The Baltimore Years

We moved to Baltimore just in time for the Blizzard of 2010, but despite the less-than-warm welcome, Charm City is turning out to be a much more interesting place to live than I expected.

This chapter in my life – I’ll call it “the Baltimore years” – is a fun time of discovery so far. Leaving St. Louis after eight years, I realized there was so much I still hadn’t done. I never went to the Forest Park Balloon Race.  I only went to a concert at The Pageant once, and it was a great venue. Why didn’t I go back? We had season tickets to The Muny one year (which was so much fun!), but I never went to the Shakespeare Festival in the park even though I thought about it every summer. I never even made it to Soulard for St. Louis Mardi Gras. I don’t want to make the same mistake here, so I take every opportunity I can to explore something new. Seriously, life is just too short.

In the first year, I’ve discovered some fantastic restaurants–Woodberry Kitchen in Hampden, Iggies Pizza in Mt. Vernon, and Pazo in the Inner Harbor, to name a few. And each neighborhood has it’s own personality. I’ve checked out a few museums, visited some historic sites, and played tourist with visiting family and friends.

I live in Towson, just north of the city line, and the suburb has charms all its own. It’s a curious mix of families, retirees, young professionals, and college students. You wouldn’t think it would work, but it does. I love that I can walk downtown to restaurants and bars–there’s even a block party with live music every Friday night from May to September.

So in this blog space I’ll share what I’m discovering in Charm City, as well as other adventures in life. Enjoy!