I thought I had all morning to kill before the wedding, so I went down to light rail. One of my NYC cousins called while I was waiting for the train asking if I had any plans, he wanted to come over with his parents (and maybe his brother too) and chat at my hotel. I would have wanted to do that an hour earlier, but was more interested in taking advantage of the bright clear day for photos downtown.
Got off at Camden yard, took lots of pix, they have built a sports museum on the grounds which looks like a knock-off of Faneuil Hall in Boston. There is a plaza at Eutaw street which has a huge chrome number 42 in it, which caught my eye for obvious reasons. Upon closer inspection, that was Jackie Robinson's number, which was retired. The next two numbers in the plaza also had belonged to a Robinson. There's a statue of Babe Ruth in the corner, but no number because, well, he was born in Baltimore but played for Boston and then the Yankees.
Somewhere in there my baby sister messaged me that I should ride with her to the wedding, leaving at 3:45 instead of taking the 4:30 shuttle. So I cut my touring short - skipped having lunch at the harbor.
Wandered around heading vaguely for the harbor, stopped off at BofA for cash, got to the USS Constellation, sat down and people watched for a bit, then noticed the Occupy Baltimore tents across the street, pretty much in the shadow of BofA. Took lots of photos. There was some interesting art work, and they had a staffed table for media relations, one for first aid, and a food table for both providing food and taking donations. Not over-organized but not chaos. There's a fountain at the base of the plaza which was turned off, possibly because the city did not want it used as a shower (or worse).
Walked back to light rail, there was a shuttle waiting for me - the driver said that sometimes they wait for the train without having to be called.
I was in plenty of time, could have stayed for lunch in town after all, but bought some soup and goodies at the hotel mini-mart and ate in my room while reading Smallworld on the Kindle. Free download, pretty well written and the author has come up with a unique way to name his characters which makes me chuckle a lot.
Put on my tux, discovered the pants were not designed to take a belt, they had suspender buttons, and I had no suspenders. But they fit well enough without either, so I jettisoned my wallet to blow ballast, and hoped the two spare camera batteries in my pocket would not make my pants fall down.
Down in the lobbv at 3:15, no sister. She finally showed up at 4, we just barely got out before the shuttle loaded. Sigh.
The wedding is an earlier post
Plans for tomorow:
Play tourist, this time with baby sister and her husband, which will start with a trip to Mother Of The Groom's work to pick up tickets to the aquarium, a trip to said aquarium, and then some walking around Inner harbor and ending the day with a drive out to Annapolis. Both of them are ocean sciences engineers, which makes an aquarium trip a lot more interesting.
