Keeping the Vacation Alive While Blazing Through Baltimore

Keeping the Vacation Alive While Blazing Through Baltimore

After returning from our European trip, we felt the expected letdown of the humdrum of everyday life.  I brought up this topic in my Spiritual Meetup and others mentioned that they too felt down after a wonderful vacation.  Our friends Charlie and Carolyn shared that they took a vacation day every week, right in their own town.   What a great idea, we thought.  We are fortunate to have Washington D.C., Baltimore, MD., Frederick MD., Alexandria, VA., Annapolis, MD., and many other places within a 45 minute ride of our home.  A little further is Richmond, VA. and Philadelphia, PA.  So I have decided to continue the macro adventures with jaunts to these places on the weekends.  Hopefully you will enjoy the trip with me.

Last weekend, KO and I got an early start and drove to the Fells Point area of Baltimore.  Fells Point was a shipping Mecca back in the day.  This area's shipbuilding supplied vessels for the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 and there are many seventeenth century buildings still standing along the cobblestone streets.  The Fells Point Farmers Market, every Saturday  is filled with brightly colored canopies and vendors selling homemade breads and pastries and fruits and vegetables. It is difficult to find organically grown produce and usually the farmer says that he is not certified but he does not spray.  I found some luscious blueberries and snap peas which I later made into a stir fry. 

Roaming  around the booths I could not help but picture what it would have been like here when, during the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner as the British bombarded Fort McHenry nearby.

Our next stop was breakfast at One World Cafe, a vegan hotspot near the north campus of the stately Johns Hopkins University campus.  This eclectic restaurant offers zesty tofu scramble, sweet potato pancakes, vegan sausages and offerings for gluten free as well.  The overflowing
bakery case boasts vegan coconut cake, chocolate cake and tarts as well as non vegan options.  We also enjoy the Paper Moon Diner nearby with its walls covered with kitschy remembrances of childhood such as a pez dispenser collection, GI Joe miniatures and doll heads.  Their  menu is also vegan friendly.

We found a lovely park nearby and wandered down by a stream and under bridges.  It was quite warm but the shade of the umbrella of foliage kept us comfortable.  It was nice to find this refuge so close to the busy city streets.

Our next stop was the neighborhood made famous by John Waters's Hairspray.  Hampden Town, with its Cafe Hon and multitude of adorable shops and thrift stores is a real authentic find in Baltimore.

We were headed to Breathe Books, an independently owned book store which had recently opened a cafe which had vegan offerings on the menu.  On the way we passed funky shoe stores, a newly opened bakery and a chocolate shop.  At Breathe Books we scanned the titles downstairs and then went upstairs to peruse the sale books.  To my delight there was an entire bookshelf of items that were free.  I picked up a number of exciting books for a donation.  We sampled one of the vegan vegetable  tarts on the menu as I had made a donation to the startup of the cafe and was then offered a cost free item.  I try to support any independent entrepreneur that I can as I do not want to see them disappear as so many have in the shadow of Walmart.

There are many others ideas for a visit to Baltimore.  These  include the Water Taxi, which takes you from one site to another or is just nice to ride around on, and the Museum of Industry.  This museum celebrates Baltimore as a working man's town and traces its history as having the nation's first passenger railway, oldest gas company, and first traffic light.  Red Emma's Bookstore and Coffeehouse is an interesting find with books on worker ownership and democratic management.  The Inner Harbor has current shops and  a wonderful restaurants with a view of the waterfront and the big ships there.  Lexington Market dates to 1782 and it is a ball to walk around the stalls with food and flowers there and get a feel for the real people of Baltimore.  Other farmers markets are Waverly Market on Saturdays in a funky neighborhood with turn of the century homes and, on Sundays, the Baltimore Farmers Market and Bazaar at Holiday and Saratoga streets which includes crafts, foods and lots of atmosphere. Next to the market you can view the diner used in the movie Diner.

Baltimore is the home of the Natural Foods Expo as well.  A lovely place to stay is the 1840's Carrollton Inn.  It is located near Fells Point and Inner Harbor and includes a breakfast that can be macro and vegan.

So many options for a day trip can be found in Baltimore.   Next stop, Washington DC.