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Weekend update, slightly delayed.
I had a great visit with my sister. We did do a lot of hanging out and talking (including a consummately silly evening of surfing the net together which led, among other things, to the discovery that someone named Rivka writes bad Anne of Green Gables fanfiction), but we also spent some enjoyable time being tourists.
Saturday was a beautiful day, sunny with temperatures in the 50s. We climbed Federal Hill for the panoramic harbor view, and then spent some time wandering around the neighborhood admiring the sunshine and the Federal-period architecture. I wanted to show Debbie Cross Street Market, one of several covered public markets that have been operating in Baltimore since the 18th century. Down a block-long central aisle are stalls selling meat, fish, fresh produce, baked goods, flowers, wine, cheese, and prepared food. There's an organic grocery stall and an Utz potato chip stall, a raw bar and a fried chicken stand. Old Baltimore and New Baltimore mix freely. The markets are one of my favorite things about the city.
We wanted to go to the National Aquarium after lunch, but when we joined a long line at 2:15 they announced that the next available entry time was 4:45 - and that dolphin show tickets were sold out. So we bought advance tickets for Sunday from an ATM and went for Plan B: the American Dime Museum. The Dime Museum is devoted to sideshow exhibits and curiosities typically seen in 19th and early 20th century museums (read a review here). The first thing we saw when we walked in was the mummified head of a person with a trunk-like nose and flaps for ears, followed by a two-headed calf, followed by a glass coffin displaying a 6000-year-old ten-foot Amazon mummy woman. "Is any of this stuff real?" I asked the proprietor tentatively. "It's all real," he said, "in the sense that if you drop it on your foot it will leave a bruise." In the other sense of real, he acknowledged, not so much. The collection ranges from real fakes (the Amazon mummy, for example, is the only surviving 6000-year-old ten-foot Amazon mummy manufactured in the 19th century, and as such is quite valuable), fake fakes (constructed by the proprietors and endowed with a fantastic history, typed on yellowed index cards using a manual typewriter for the sake of verisimilitude), and real oddities (deformed animals and the like). It was perversely fascinating.
Sunday we went to church, after which, unfortunately,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
curiousangel and I had to stay for a special congregational meeting. Poor Debbie took herself to lunch and then sat on the church steps and read. Afterward, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the aquarium, which continues to captivate me no matter how many times I go. It just seems so improbable that leafy sea dragons are real animals, and yet there they are swimming around, defying those who would argue for the existence of a logical and rational Creator. The aquarium always makes me hungry for fish, so we finished the evening at City Lights Seafood. I was not particularly impressed. The food was okay, the service was terrible, the view was fabulous. Debbie really liked what she ordered, though, so I guess the trip was successful.
Monday morning I had to go in to work for a couple of hours. At her request, I dropped Deb off at the Baltimore Maritime Museum, a collection of ships (and a lighthouse) set up for historical tours. I've never toured them, but Debbie really liked it. She came back with the fascinating information that the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse, which was entirely surrounded by water, had a platform underneath it upon which the lighthouse keepers raised livestock. Probably someday I should go see those wonders for myself.
It was a great visit. I was sorry to see her go back. One of these days,curiousangel and I have to make it up to Boston.
Saturday was a beautiful day, sunny with temperatures in the 50s. We climbed Federal Hill for the panoramic harbor view, and then spent some time wandering around the neighborhood admiring the sunshine and the Federal-period architecture. I wanted to show Debbie Cross Street Market, one of several covered public markets that have been operating in Baltimore since the 18th century. Down a block-long central aisle are stalls selling meat, fish, fresh produce, baked goods, flowers, wine, cheese, and prepared food. There's an organic grocery stall and an Utz potato chip stall, a raw bar and a fried chicken stand. Old Baltimore and New Baltimore mix freely. The markets are one of my favorite things about the city.
We wanted to go to the National Aquarium after lunch, but when we joined a long line at 2:15 they announced that the next available entry time was 4:45 - and that dolphin show tickets were sold out. So we bought advance tickets for Sunday from an ATM and went for Plan B: the American Dime Museum. The Dime Museum is devoted to sideshow exhibits and curiosities typically seen in 19th and early 20th century museums (read a review here). The first thing we saw when we walked in was the mummified head of a person with a trunk-like nose and flaps for ears, followed by a two-headed calf, followed by a glass coffin displaying a 6000-year-old ten-foot Amazon mummy woman. "Is any of this stuff real?" I asked the proprietor tentatively. "It's all real," he said, "in the sense that if you drop it on your foot it will leave a bruise." In the other sense of real, he acknowledged, not so much. The collection ranges from real fakes (the Amazon mummy, for example, is the only surviving 6000-year-old ten-foot Amazon mummy manufactured in the 19th century, and as such is quite valuable), fake fakes (constructed by the proprietors and endowed with a fantastic history, typed on yellowed index cards using a manual typewriter for the sake of verisimilitude), and real oddities (deformed animals and the like). It was perversely fascinating.
Sunday we went to church, after which, unfortunately,
curiousangel and I had to stay for a special congregational meeting. Poor Debbie took herself to lunch and then sat on the church steps and read. Afterward, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the aquarium, which continues to captivate me no matter how many times I go. It just seems so improbable that leafy sea dragons are real animals, and yet there they are swimming around, defying those who would argue for the existence of a logical and rational Creator. The aquarium always makes me hungry for fish, so we finished the evening at City Lights Seafood. I was not particularly impressed. The food was okay, the service was terrible, the view was fabulous. Debbie really liked what she ordered, though, so I guess the trip was successful.
Monday morning I had to go in to work for a couple of hours. At her request, I dropped Deb off at the Baltimore Maritime Museum, a collection of ships (and a lighthouse) set up for historical tours. I've never toured them, but Debbie really liked it. She came back with the fascinating information that the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse, which was entirely surrounded by water, had a platform underneath it upon which the lighthouse keepers raised livestock. Probably someday I should go see those wonders for myself.
It was a great visit. I was sorry to see her go back. One of these days,
curiousangel and I have to make it up to Boston.
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