Whew. After three LONG days in the car and hotels with my two cats, baby and mom, I finally arrived a week ago in my new city, Baltimore, MD.
I have to say, it's amazing. The people are friendly, the city is clean and vibrant, and I can't wait to take in more. Plus, where our house is situated in the historic Federal Hill neighborhood, we barely need to use the car. EVER.
Everything we'd ever need (except Target and grocery stores) are in walking distance. Yep. Amazing restaurants, super cool bars, a huge and well-stocked CVS, ACE Hardware, tons of nail salons (eh hem), animal hospitals and pet supply stores, Jack's pediatrician, and tons more. It's just insane.
Where it used to take us 30 minutes to even GET to our local H-E-B in Texas, we're only a 5 minute drive from the Harris Teeter, and Shoppers. Plus there's always any of the number of Whole Foods around here if we feel like getting fancy.
Basically, I'm officially in love with Baltimore, and the gorgeous 115 year old house we now call home. Exposed brick walls and original century old wood floors kill me with happiness, and being able to go out for walks and explore new things has become something I look forward to every day.
And then there's the views from our rooftop deck...
Michael and I were laughing the other day realizing that it took us moving away from the country to a busy city for us to get outside. Pretty crazy, huh?
Anyway, my first week here has been really exciting, and I've visited a few really special places that I can't wait to explore further. Basically, I wanted to take some time to give the highlights from the past week, but have no fear, I will be going in depth on the locations I touch on in this post at a later time.
So we were really lucky that my mom stayed a few days with us to help with Jack, and to help in unpacking. Plus, she got to get a taste of Baltimore, and see that it isn't all riots and mayhem.
On day 1, we started with breakfast at Spoons Cafe, where we each had a delicious start to our day, but my favorite was their iced Chai. SO GOOD...
After we finished up, we decided to keep on walking and ended up at the Inner Harbor, which is only about 15 minutes away from us. Say what?? So beautiful...
It really is a gorgeous place, and they have RITA'S!!!! I grew up eating Rita's Water Ice every summer. Their gelatis are what my dreams are made of, and I couldn't contain myself when I saw one on the harbor.
We ended our day 1 adventure with dinner at an amazing little place down the street from our home that I can see us making a second home, Bluegrass Tavern.
Their charcuterie board was sublime, as was the Vegetable Pappardelle Picatta: pappardelle pasta, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, sundried tomato, Kalamata olives,spinach, caper lemon butter. My mom LOVED the fresh catch salmon special, and Michael was all about their famed Hot Fried Chicken, a southern classic. smoked fried chicken tossed in our extra spicy sauce, served with homemade ranch over fries. What an amazing introduction to the city!
Another amazing dinner we had was at Hersh's Pizza. I love this place. I pretty much fell in love with it back in January when Michael and I made one of our first house-hunting visits while I was pregnant with Baby Jack.
The wood-smoked bone marrow crostini appetizer was meaty goodness, and I LOVED the lump crab and avocado fettuccine with toasted focaccia breadcrumbs. Our meals were all outstanding.
Over the course of the next few days, we visited Mother's Grille where Michael and I started the 20/20 Club (make your way through all 20 burgers and 20 wings and you receive a free T-shirt, get your name on their wall and receive 10% off wing & burger orders in the future). I went with the Sriracha BBQ and Michael decided on the Buffalo Garlic. Ohh wee they were good. So were their bloody Mary's.
On my mom's last night in town, she volunteered to watch Baby Jack for us while Michael and I went on a well deserved date night. We started back at Bluegrass and enjoyed some charcuterie.
After that, we headed over to Illusions Magic Bar, where we witnessed the amazingness of
I didn't know what to expect at Illusions, but it was one of the greatest dates we've ever been on, ever. EVER. I was amazed, laughed a lot and really just enjoyed myself. I know Michael did too, especially since he was chosen from the audience for one of the illusions! HOW COOL!?
So here I sit, in my mostly unpacked home in Federal Hill, looking around amazed. I am so happy to be here. I am so happy we're almost done unpacking and I'm so happy this place is starting to feel like home. For the Fourth of July, we were able to head out onto our rooftop decks and enjoy not one, not two but THREE amazing fireworks shows. Unbelievable.
I can't wait to share all of the wonderful adventures that await us here in Charm City.
