This post involves cheesecake

So, back to catching you up on what I've been doing with myself. We're still in May, and N's still in Australia for a few more days. The Sunday before he returned I took myself out for a relatively long walk along the water. But first I visited an event happening up the street called "Let's Eat Charles Street" where many of the local businesses, mainly restaurants, set up stalls outside for the day selling a selection of their wares. I picked up something tasty for lunch to enjoy when I reached my destination. While there I bumped into the Baltimore Orioles mascot:

By the time I reached Fell's Point, approximately the halfway point, I decided I was hot and hungry, and what better way to solve this issue, and still save my lunch for later, than picking up some Pitango Gelato for the road! Raspberry and bacio on this occasion, amazing!

I stopped for a while to watch the swallows swooping over the water. Unfortunately I'm not skilled enough to catch them in flight, but I did spot these beauties resting:

And happened upon some teeny weeny ducklings! So cute!

And just around the corner, some larger ones:

After about an hour I reached my goal, the waterside park at Canton:

Totally worth it, this was a little peaceful pocket of green and a perfect spot from which to enjoy my lunch. The view from my bench in the shade:

Lunch - pad thai!

The view across to Fort McHenry:

I enjoyed my food then meandered my way home to enjoy a well-deserved bath :)

Several days later N arrived home from Australia safe and sound. Obviously the best way to celebrate this was to take a trip to Barnes + Noble and then have Cheesecake Factory cheesecake for lunch! Chocolate raspberry truffle for her:

Key lime for him:

While N was still flying somewhere on his epic journey I had come across this Japanese ship which had just arrived in Fell's Point:

Complete with helicopters:

And sailors:

We looked it up online and found out they were doing free tours, so headed down there at the weekend to check it out. We were allowed to sit in the helicopter which was awesome!

Afterwards we headed off to find brunch, and ended up with the upstairs floor of The Point all to ourselves:

This omelette doesn't look all that appetising, but it was actually incredible!

Or course after that we needed dessert. Another Pitango Gelato trip! :D Mango and dark chocolate:

Never disappointed.

Turtles spotted!

The next day we were in need of a nature kick so jumped on the light rail and headed out to the Baltimore Highlands.

Trees:

Water:

Grass:

Birds:

Nests:

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this because it just looked so American to me!

Less photos next time!

Things what I did see cos of I was looking

My blog has caught up with my scrapbook (meaning both are now a month behind), so today I want to take a detour from telling you about what I've been doing, and tell you about I've been seeing instead.

It occurred to me today, while on my daily walk, that so few of the people I wandered past were actually looking at what was around them. OK, so very few people have the luxury of a three month "holiday" and are probably rushing onto the next thing in their busy lives. But as an example, today, among other things, I saw a swallow attacking a grackle (crow-like bird), two swallows perching prettily above my head, and in the water: a big turtle swimming around, two frogs sat on a plank, and a tiny tiny turtle!

And the thing that gets me is that people from the nearby business school were using the path by the walkway as a smoking area, and not one person even noticed the frogs! They were so pretty and sat there for ages, and I was the only person who even gave them a second glance! So here's the question: am I the weird one for getting so much pleasure from these little things I see on my walks every day? I like to think that everyone else is missing out, but maybe no-one else requires these moments to get through the day. Thoughts? Feel free to comment!

Other things I've seen on my walks which have made me pull out my camera:

Don't know why, but this duck in the flowers caught my eye:

A gorgeous dog waiting patiently for its owner on a jetty:

The sun making the water sparkle on a sunny day:

Two birds having a chat:

A volleyball tournament:

Ducklings:

Statues in Mount Vernon:

The view back down Charles Street from the Washington Monument:

Of course some things, like this big ship, are impossible for anyone to miss:

In fact I've been lucky enough to come across some fun events while on my little journeys, several of which involved large boats!  I got a bit of a shock the day I walked around the corner arriving in Fells Point to find this MASSIVE Japanese defense ship (more on that another day):

And then two days later I came across another massive ship making it's way into the Inner Harbour!

I've also spotted Baltimore's mayor a couple of times. Once at this event, which made me laugh because I have never seen so much fuss being made out of the opening of a new restaurant. They really go all out over here, there were speeches and ribbon-cutting and everything!

And then last Wednesday I stumbled across this:

Which I found out later was a press conference launching the "Star-Spangled Sailabration" which is an event taking place this coming weekend (starting tomorrow actually) celebrating the bicentennial of the declaration of war on Great Britain. I know, I shouldn't be as excited about this as I am, but there are going to be lots of ships, and free tours of said ships! And nobody knows I'm British unless I open my mouth, so as long as I keep schtum it should be fine, I'm sure no-one will try declaring war on me for old times' sake anyway! I hope... And anyway, the banner says they welcome the world, of which I am part.

These blokes look friendly enough. I think.

So have you seen anything that made you smile recently? Let me know in the comments, and make me smile too :)

Baltimore Part 8: Pirates in Fells Point, arrrrr

Our Friday nights became fun Fridays pretty quickly after N went back to work, first an evening of fun and games and Chinese food, then the following week I went and met N and his colleagues for a drink after work in Fells Point. Fun times and my first turkey burger with sweet potato fries (yummy!) was followed by a beautiful evening walk home all along the water's edge. We even spotted a Welsh flag!

And we had our first taste of Pitango Gelato, sooooo good! This was spicy chocolate and passionfruit:

The next day saw us head back to Fells Point for Privateer Day. This was a fun pirate-themed day with lots of dressing up and boats and pirate bands!

Me with some pirates, enjoying the band:

Proper pirate costumes:

Lady pirates:

Even the animals made the effort!

This dude was the coolest:

Boats:

The next day we hopped on the bus up to the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus for their spring fair, but it was tipping it down with rain and unfortunately by the time we got there it was a washout and everyone was packing up, so no pictures from there I'm afraid. But we still managed a nice little outing by heading to a Barnes & Noble and browsing the books for a while, before grabbing some lunch in the Starbucks and catching the next bus home. Hopefully we'll make it to the fair next year, sounded like fun!

Baltimore Part 7: Exploring Baltimore

My second full week in Baltimore was probably defined by exploring and finding my feet in the city. We took a walk to see City Hall, which amazingly I hadn't managed to find by myself. On the way we came across this unusual door:

And had a pretty good view of the Shot Tower:

Reminds me of Cardiff City Hall for some reason, maybe the dome?

War Memorial:

Funky horse:

Another day I took myself back up to Mount Vernon for some more exploring. Love this view of the Washington Monument through the trees:

And treeless:

Also in this week N took me up to Johns Hopkins Hospital to see where he works. Not many pictures because it was raining, but this is the view of downtown from the top:

Come back next time to read about ice cream and pirates!