From Friday 17th to Sunday 19th September

From DC to Baltimore, via Prince Frederick


Well, I'm back home now, just about over jet lag, back at work, and have tried a few times to insert some photos in my previous blogs with minimal success, so for now, here's another installment in words only. I'll post some photos soon!

Friday 17th - From DC to Prince Frederick and a wonderful wonderful wedding

• We had breakfast in the hotel - simple muffins but they were huge and deeeeelicious.  I tried blueberry and Joe had one that seemed to be carrot, bran, cinnamon and drizzled with a sweet toffee splodge.  Truly nutritious as they contained fruit and vegetables and bran.  Mmmm.
• I spent some time wondering around the streets near the hotel as they provided plentiful examples of amazing 19th century brownstone town houses.  Totally brilliant. 
• We resisted the offer and temptation to “go large” when we picked up our pre-booked “economy” size car.  Definitions of “economy” here do not match those in England.  We ended up with a Dodge, which was actually the equivalent of a large family car in England.  It was also exactly the same copper colour as our own car.  Weird.
• We drove from DC to a small town in Maryland, called Prince Frederick, where we would be going to our friend’s wedding.  The drive showed us the more rural landscape.  White wooden houses, red wooden barns (like the Fisher Price one I had as a small child), all big and just splodged and dotted in huge plots of land.  Still really green, lots of trees, but starting to turn autumnal.  This was our first sighting of the typical american small town we’d heard so much about - a big motorway with retail parks that were actually the town centre, all with car parks for each one, that you were supposed to drive between rather than walking.  Even things like banks and libraries and post offices are in these parks.  We saw yellow school buses and huge huge cars.
• We went for lunch at Jaspers Bar and Grille.  Here we experienced the huge portions everyone told us about, the exuberant service and constant refilling of our empty pint glasses of soda.  I think there were weight sensitive alarms in the table that alerted the waitress whenever your glass was nearly empty - just as I put an empty glass down she would come with another one!
• We went to Erin and Darragh’s wedding at the Running Hare Vineyard.  Wowee, this was a stunning setting and fantastic experience.  We arrived to a wine tasting in the valley, then when it was time for the service we walked through the vines to the top of a hill where there were rows of white wooden chairs in front of a flower laden wooden gazebo.  It was early evening, the sun was orange and setting behind the hill as Erin arrived and the marriage took place.  They were married by the priest from Darragh’s town in County Mayo in Ireland.  Erin looked beautiful and a few tears were shed as tender words were spoken, solemn promises made and love was all around.  
• The reception was held in a lovely hall on the other side of the valley, with great company from so many countries, tasty food, splendid wine under a blanket of stars and a radiant moon, with the crickets and drunken rock n roll music as our soundtrack.  I was in my element.

Saturday 18th - from Prince Frederick to Baltimore via Chesapeake Bay and North Beach, accompanied by lovely Sue

• Early hours = too much drinking of red wine = sickness = missed breakfast :(
• First fresh fruit of the trip courtesy of a fruit bowl in hotel reception.  They were next to a bowl of chuppa chups lollies.  This shows how much I was in need of fresh fruit.
• We were joined by Sue as we drove to Baltimore via Chesapeake Bay and North Beach.  I’m going to let the photos speak for themselves as this place was wonderful.  Just think “Beaches” crossed with “Jaws”.  Strange combination but quite representative I think!  Had lunch in a cute little sandwich bar = first fresh vegetables of the trip.
• We arrived in Baltimore.  This is our first experience of what I thought a big American city would look like - massive busy motorways, huge tall tower block buildings, steaming sewer  caps in the middle of the road.  We drove past the M&T stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens american football team, and Oriel Park at Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Oriels baseball team and smelt the barbeque of the hotdog stand vendors getting ready for the big game that night.
• Our hotel, the Radisson, was a 19 storey 1920s building, with matching internal decor to match, like the Overlook in the Shinning.  Old fashioned elevators with lines of lights above the doors.
• We joined the crowds and walked the few blocks to Camden Yards and into Oriel Park for the baseball game.  A veritable spectacular of Americana - families in sports gear, Baltimore Oriels and New York Yankees, hot dogs, beer sellers in the stalls, amazing sunset and views across the city from the upper stalls of the stadium.  The Oriels got slaughtered by the New York Yankees.  We had Italian hotdogs, after a wait of 45 minutes.  We were huuuuuungreeeeee!

Sunday 19th - Baltimore to Detroit, via 7Eleven, Maryland Crab soup and the Hard Rock Cafe

• We took a stroll down to Baltimore inner harbour for breakfast.  The best place in town was packed so we went to 7Eleven instead!  After freaking out because we thought the car had been stolen from the car park (we’d just gone to the wrong level - they all look the same) we went back to the Inner Harbour and wondered around in the hot sun for a few hours.  We tried Maryland Crab soup and later had lunch in the Hard Rock Cafe!  Very cool.
• We dropped the car off at the airport - greeted by Hany the friendly Egyptian, who exuberated his love for America whilst he bleeped the car back in, and directed us to the shuttle bus to the airport.  
• The flight from Baltimore to Detroit was more hairy and seemed to last much longer than the transatlantic journey.  We were in a tiny little plane that seemed to get blown about quite a lot.  Joe later continually referred to this vehicle as the 'baked bean tin with wings"
• When we got to Detroit, I thought I would never see Joe again.  He went to the loo and I said I better go too.  I came out, and he wasn’t there.  This is unusual as he’s normally out before me.  I waited 5 minutes and started to get worried.  I asked a man to go in and try and find him, but he wasn’t there.  I was thinking he’d been schnaffled by the FBI, or beaten up and slumped in a cubicle, or been abducted by those aliens from the X-files.  I put an announcement out on the tannoy, still nothing. It turns out he thought I said I better go and get the bags so he went straight down to baggage claim, but couldn’t get back once he’d gone through.  So half an hour later, I went down and there he was.  Phew-ee.  And my cousin Stephen was there too.  
• Stephen drove us back to his beautiful home in Farmington Hills, in the suburbs of Detroit.  We were greeted by his lovely wife Galina.  Their 4 year old daughter Isobella was tucked up in bed, so after a quick coo at her sleeping, we fell into our sumptuous bread dough-like island of a bed.