Baltimore, Fells Point, July 2 thru 5, 2023

July 5, 2023

We spent the past few days in Baltimore. As when we were here in 2018, we chose to stay at Henderson’s Wharf Marina in Fells Point. We thoroughly enjoy that historic area, with its pretty townhomes, and plenty of eateries...plus, there’s a Safeway within easy distance! While there, it was truly hot and humid, so we did some relaxing, some chores, some reading. Our first night, we walked about .8 miles to a diner for a simple dinner. Since it was raining when we were ready to leave, we used an Uber to get back to the boat.

Next day, I decided to get some groceries. I walked the mile or so to the Safeway, taking it slow since it was so hot. I stopped in a delightful bakery/coffee shop for a muffin and coffee. I took pictures all along the way, thoroughly enjoying myself! I bought almost $300 of groceries, since I wasn’t sure when I’d have this opportunity again.

I was so impressed with the cashier! Lovely young woman, named Dime (?!) I had my own bags, and she loaded them like she was playing a Tetris game. I had told her I was living on a boat and needed to be careful.

Waiting for my Uber ride outside the store, I talked to an older gentleman who was sitting in his electric wheelchair. He had a bag of groceries on his handlebars, one between his feet, and a carton of cut watermelon in his lap. I told him I’d thought about buying some of the melon, but I thought they were asking a lot for it. I told him that when I was a kid, my mother and I could KILL a watermelon! My dad didn’t like to eat the melon, since it was too much trouble to remove the seeds! He offered me a piece, which I enjoyed very much.

The Uber ride came, and I started to load my 6 or so bags into the car trunk. The security officer at the store came out and finished loading the bags for me! Very nice.

Had a nice conversation with the nice Uber driver, from Nigeria, on the way. Arriving at the marina, I stepped away to get a dock wagon. The Uber driver put all the groceries in the cart for me!

All this is probably more than I needed to say about a simple trip to the grocery store. But, I was just struck by the kindness of three strangers in Baltimore!

On the 4^th, we decided to take the dinghy for a ride into the Inner Harbor, right downtown Baltimore. I loved zipping across the water! We weren’t sure where we wanted to go, so we pulled up to ask a gentleman who was outside his boat at a marina. We wanted to know where we could tie up the dinghy for a while. He put us on to a young dock attendant, who said the marina charges $60 for boats to tie up and go into town! “But, he said, as far as I’m concerned, you can tie up here, no charge, for a couple of hours or so.. My manager isn’t here right now!” So, we took him up on it. The restaurant/bar that was closest looked pretty good, so we entered. We were thinking some oysters and a beer would taste really good. No problem, except their oysters started at $3.50 each!! Two days ago, we had 2 dozen oysters in Annapolis for $24! So, we settled for a beer, and left! We stopped at an ice cream store, had a scoop, and decided to return to our boat!

We had the best spot for the fireworks show at 9:30 p.m. Lots of people came into the marina to party and watch the show – at one point, we were concerned that one crowded dock might start taking on water! There were lots of boats that came in and anchored in the harbor. The show was pretty good, lasted only about 15 minutes. Watching all the boats leaving afterwards was like seeing L.A. at rush hour! We were happy to be tied up securely.

Next day, we said goodbye to Baltimore, and headed for Chesapeake City, which is on a canal that leads to the Delaware Bay….which leads to the Atlantic Ocean!