Feast @ 4 East is a hidden gem in the Baltimore neighborhood of Mt. Vernon. Home to the Walters Art Museum, The Peabody Institute, Baltimore CENTERSTAGE, and the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center, the Mount Vernon Cultural District is a destination neighborhood for visitors and native Baltimoreans alike. Feast @ 4 East is the dining room of 4 East Madison Inn, a Mount Vernon townhouse that boasts a rich history. Now a boutique hotel, the building formerly housed The 4 East Madison Orthopedic Association, and its physicians are said to have treated celebrities such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Katherine Hepburn, Joe DiMaggio, John F. Kennedy, and Mickey Mantle.…
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I Heart NOLA
One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting Lafayette Cemetery in the Garden District. I love cemeteries, and this one was unlike any I had seen. The tombs rise from the ground to create a city of the dead, and as I walked through the weathered crypts, even in broad daylight, I could see why NOLA has been the inspiration for classic vampire novels. One drawback for me was that NOLA is definitely not a vegetarian-friendly city. One restaurant we chose for lunch offered a special made with sausage, but had a “vegetarian option available – with smoked duck.” Oh, yeah. But my hosts had exceptional taste, and…
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Jellies!
The National Aquarium, Baltimore has a pretty cool jellyfish exhibit. “Jellies Invasion: Oceans Out of Balance” combines eerily lighted displays of jellies floating in futuristic tubes with educational material about the threat the creatures pose to the world’s oceans. They multiply like crazy and are invading new seas, changing the dynamics of these ecosystems. It’s curious that a brainless, spineless jellyfish can wreak such havoc (but, as is often the case, we humans are really to blame…). If you go, I recommend buying tickets online in advance. You can bypass the crowds, pick up your tickets at at the will-call kiosks, and walk right in.
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Oh Say, Can You See? A Day at Fort McHenry
I spent an afternoon with a friend at Fort McHenry last weekend, and it was way more fun than I thought it would be. For those not familiar with this particular national monument, Fort McHenry was the site of a battle during the War of 1812. The story goes that as the smoke cleared after a booming battle with the British navy, Francis Scott Key, a Baltimore lawyer who had been watching the action from vessel on the Patapsco River, saw the stars and stripes flying and was inspired to write the words to “The Star Spangled Banner.” Fort McHenry opened a new $15 million Visitor and Education Center in…
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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…