Continued… As we’d noticed the day we’d visited the Historic Ships, the aquarium was housed in two separate buildings attached by a sky bridge. We wandered over to the skybridge to see what was in the other building. Here were the views from the bridge.
looking towards shore. In the Black Shark Reef exhibit, they’d stated that the aquarium had planted this marsh in 2024 as part of an effort to restore Baltimore’s critical marsh habitat Looking at the harbor
The other side had a 4-D movie that was an additional fee and a stadium where it looked like they used to do dolphin shows.
Friday, September 12 — This morning, Eric ran all the engines and water makers. He also changed the filters in the black water and grey water vent loops. Those filters are immensely helpful in controlling odors.
Before leaving for San Diego, we’d eaten all the fresh food aboard, so we had nothing for breakfast. We went to eat at an iconic Baltimorean southern restaurant called Simply Marie’s Breakfast Only, which was located in a tiny storefront near the Canton ferry stop. The tag line was no frills delicious homestyle breakfast, and our experience exactly match the tagline.
We had to eat quickly since we were trying to catch the next ferry to Locust Point. At Locust Point, we disembarked and caught another ferry over to downtown, which was also free.
continued… At this point, we were all hungry. Eric checked the map app and saw there was nothing other than snack stands in close walking distance. We continued on the loop, which became muddy and overgrown.
Near where we’d parked, the walking trail had been a little uneven, indicating that the sea wall had settled. Near the George Mason Memorial, the walking trail had actually been fenced off, with construction equipment behind the fence. A sign had said that the Tidal Basin and Potomac parks were created in the 1880s as part of a land reclamation project. The sea wall had deteriorated, and they were in the process of restoring the wall. There were quite a few geese on this side.
Friday, August 22 continued… Since it was rush hour, we decided to avoid highway traffic and take the scenic route back to Baltimore. The areas we drove through were high-end and beautiful. When we mentioned stopping for dinner, we were not far from downtown Bethesda, Maryland (a suburb of Washington, DC), so we decided to go there for dinner. It seemed like a good idea because the map showed a large concentration of restaurants. But when we arrived, we realized it was “the” place to be on a Friday night and was packed.
We did a lot of driving around before we found a parking spot. We didn’t write down how much the parking was, but if we recall correctly, it was about $2.50 an hour and was limited to one hour. Given the time constraints, we started jogging up and down the streets to find a place where we could get a fast meal that wasn’t fast food. We did see a parking garage and considered moving the car so we had more time for dinner, but we decided that, since it was getting late, it was probably best to just get a quick meal.
We settled on a place called Luke’s Lobster that was inside an interesting mixed use complex. We suspected that they took two blocks of old buildings, joined them, and turned what used to be the street between them into a pedestrian mall.