Friday, Sept 26 — When we saw Jeff Merrill, he had invited us to join his panel of cruising experts at the upcoming Trawlerfest in Baltimore. We had already arranged to rent a car at the airport this morning so we could drive to Baltimore. First thing this morning, Eric went to pick it up. He took the free shuttle to the Metro stop, and took the Metro to the airport. Eric was expecting the Metro to be crowded during rush hour on a weekday, but it was pretty quiet. He was a little disconcerted to find that it was quite a long walk from the airport Metro stop to the car rental place.
Our panel wasn’t until 1500, so we took advantage of having a car to do a big grocery store stock up. Eric picked up Christi and Keith from The Wharf and we headed to Trader Joe’s, which was our favorite place to get passage foods. The neighborhood that it was in looked a lot like Baltimore, made up primarily of small, tightly packed row homes. The parking lot was under the building, and we had a hard time finding the entrance. Trader Joe’s customers were required to park in designated spots deep down in the garage. Parking was free for the 1st hour with validation and $11.00 after that, so we were careful to finish our shopping before the fee kicked in.
Much to our surprise, the store was underground, on the same level as the designated parking spots.
Christi ran up to the street level to get a photo showing how far underground the store was.
It was an especially small Trader Joe’s, which disappointed Keith since it didn’t have many of his favorite items. But given the time crunch, small worked in our favor. We got what we needed and got out without having to pay the parking toll.
Back at The Wharf, we parked in the garage. Mindful that parking would jump from $11 to $24 if we stayed for 61-minutes, we quickly unloaded the groceries and did a few last minute things before heading out to Baltimore. The drive from DC to Baltimore scenic and uneventful. When we entered the city limits, being back in familiar territory almost felt like coming home. However, once we exited the highway and got on the surface streets, we were stuck in a traffic nightmare, much like we’d been the day that we’d gone to the Museum of Industry. In good news, we were several hours early, so we didn’t need to worry about being late. Like the day we’d gone to the Museum of Industry, the traffic was also caused by road work and cleared once we passed the work.
Being a speaker at Trawlerfest had the perk of getting free admission into the show. One of the reasons that we were so early was because Eric wanted to tour the boats in the show and check to see if the vendors had anything he needed. Neither Keith or Christi had any desire to attend the show, so they dropped him off at the Harbor Marina East docks and went to the Original Pancake House for lunch. There was a lot of traffic in the short span between the docks and the restaurant. It turned out that the cause was an accident in the driveway of the restaurant!
The Original Pancake House (OPH) in San Diego was one of our favorite restaurants. We rarely eat out at breakfast time, but when we do in San Diego, we usually go to OPH. The one in Baltimore was just a block west of Safeway, in the old American Can Company building. Even though it was a short walk to the restaurant from Lighthouse Marina, we hadn’t gone while Kosmos was in Baltimore.
Since the parking lot was inaccessible due to the accident, we parked at Safeway and walked over to OPH. When Christi and Keith walked into the restaurant, they were shocked at how different the vibe was. Since it was a franchise chain, we’d expected them all to look the same. The one in San Diego used to have frilly decor and the vibe felt like we were eating at our grandma’s house. They’d recently remodeled. Now it was decorated with old black and white photos from the early days of the restaurant, and felt like a homage to the 1950s diner. The Baltimore OPH felt more like a pub than a diner.
Christi and Keith were even more surprised to see that the menu was very different. A few of the signature items were still the same, such as the Apple Pancakes, the Dutch Baby, and the Cherry Kijafa Crepes, but many of the other pancake flavors were different than what was offered in San Diego. Likewise, while the omelettes were still giant and oven baked, the ingredient choices, combos, and sauces were totally different. They also had skillets and sandwiches, which were not on the menu in San Diego.
We were pleased to report that the food was amazing. It was just as good (possibly a tiny bit better?) than the San Diego OPH. And the portion sizes were just as giant in Baltimore as they were in San Diego.
