Serendipitous Adventure

My motto is “nothing ventured, nothing gained” and again, I took a leap and had a great adventure. You might remember earlier this summer, I was host to Steve Busfield, a journalist with the Guardian, and his two charming daughters for a “Not Just The Wire” tour of Baltimore. Some of Steve’s colleagues from the Guardian are taking a trip from Baltimore to Bar Harbour, and Tweeting, Instagramming and blogging the whole thing. Throughout the day, I was keeping an eye on what the Guardianistas, Vicky, Greta and Kylie, were doing as they travelled around Baltimore. As I was leaving work, I read a post that they were having coffee at the Paper Moon diner, sort of on my way home. So I detoured over there and met up with them!

Paper Moon is a crazy fun house of a diner, with almost every square inch of the place covered with some sort of doll, toy, Pez dispenser, etc.

After a brief conversation, it was decided that I’d chuck my schedule and become the chauffeur for the evening and show the Guardianistas MY Baltimore. We headed to Charles Village to look at the Painted Ladies – row houses that have been brightly painted in every shade of the rainbow!

We went on a hunt for some of the murals dotting the new arts area, Station North. And found some great ones!

From there, we headed to Woodberry Kitchen, one of the area’s first farm-to-table restaurants where we mostly noshed our way through dinner, starting with the most amazing Oyster Stew and then on to a Kale Salad, and some of their amazing selection of house-made pickles!

We did a drive-by of some of Baltimore’s more interesting architecture, including my office.

One of the fun thing about this trip is that people are tweeting the Guardianistas suggestions as to places to visit, and they’re taking the recommendations and running with them! So we tried a new ice-cream shop just south of my house which opened a few months ago. It’s called the Charmery – a play on Charm City and Creamery. As Vicky and I held back the traffic, Greta snapped this picture.

We were joined at Charmery by Aisha who was also following along with the Guardianistas and lived close by.

By this time, it was time for a drink and we headed to a little “speakeasy” that several people had recommended. We met up with John, who owns the local bar, Bad Decisions, and we all tried some of the specialty cocktails that the bar, WC Harlen, makes. We had a chance to meet the bar’s owners, who’d just returned from a weekend at a gin distillery in Brooklyn! They made us all delicious cocktails, and after we’d finished one, we wrapped up the day!

To read more about their day in Baltimore and then to follow them up to Philadelphia, Boston and on to Bar Harbour, click here.  Thanks so much to the Guardianistas for letting me join the fun and to Greta Rybus for her terrific images, which I snagged from the Guardian’s Instagram feed!

Safe travels to my new friends!