What happens when you forget to take photos

In the last week or so of May I was mostly working on a talk I had been invited to give at the University of Maryland Medical School Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. That's quite a mouthful! I did manage to fit in some fun times too, but for whatever reason I just didn't pull my camera out that week! So all of the pictures below were taken by N, and this gives me an opportunity to show some nice photos of his relating to previous posts. This is also a good point at which to mention that he took a couple of the photos in the previous post, so thank you to him!

I was kindly invited to join N's boss' wife and a couple of her local friends for lunch at The Ambassador, an Indian restaurant which do an amazing lunch buffet. I had a really lovely time and fun chats. Afterwards I took a walk around the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins which has lovely buildings and green spaces. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures there! Maybe because I felt like an intruder!

That Friday there was cause for celebration as several of N's colleagues found out they had been successful in their applications for some rather sizeable grants, enabling them to further their research. So I crashed their party and joined them for drinks and food over at Fells Point. I have no idea at which establishment we were, but we had a lovely evening sat outside in the balmy (that's a nice word for sticky!) air, enjoying sweet potato fries with a chocolate dip (genius!), crab dip, and salads. On the way home N and I stopped by Pitango Gelato, again! I can't remember which flavours I had on this occasion, this is why I should always take photos! I'm sure it was incredibly tasty though!

On the Saturday morning it was incredibly hot, but we suncreamed up and jumped on the light rail to meet N's boss and his little daughter at Druid Hill Park, a massive park with a lake. N and I saw our first Baltimore oriole (real life as opposed to baseball player!). Look how pretty!

N's boss had heard about some nesting yellow-crowned night herons (I'm hoping one of them will correct me if I'm wrong about this!), which could be seen over the river just outside the park, so we went to check them out and actually found them really easily!

After playing in the playground for a bit and having a decent walk (no sunburn woo!) we headed back in time for me to link in to the Lemons' Eurovision party (although poorly attended this year!) via Skype! That was so much fun! Although not as great as being there I was happy to be able to join in.

So here are some of N's photos:

An American robin (nowhere near as cute as our British robins, but they do have a pretty song)

Me with my first Pitango Gelato (my hair was so short!)

A real life pirate at Privateer Day:

N's massive milkshake at the Cheesecake Factory:

(OK, so I took this one, but it was on his camera)

And his key lime cheesecake, I so want to go back there!

More pictures (probably mostly of food) next time!

Oh and I feel that I should mention at this point that my talk went pretty well!

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 :)