Crab cakes and football, that’s what Maryland does!!

I have always felt a special connection with Baltimore. Although I have never lived there, I spent plenty of time on the outskirts of town, weeding the garden at the house where my mother grew up. But its been about 10 years since my grandmother moved and I had yet to return. So I was anxious to revisit the area, and as I am sure you can guess, most of the memorable things about Baltimore involve food. Even though we got our wires a little crossed (they thought we were going to arrive sometime in June/July, we pulled into the driveway in April) the Bears were possibly more prepared for us than anyone. We were welcomed like kings! They had everything planned from food to activities and didn’t miss a detail, even putting chocolates on our pillows. We ate ALL KINDS of local delicacies. First and most importantly we had steamed crabs (which deserve a paragraph all to their own, from crab 101 to Celseys face as she first tried mustard), and Berger cookies, and UTZ, and stuffed rockfish, and Rhebs. We biked along the Gunpowder, we fished for minnows in the creek with my cousin, and laughed until we cried playing board games. When we weren’t eating we took some day trips, one to Baltimore and another to Annapolis. In Baltimore we set out on a journey to find all of my mothers favorite things. We browsed through Lexington Market and checked out the days fresh catch, got a napoleon at Vaccaro’s in Little Italy, and just browsed through the inner harbor. I had my first scalping experience out in front of Camden Yards and after some trial and error managed to snag a pair of tickets. My error came in trying to haggle with a guy who was actively smoking pot on a sidewalk not 100 yards from some cops. I felt rather lucky to walk away without any bullet holes in my chest. But it was totally worth it as the day slipped away over the horizon and we watched the O’s battle under the lights, and summer felt like it had arrived.

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