wondered for ages what on earth it meant. Then the previous day she'd gone to Fells Point and seen a restaurant with "Eat Bertha's Mussels" on the side, so now she knows! Apparently they give the bumper stickers out to everyone who eats there, so we went there for lunch, and all left with our very own! This was followed by a trip to the roller derby. So much fun, as always :) Go Charm City Roller Girls!

The only picture I took at the roller derby.
Given what I work on it seemed like a very inappropriate name to me!

On the Sunday Tamzy and I decided to take the water taxi to Fort McHenry. This was new to me too, and totally worth it, if a little breezy! And it was fun for Tamz to learn all the history about how the Americans beat the pesky British on this site, inspiring Francis Scott Key to pen the lyrics to what is now the American National Anthem.

We also took her to some of our favourite restaurants, including City Cafe, and Joss' Cafe for her first sushi, both in Mount Vernon, and of course we had to have take out from Fusion Wok, our favourite establishment  in the food court downstairs, where the lady now even knows my order!