Give me more Baltimore

6/9/2009

Around an hour drive northeastish of D.C., and I was in Baltimore, Maryland. Here I was meeting up with old running pal Brennan. He works for the Baltimore Orioles, and was busy all day. Fine by me, cause the harbor was just a short bike ride from Brennan's place. 

Full of restaurants and rental mini-boats, the harbor area is well designed and great for a chill afternoon. Lining the docks are a few permanently moored historic ships that are available for touring. 

It was either that or go to the aquarium where it seemed every elementary school in Baltimore was taking an end-of-the-year field trip. I decided to go where there were no screaming children, aboard the USS Torsk and later the USS Constellation. 

The Torsk was a submarine used most in the late 50's / early 60's. It was nifty, but so tight that some men even had to sleep above torpedo storage. Leavers are exposed all over the place which would make me nervous as a sailor knowing I could accidently bump one and flood the whole shebang. The other most interesting part, to me anyway, was the escape hatch which was used if they did start taking on water. Four men would sardine their way into this hatch, close the end they came from, and start filling the airtight space with sea water. Once full, they would open the top hatch and swim their way out. This process was then repeated for every man on board.  

My real cup of tea was the USS Constellation, the last wooden sail ship built but the US Navy. I think I was most into this ship for two reasons. One being I want to go on extend sail on a grand tall ship sooner than later. The other reason is I had just finished reading Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz. It's a book about the journey of Capt. James Cook as he "discovered" islands and indigenous peoples around the Pacific. From reading that book and taking the audio tour at the USS Constellation, I feel like I could tell anyone all there is to know about ships in the late 1700's. Go ahead. Ask me sometime. (Just don't ask about the actual sailing aspect)

I sat around the harbor people watching for a while, but the skies started to look a little questionable. I made it back to my car just in time to sit through some high winds and pounding thunder. After a while, the rain stopped and Brennan got done with work. We took a seven mile run around the Harbor area and over to the Oriole's stadium where people were beginning to pile in. We ran back to his place, showered, and made it to the stadium in time to see the first run of the game.

Since Brennan is a supervisor in charge of sponsorship and advertising, he oversees all that is sold and displayed in the park. I think I annoyed the hell out of him throughout the game, asking him how much that sign was or that promotional "text-in-your-answer" question. It was cool sitting with someone who knew all those ins and outs. Plus from our private box, we had a great view of what turned out to be a beautiful night in Baltimore.