We drove to Baltimore, and headed straight for the Baltimore Museum of Art. I neglected to check the museum’s opening time, so we arrived about 45 minutes before that, which meant that we were forced to walk around the gorgeous sculpture garden. If I’m going to be forced to do something in future, I sure hope it’s as nice as this garden. It was warm (70 degrees!) and sunny, and I got lots of backlit pictures of sunlight filtering through trees, and the sculptures were cool and weird and thought-provoking . . . what a great way to start a museum visit.
The rest of the museum was also lovely, and it’s a relatively small collection (says the girl who’s used to the Philadelphia Art Museum and the Met, so my perspective may be slightly skewed. . . ), but really wonderful. I was particularly enchanted by the collection of mosaics from 5th century Antioch, especially since I just finished As a Driven Leaf, much of which takes place in 1st century Antioch. Also, Rodin’s the Thinker was wonderful to see up close – I never realized what a muscle-y, powerful figure it is. I don’t normally think of thinkers that way. Also also, it had a really great contemporary collection (especially the very moving and powerful and thought-provoking work of Hank Willis Thomas). Other things I loved: a. it’s free! b. the listening device thingymabob was free, so I got fun and interesting commentary throughout.
We checked into our hotel, and then went back out to investigate a Greek Food Festival sign we had seen. After parking in a semi-sketch lot, we galumphed into a large tent next to a gorgeous cathedral and dug into the most delicious gyros and calamari ever (note: this is where the kosher vacay started!). It was so homey and cute, and there were Greek children dancing, people watching the football game – a great way to start our afternoon.
After the vigorous eating, I was experiencing a little bit of a food coma, so we went to our hotel room for nap. While I was napping, Mona discovered some unfortunateness about our room (won’t go into details, but ick!), so we ended up switching rooms, and somehow ending up in this HUGE suite, with two bedrooms and a living room and a conference table and a kitchen and two bathrooms. So that worked out great.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the Inner Harber, checking out my home for the summer of 2001 (the USCG Taney), the fabulous Barnes and Noble where I learned about minke biology that summer, and a number of lovely shops (we had a LOT of fun in the hat shop in particular). After guacamole and drinks at the Cheesecake Factory (yes it’s everywhere, yes it can be delish), we headed in for movies and bed.
The next morning, we followed the recommendation of my Baltimore friends and headed to Miss Shirley's for brunch. This turned out to be the best part of the whole trip -- Mom had carrot spice raisin pancakes (woah), and I had a sandwich with avocado, bacon, a fried green tomato and cheese. It came with either grits or potatoes, and I always order potatoes, since I'm not a grits kind of gal. At least, I wasn't until I went to Miss Shirley's Cafe. After some waiter-cajoling, I went with the grits, made with mascarpone cheese, chives, applewood-smoked bacon, and heavy cream. Let's just say, I will never again make a trip to Baltimore without having those grits. SO good. We ended the trip with a stop in Filene's (and the purchase of a lovely sundress), and then we went our separate ways. SUCH a good mother-daughter weekend.
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