hildy89 | The heat is on in Baltimore

I've gone ahead and backdated the Sunday recap from last year's Baltimore trip.

I should break into a rousing chorus of "Good morning Baltimore", but I'd say Miss Saigon would be more appropriate with "The Heat is on" because dear god is it sweltering here. The heat was absolutely brutal. The only relief was the few breezes you could catch on the water taxi. Even some of the shops had signs promising air conditioning, which was a welcome little break, before heading back into the sauna.

I nearly didn't buy a throwaway camera this trip. I had such miserable luck last year. But you never know what opportunities will arise. We'll have to see whether my pictures of Baltimore's architecture turn out the way I hoped. The water taxi is a good chance to see the harbor and its environs from different angles. I also took one or two more pictures of the Recreation Pier, which was covered by scaffolding and workers. Apparently they're preserving the old building. But you can still see the "Baltimore Police" door... even though it never was.

Fell's Point is still filled with activity, filled with odd little shops. I don't usually find any music at the Sound Garden, but I'd heard enough Scissor Sisters that I picked up their two cds. I'd planned to spend quite a bit at Mystery Loves Comany. Last year I'd discovered Sujata Massey's Japanese mysteries. So I snagged two of her older titles: Zen Attitude & Bride's Kimono. I'm still missing two of her books, not counting her latest still in hardcover. I really hate series that change formats in midstream. In this case, they're being released in trade paperback formats. They also have a decent selection of historical mysteries, British imports and used books. If I had to grumble, they didn't seem to have much in the way of noir/hardboiled, aside from the standard Chandler/Hammett crowd. I did buy a pair of old Margery Allingham Campion books, a Karen Harper Elizabethan mystery, and a Maureen Jennings mysery set in Victorian Toronto. That series is frustrating, because they've released the first two here in the US, but there have been four others since!

Lunch was again at Brick Oven Pizza. After I came back on the water taxi, I wandered into one of the little malls there at Harbor Place and found ice cream! In sweltering summer weather, Haagen Dazs was my oasis. And not a white sweater in sight! (A lonnng story and running joke among my friends...)

I came across one pleasant surprise at the base of my art deco bank building -- Bertram's Inkwell, a pen shop. I've become something of a fountain pen geek recently. Levengers and Paradise Pens are favorite occasional haunts. I own several inexpensive Hero pens and an ancient Schaeffer. The store includes a wide range of pens and pencils and notebooks and inks. I could have spent a few days just browsing in that place. I wanted a fairly inexpensive cartridge one. I wound up with two. One is a cheap Parker Electra. It reminds me of my old Pilot disposables in nature. The fancier one is a Tornado by Retro 51 in a dark red. I was very boring and bought some blue-black cartridges. Only downside: it doesn't take the Private Reserve cartridges I have. But that just means more pen hunting! The sad part is I think I nearly spent more here than the book & music combined.

I came back to the hotel after a long day out. At 2pm, housekeeping was just getting to my room, because they were told to deal with their checkouts first and then the actual occupied rooms. Gee, who's more likely to need their room after a hot day outside? I didn't get it either, neither did my housekeeper.

After a few hours, I went to Legal Seafood for dinner. I was running a little early, but they still seated me. If I hadn't stopped for dessert, I might have left even earlier. And then I made my lone mistake of the day. I went over to the B&N at the Power Plant, because one graphic novel still intrigued me. Only to get caught up in a massive thunderstorm, full of thunder and lightning and rain. Maybe it'll cool us off a little. Since it didn't appear to be abating, I waited for a chance to hail a taxi back to the hotel where I could dry off and discover the Redskins-Ravens game was under the same group of thunderstorms. We're finally getting underway now an hour late.