Day 4 - Baltimore and Camden Yards

Greetings from Baltimore, y'all. As I type this, my traveling companion (way over there in that other bed) is wearing a satisfied smirk that suggests that he's crafting a particularly humorous blog entry. He has certainly been bitten by the blogger bug. Truth is, it has been another exciting day, and I'll let us be the judge of that. But you can read about it.

Our day began in Philadelphia, where it's always sunny. Today's Amtrak ride was thankfully much shorter and smoother than our last, and we had already arrived in B-more and checked into our hotel by 11 AM. That we were quite pleased at this accomplishment is a testament either to woefully low standards or to our keen recognition of our own awesomeness. It is, after all, a fine line. After the celebratory high-fiving concluded, we put on some sunscreen and headed out to catch a day game at Camden Yards.

The ball park was just a short walk from our strategically-chosen hotel. All around the stadium, signs proclaim it to be 'Birdland'.


Just inside the park's gates, the view looks like this:


Food vendors line both sides of the walkway you see, Eutaw Street, with the renovated warehouse on the left and the field on the right. First up was the quest to find a hat for EW, but I'll let him tell you about that. Next, we partook of some delicious BBQ, as recommended by the guys that wrote the baseball roadtrip book we've been consulting. BBQ pulled pork sandwich platter (with beans and slaw), plus a soda: $13.75. Souvenir cup: priceless. While the days of limited stadium menus may be long gone, the supply of fans willing to spend too much money at the ball park is apparently bottomless. The sandwich was pretty dang good, though.

We stepped into a nearby bar to grab a railing and eat our sandwiches. Within a few minutes, it started raining. First sprinkles, then an out and out downpour. The conversation quickly turned to rain delay contingency plans and the irony of having remembered sunscreen (unlike the day before). There was some good people watching while we waited, and as it turned out the rain ceased well before the scheduled start of the game. Here's another shot of Eutaw St. after the downpour:


Here are some shots I took of the park before the rain:








See the white sign just to the left of the dugout (in the photo above)? Our seats were in that section in the 5th row. At least our real seats were there; we mistakenly sat undisturbed in the wrong section for a few innings. I guess there are always plenty of good seats available when your team's in last place.

Seeing the tarp rolled up meant the game was still on:


Here was the view from our initial spot, one section closer to left field than our real seats:






We eventually realized our mistake and moved over. Given our seat location, there was a very real possibility of decapitation anytime Vlad Guerrero came up to bat. We took the appropriate precautions, which during this particular atbat apparently entailed using my camera as a face-protecting device.


Even though there was some more rain in the first and second innings, we still had a good time. I helped myself to a beer (locally-brewed Clipper City) and some Boardwalk fries. The game was kind of boring, but we did enjoy the ball park. A more detailed discussion on its merits will surely follow.

After the game we checked out the National Aquarium. I enjoyed the sharks, stingrays, and caimen. After that, but prior to what has now become an evening full of blogging, we had a good seafood dinner which did not include shark, stingray, or caimen. It did include oysters, clams, crab cakes, scallops, and shrimp. Take that, Iowa!

As usual, it was a fun day out here on the road. As usual, this has been a really long blog entry. Let me leave you with two things: First, a tip that Ed's account of the day's events has been cracking us up for quite some time; so get ready. Second, a list of some of our interesting discussion topics from today:

     (1) Is an electric eel's electric field really a dipole as the diagram in the aquarium indicated?

     (2) Would Manchester United's second team finish 3rd in the prem?

     (3) Excluding the cardinal, are there any red-colored animals whose appearance is intended to imply "I'm a bad mofo; stay away!"?

If anyone could help us out with these questions, we're all ears!