Baltimore to North Carolina - June 14-16, 2009

(Fifi! the water skiing poodle. Postcard from Baltimore)

We woke the next morning to the sounds of Sean's two lady finches, Sadie and Edith, having quite the squabble. One of them had laid some eggs and they were being pretty territorial. Sending them to time out, Ben and I tried to figure out the best way to finish our time in Baltimore before our departure that afternoon. We grabbed some breakfast with Sean, then said goodbye as he headed off for a photo shoot, and me and Ben headed for our last stop in Baltimore. One of my favorite places, the Visionary Art Museum. If you take the water taxi from the Inner Harbor, you can see the sign across the water from the boat. It's a vertical sign along the corner of the brick building, but what makes it easy to spot is the neon and metal eye at the top. What makes the Visionary so awesome is that the work in the museum is all done by self-taught artists. A couple sections of the gallery are filled with work completed by people who have been institutionalized, making it that much more intriguing.

Fortunately, there was a beautiful wedding happening in the Visionary garden. Unfortunately, that meant that we couldn't explore the other building housing even more handcrafted works.

Ah well, just another reason to bring Benjamin back.

Then we were back on the road. Our next destination was Greensboro, North Carolina to stay with my Aunt and Uncle. It should have been about a 6 hour drive, but took us actually close to 8 hours. Again, we hit some pretty bad rain that followed us a good way down. We also took Route 29 pretty much all the way down, which, while very scenic, took forever, and wasn't too fun to navigate through the dark. We got into Greensboro around 11:30pm, and after some short visiting with the fam crashed out. It was the first night we could actually sleep in and not have to think about all our road trip plans.

We slept in some, and woke up in time for my Aunt coming home from work - she took half the day off, and we went to go see the botanical gardens about 10 minutes away. The Bog Gardens were lovely and as isolated as they could be considering the dense suburbia we were in.

We hopped over to the plaza next door for some P.F. Chang's which my Aunt was craving, and kept it pretty mellow for the rest of the day.

The next day we said so-long, and headed for Charlotte, NC to visit one of Ben's friends, Chad, and his wife and little baby girl, Cassidy. It started raining a bit there too (we seemed to have brought it with us everywhere), but no worries, because it passed over us while feasting at a great little place, Lupie's Cafe.

(a sassy veggie poster at Lupie's)

The chili's great, the burgers are huge, daily specials fantastic, and $1 PBR's to wet your whistle, our you could splurge, with their most expensive brew not hitting over $3. For dessert, make sure to have their Kuchen (prounced coo-gan). A total gift from Germany, it's a great, warm, custard-like treat with a crispy crust.

That would've been it for Charlotte right there except that when we were leaving, we passed by this great fella in a hershey ice cream cone sandwich-board, working hard to bring in some clientele for the shop next door. Sorry guy, filled up on the Kuchen.

Next stop: New Orleans, Louisianna.

Albany to Baltimore - June 13, 2009

Sorry about the delay! Benjamin and myself have been so super busy with being on the road that we have been super shabby bloggers. I'm going to try to catch up a bit!

So getting to Baltimore was alright - it rained for the last 3 hours of the trip, but Ben and I made it in one piece. I navigated Ben into my old stomping grounds around the MICA campus, parking right outside my old apartment near the corner of Park Ave. and McMechen. I ran into my good ol pal Alissandra (an incredible illustrator/artist/creative person/wonder woman), whose blog and professional website you should all investigate thouroughly.

Giving Ben the guided tour, we walked the 2 miles down to the Inner Harbor. You could easily take the light rail, getting off at the stop for Camden Yards and then walking only a couple blocks, but our legs needed the good stretch. A total tourist trap, the Inner Harbor is complete with it's own ESPN Zone and Hard Rock Cafe, but having it's perks - There's the incredible Baltimore Aquarium, where you can catch a dolphin show and walk down the lengthy, spiral ramp surrounded entirely by a circular tank of sharks (to paint the picture, the shark tank is the donut, you and the ramp are the hole in donut). There's also the Maryland Science Center, which is on the far right end of the harbor. Very worth it.

Ben and I stopped in the throng of it all, as there was a youth group of steel drummers putting on a pretty cool performance at the time (there's almost always some sort of performance going on there), so we through in some spare change and enjoyed them for a few.


What I really wanted to show Ben though was Fell's Point. Usually a bit more laid back and chill than the Harbor, and offering a wealth of gems to eat in. Almost all the shops and restaurants are independent, which is a good switch. We took the water taxi over, and even at $9 a pop it was nice to feel the breeze on our faces and let someone else do some driving.

We could hear an old trumpet belting some tunes as we landed and walked around the square. Hungry for some nourishment, we plopped down at a table outside the Greene Turtle, lured in by their deal of the day: a cold bucket of 5 Miller Lite ponies. Me with burger, Ben with crab cakes, it seemed like the best choice of the day; until we ran into Bertha's. Quiet and unassuming, Bertha's sits at 734 S Broadway. We walked in, and at first thought it was just your average, tiny, dark dive bar, but when we saw the wall of dissected and reassembled green bumper stickers, we realized it was most likely at least a little bit more. Originally reading "Eat Bertha's Mussels," the bumper stickers on the far wall had their letters rearranged to read various clever (and also not so clever) phrases. Immediately Ben and I knew we had to accept the challenge and trump all the other "witty" people that had their new stickers adorned to the wall. Our awesome bartender, Angela, kept our drinks full and supplied us with a heft of stickers and a pair of scissors to complete our mission.

Was it dirty? Yes. But we got our own wall.

One of my great friends, Sean Scheidt, was coming out to meet us there - he too is an amazing artist, specializing in photography. Again, look at his stuff! He was also putting us up for the night in his new place in Dundalk, so after the shenanigans were fully shenanned and the amazingly delicious mussels were devoured (we suggest keeping it simple with the garlic and butter mussels - superb) we blew Bertha's a kiss, snapped a picture with Angela, and head for our bed for the night.

Sean, thanks so much for your hospitality (hope Sadie and Edith haven't killed one another)

Day 1

We set out from Albany this morning! Destination: Baltimore, Maryland. Before we left the Capital District for good, we had to stop and pick up a souvenir.
The inscription to Bella & Luca on the back of this gem reads:

Dear Bella and Luca -

Today, we left Albany! Before we began our journey, we had to visit the giant statue of Nipper the dog, who in 1872 saved the Principal of Albany from the Great Marshmallow Fire. Nipper's owner brought graham crackers and chocolate bars as a treat for the city, and that's how s'mores were invented. Off to our next stop, Baltimore, Maryland, where we're hoping to catch some crabs. Oh boy!

Love,
Cory and Ben

So really, that's all you need to know.