Once they finished eating, they headed to the boat show. The accident was still being cleared, so they took a roundabout way to evade traffic. The Trawlerfest instructions had said to park at the Four Seasons, which was offering a Trawlerfest discount. After parking, we found out that Trawlerfest had sent out bad info — the discount had been offered last year and had not been re-offered this year. But given that parking was difficult in this area, Christi didn’t bother to try to find cheaper parking.
Once they got the parking situation figured out, they got lost trying to find the hotel that the seminar was in. First they went to the Marriott, which was a short walk north of the Four Seasons. Upon arrival, they figured out they were at the wrong Marriott — they were supposed to go to the Courtyard by Marriott, which was a couple of blocks east. While en route, Christi’s phone glitched and the Maps app started giving bizarre directions before crashing altogether. Christi and Keith wandered in circles for a few minutes, then when the app crashed, they asked a couple people for directions, and eventually found the correct hotel with plenty of time to spare.
While the Map app was glitching, it sent them through the roundabout a few times, so they got an up close view of the sculpture that they’d driven past at least a dozen times before. Christi took a moment to read the sign. Much to her surprise, it was a memorial to The Katyn Massacre in the Soviet Union, which she’d never heard of before. The description said that in 1939, the Soviet Union captured a portion of Poland, and in 1940, the Soviets murdered 22,000 Polish military officers and intelligentsia (basically all leaders who opposed communism). Most of the people depicted in the flames were important to Poland’s centuries-long history, though two were Polish immigrants who had been instrumental in the helping the Patriots win the Revolutionary War.
We were pleased to report that the seminar went well. Jeff had chosen a good cross-selection of experts, including a weather routers, a boat yard owners and a surveyor. Jeff did a good job of making sure that the topics kept flowing and gave everyone on the panel ample opportunity to impart wisdom. The majority of the attendees were couples. Jeff had made sure to have Christi and another woman on the panel so people could ask questions about the women’s perspective, but not one asked… even when Jeff not-so-subtlety tried to solicit questions. Keith was also on the panel in case people wanted to ask about things like schooling, etc, but no one did.
As soon as the seminar was over, Eric had a quick dinner at a Harbor East Deli, which was next door to the hotel, then we headed back to DC. Here was the sunset as we neared The Wharf.
One of the museums that Eric had his heart set on seeing while in DC was the National Cryptologic Museum. Upon arrival in DC, we found out it was about ½ hour drive from DC and required a car to get to as there wasn’t public transit. We’d wish we’d realized that when we were in Baltimore and had a car. Anyways, rather than returning the car right after Trawlerfest, we decided to keep the car one more day so that we could go to the National Cryptography Museum tomorrow. Keeping the car an extra day was a terrible, terrible mistake.
Parking was a nightmare. The traffic to get into the garage at The Wharf was not moving and it took forever to get in. Once in, we decided that we did not want to pay $62 for overnight parking, believing we could find cheaper parking nearby. Eric dropped off Keith and Christi and drove around to the many nearby garages/lots, dismayed that none of them allowed overnight parking. After 15-minutes of looking, he found a parking lot a half-mile away by the Jefferson monument that allowed overnight parking for a fee of $12 for 12-hours. The sign said that 12-hours was the limit for that lot. So he parked there and walked back.
Since the sun set so late at this time of year, we hadn’t really been out on The Wharf after dark until now. The lighting was really pretty.
There was a cute little airstream trailer that said it sold s’mores that seemed to be permanently parked near Capitol Yacht Club. We thought we’d posted a photo of it already, but apparently not. Maybe one of the reasons we hadn’t bothered was because we’d never seen it open — until now. We’d noticed that there was a round thing near the trailer, but had no clue what it was. Now we saw that it was a fire pit that was apparently kept fully covered when not in use. We realized that the trailer sold s’more fixings and people could make their own s’mores over the fire. Ah! What a creative business model!
As tempting as the s’mores were, we skipped them and went back to the boat for the night.