ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

Tonight, finally, we got to actually go into Baltimore proper. I could make a list of reasons why I’ve basically been frothing at the mouth to hang out in Baltimore, but the big ones are 1) I love the TV program Homicide: Life in the Streets, which is set in Baltimore and 2) I love the ocean. Having spent the evening there, I can confidently say that I was not making a mistake when I decided I loved Baltimore before we even met.

Here’s the thing. I have now been to a number of wonderful places up and down the eastern coast. Newport. Providence. Portland. Annapolis. And it’s true that I find all of them aesthetic and quaint, and some of them achingly beautiful. But even if I had a sudden financial windfall, and could afford to live in one of these cities, I don’t see myself fitting in. No amount of cash is going to magically turn me from a person who grew up milking goats into the kind of person who spent her youth going to clamdigs and learning to sail and taking on other aristocratic pursuits. I mean, for godsake, I don’t even exactly know what a clamdig is. I can guess, but sometimes these terms can be misleading. Sweetmeats are not what you might think, in other words. My point is, Baltimore is my type of town. Where Annapolis is blue-blooded, Baltimore is blue collar. Like Kansas City.

Before we headed to the Inner Harbor, we each chipped in $1.25 to pay the toll over the Bay Bridge, which costs $2.50 for all two-axle vehicles. We did this with no destination in mind other than the bridge itself, and after driving across the bridge we turned around and came right back. We agreed that the experience was well worth the toll. My coworker friend assured me that the Bay Bridge is even better than Mackinac Bridge, which is generally agreed to be up there on the list of interesting bridges. As bridge enthusiasts, we pay attention to these things.

Of course, we didn’t have time to throughly canvass the area. We took some pictures, ate at the waterfront California Pizza Kitchen (you know, to work in some more local cuisine), and walked around. We viewed the Baltimore World Trade Center, which I later learned from Wikipedia is the world’s tallest equilateral five-sided building. I’m proud to have stood near it. I would have loved to check out the Constellation, not to mention the acquarium, but there simply wasn’t time. This is getting close to being my #1 vacation destination, assuming I ever save enough Southwest points to get another damn free ticket for my boyfriend before this other one expires.

Also, what kind of hopeless self-respecting tourist would I be if I didn’t pay $8 to ride a dragon-shaped paddle boat around the harbor?