We took off early afternoon Friday for the 4 hour drive that courtesy of the PA Turnpike & weather aftermath ended up being 6+ hours instead, but the sun happened to be shining and that in and of itself was enough to make it not all that awful. With all the BLAH & MEH of the last couple weeks even cold cant ruin a few hours of sunshine & I love to go on drives so traffic was a minor annoyance. The roads were still far from fabulous coupled with people who were all terrified & driving stupid and you'll have traffic. We did see a semi that had gone off into a ditch in Maryland that caused the longest of our delays. But the truck was full of potatoes and watching them try to offload these poor spuds was kinda of amusing...it was like a potato Pearl Harbor....
So we arrive in Baltimore, head to our hotel which was right outside the city, settle in a bit and then program the GPS for a bar named Max's Taphouse for their 72 hours of Belgians beer fest that thanks to the Clipper City postponement we were able to go to as well *SCORE*. This place was epic. It was packed, a bazillion taps, smelled like bars we went to in Belgium, dull roar of a crowd, music strains filtering through every now & again...it was a very welcoming atmosphere in all honesty, but odd to be on that side of it. So we snatch a menu up & are both just WOWED by this line up. There was shit on this list that I hadnt heard of, shit we last had IN Belgium, beers we didnt even know were in the US. Color us fucking impressed...no small fete. AND (yes it really does get better) we discover they offer "samples" of their draught for $3 each. Their "sample" is a 5oz white wine-style glass filled with delicious beer. This is awesome news for me, I dont have to commit to a big beer, I can drink a buncha small ones! I love this concept and take full advantage of it. I think I had 6 or 7 different beers, all delicious, and Im not certain which ones I had, but I bet if you ask Mister he could probably tell ya....hes awesome like that. So we stayed there for a good bit, had a buncha beers & reveled in all that was Belgian...and for the record there is nothing as sweet as a warm Belgian beer buzz...delicious!
Well me managed seats when we bumped into some of the regulars from one of our bars here that were down for Max's festival right before they were leaving & made friends with our table mates. Dinner. We hadn't eaten outside some snacks on the way down and we were both hungry. So we asked for a recommendation from a local...something good, something local, something close enough to walk to preferably. He gave us a couple options and we decided on a tapas place around the corner and go for a walk toward the harbor and hit a small warm simple place, go in & take a look at a menu where like 10 things jumped off at me. Tapas rules...kinda like the beer did...I can order a buncha little things and share so I really dont have to make a big fat entree commitment. We ended up with 4 divine dishes ~Tuna Carpaccio with arugula, shallot & balsamic vinaigrette ~Roasted Duck Confit with potato puree and demi glace reduction ~Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes with aioli ~Spanikopita homemade & perfect. It was an amazing meal, washed down with a pitcher of sangria made with a nice dry Spanish red wine and finished with a decadent bittersweet chocolate torte & homemade baklava both of which were sinfully rich. We wandered back to our car, drove it out of the snowbank we had parked in & headed off to bed...have to rest up for the Clipper City fest at noon tomorrow :-)
Got up in the morning, sent Mister to Starbucks to get some big coffees & then headed off to Clipper City for the beerfest. It was fantabulous. They had all of their Heavy Seas line on draught with unlimited samples and a shit ton of oysters, all the raw ones were fresh shucked (my personal fave of the 8 or so varieties was the Blue Points for sure!) by these men that were obvious pros & they had a 4 different cooked ones too (Garlic butter parm - meh, Coke, BBQ & Chevre - pretty good, Coconut milk, bacon & thai hot sauce - DIVINE!) that were all good. I tasted my first raw oyster that day at 12:05pm. Ive shucked more than my fair share while coming up & working hotel raw bars, Mister loves them so when weve gotten them Ive shucked for him, too...but I have a weird texture issue with food and their look always turned me off for fear of them just being one of those squashy textures that would induce the gag reflex. But I figured if I was driving 4 hours to go to a beer & oyster fest that I HAD to give hem a shot. Delicious, briney, taste like the ocean...i will so totally be eating them more often, Ive been missing out! They also had it beef sandwiches there were awesome! So 4 hours of beer & food & beer & food and we were both ready for a nap...so back to the hotel and we napped for a couple hours. Then to another local joint for dinner....Ale Marys.
Ale Marys is a beery-kinda bar. It reminded me alot of Piper's Pub in the South Side but they specialize in tater tots!!! So we got Crabby Tots - tater tots covered in crab dip & melted cheese with ranch ~ oh yeah they were as good as they sounded! I got a crabcake sandwich - all jumbo lump crab, barely any fillers, just simple garlic butter sauce & some herbs on a grilled bun that was perfect. Mister got a fried catfish po'boy that he assured me was just as awesome as my crabcake. We were stuffed to the gills after that so we decided to go for a snowy hike back up to the harbor. Just as we started to feel human again we just HAD to stop for gelato (hazelnut & bourbon vanilla for me, bittersweet chocolate & espresso for Mister - both decadent & delicious!), then back to Max's for another beer then back to the hotel to pass into a food/beer coma.....
We decided to find a good diner for breakfast before we went to the National Aquarium. Found a Greek diner that seemed to be a local-y kind of feel to it that was very well reviewed on the intarwebs...so we sought & we found. Had killer challah french toast & ham and Mister got a crab omlette that looked awesome. Great breakfast! Sat with near a table that provided infinite amusement, too. They were a group of Jersey Housewives with a gay couple. The gay couple had an adorable son, infant, they were just so cute fussing over...the Jersey Housewives were such a riot. One of them had probably been told over 10 years ago she looked like Marissa Tomei, and she did with much thinner lips, so to fix it she did the I'll line my lips waaaaaay outside my natural lip line and fill it in and no one would notice. FAIL! She just looked like someone who didnt know how to apply make up. And they were chatting about how ridiculous that dumb show The Real Housewives of NJ women were & absurd, etc....ironic :-) Oh and yeah, THIS restaurant was just down from the diner...it amused me so Mister took a pic....
Breakfast complete we head to the National Aquarium. Its unbelievable huge, it was incredibly packed, yet well organized as far as entry. I was impressed, but I still kind of liked the aquarium at our zoo better. Granted, we dont have a dolphin show, but I feel like its better laid out & designed for ease of movement & flow for larger crowds than this one was...or perhaps I'm just biased because its our aquarium and its newer. Either way we had a very nice afternoon wandering around the ships in the harbor while we waited to go in...
We saw a 4D nature movie & saw the dolphin show & they had a jellyfish display that was pretty wicked cool. Overall worth the afternoon. Their admission prices werent terrible, but the $22 to park at a nearby garage was a tad recockulous. I get its in the city & its a touristy area, but that seems like highway robbery. Everywhere else wed been we managed to find on-street parking for free, even with 3 feet of snow, but since wed checked out of the hotel & had all our stuff in the car we figured the garage was safer...and it damn well better have been for $22 for 5 hours.
Some pics that came out pretty cool from the aquarium...
So when we were done with the aquarium we headed back home. Turnpike sucked then too, but whatcha gonna do. As nice as it was to be away for a bit....I was sure happy to be home.
I really missed this face...
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