June 13-July 12 - Baltimore, MD

Baltimore is right across the Chesapeake from Rock Hall so we had an easy ride.

Baltimore skyline We stayed a month in Baltimore. It is an interesting phenomena with many marinas that if you stay one night, the rate is "oh my gosh, you're kidding". If you stay a week, there can be a substantial reduction. If you stay a month, the rate can be half or less. We stayed at Inner Harbor East Marina and Captain Bill gave us a wonderful monthly rate.

Inner Harbor East Marina is the closest marina to all of the attractions in Baltimore. The area that has grown up around it is filled with high rise condos, restaurants and shops. The whole harbor area is amazing and extremely popular. I had never thought of Baltimore as a tourist attraction. Wrong.

There was a Whole Foods three blocks away. A few blocks more and you were in Little Italy. The museums were an easy walk. The historic Fells Point area was about 6 blocks. We walked and walked and walked. One reason we walked was that we quickly discovered that a big city is not prime scooter riding land.

Altho the area around the marina was upscale, clean and safe, we learned rapidly not to press the boundaries. There are miles of Baltimore that have a heavy economic disadvantage.

Son, Loren and daughter-in-law, Terri, happened to be in Washington DC, with plans to catch a plane for Portugal in Philadelphia. Terri was in DC as the Southwest elementary PE teacher of the year. She was hobknobbing with the great and the near great. They came to Grand Fromage in a rental car and we had a couple of fun packed days.

Loren and Terri eating ice cream cones in the Inner Harbor. Thanks, Terri, for sending me the picturesChatting with Loren on the bridge of Grand Fromage
We were able to play golf several times at Carroll Park Golf Course. This was a beautiful course that was nearly a hundred years' old. The first time we played there, we took our clubs with us in a cab. Robert then arranged to keep our clubs locked in a locker. Until the last time we played, we were able to get to the course on our scooter.

Boaters tend to be very friendly people, so much of our stay in Baltimore was greatly enhanced by the many fun, helpful, sharing people we met. An outgoing group from the Philadelphia area adopted us for the weekend and promised to organize parties and sightseeing when we visit their city. We spent a very informative afternoon and evening with loopers Tom and Sue from the trawler, Tomkat. Tom and Sue were just a couple of weeks from completing the loop. Their advise and suggestions were invaluable. Click here to read their interesting blog. We are hoping to meet up with Tom and Sue again.

We also met Mark and Brooke in Baltimore. Their beautiful sail boat, Dress White, was parked next to us. They watched the fourth of July fireworks with us on the bow of Grand Fromage. We also shared a couple of fun barbeques. To experiment in lowering the top of our boat for bridges on the loop, Robert and Mark had an exciting afternoon removing the bimini top.

Mark and Brooke The America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association has a new way for members to find each other on a Google Earth map. It is called "looper locator". Using this bit of technical wizardry, we were able to meet Larry and Sue on their trawler, Sue Sea Q4. We swapped many a story over a couple of meals. They had excellent advise and suggestions that we appreciate greatly.