Welcome to my new neighborhood

Well, it's been a long time since I was on my bike, almost a year.   But today panned out that I was home at a reasonable hour and motivated enough to get it together and go out for a ride.    I moved last December, I now live on the other side of the park from the old house.  It's been a long year of stuff, but it was time to get it together.

So I pumped up the tires on the road bike, dug the cycling clothes out of the dresser and headed out.  My new neighborhood is Highlandtown, it's a interesting area, lots of artsy stuff (as you will see) and young families.   I headed down the street and around the corner, which is home to the Creative Alliance at the Patterson.  They have converted a old movie theater, now it has galleries, a performance space and several artists in residence.  It also has a restaurant.  On the side of the building is the coolest bus stop ever.

And their marquee.

Plus a mural, what a building.

Across the street is this mural.

And nearby another.

Plus we have an oddfellows temple.

This is a multipart picture, the mural runs down the entire side of the house.

I dig this, it's just off Eastern Ave down the street from me, from this angle it's pretty weird.

But from the Eastern Ave side it looks pretty normal.

I am not sure if this art, or an example of settling in brick buildings.

The chunk of Eastern ave that this resides on is pretty bustling, lots of businesses and such.

Then it was into the park, the duck pond was busy with ducks doing duck stuff.

The pagoda in the afternoon light.

Some art in the flower beds.

And our artillery is back, unfortunately it's all pointed basically at my new house :)

Dancercise in the park, this is one of the things I love about living here.  There are all sorts of activities going on.

I spotted this on a house a little north of me.

This statue is at the top of Library Square a little north of me, it's dedicated to veterans of the Spanish American War.

Across the street is this mural, it's so vibrant.

This street is closed through the square, so art has appeared.

This is one of the anchors of my new neighborhood, 101 S Ellwood. a former school converted into apartments.

This is Patterson Park right by my house, downtown just a few blocks away.

So I got home and cleaned up then went for a walk, this is the Patterson's Marquee by night.

And in keeping with our artsy kind of vibe, something was going on at the bus stop.

So that's my new neighborhood, I am hoping to get my act together and start riding again regularly, I am really feeling todays ride, despite it's short length.

New Beginnings

Well, it's been a long time since I was on the bike.  Going by this blog, it's been 5 months since my last ride of any sort.   It's been a busy fall/winter/early spring, separating from Kathleen (it's actually been for the better in the long run), the selling of the our old house, and buying a new one for myself, and all of the related stuff that goes with that, plus I had surgery again at the end of December to remove the hardware in finger.  But today was a beautiful day, so I got myself out on the city bike and rode down to the Red Star in Fells Point for breakfast.  It was delicious as always, and I was inspired to ride over to Race Pace in Federal Hill to get a second pannier for the city bike so I can start doing my shopping on the bike again.   So off I went, around the inner harbor to the bike shop to do the do.

On my way back I shot some pictures of life in Baltimore right now.   The Baltimore Beach was rocking, lots of folks out playing volleyball.

Then it was back through the Inner Harbor, this is not our normal obviously, but there is a big police presence in this area still right now, not to mention the National Guard troops that have been here since last Monday night.

But despite that weirdness, life is back in full swing here, the recreational sports leagues are in action, I believe this season it's touch football going on.

Then it was back to the house to get organized for the rest of the day.  Now that it's warming up, I am planning on getting back out on the bike more often, so this shouldn't be so dormant from here on out.

Sail-a-bration!

So for a number of reasons I haven't been riding at all lately, other than schlepping around on the Linus.   But today I took a break for about an hour and got out for a quick spin around the Inner Harbor.  This weekend is the Sail-a-bration which is the 200 year anniversary celebration of the end of the War of 1812.   As you may or may not know, the National Anthem was written Francis Scott Key while watching the bombardment of Fort McHenry.   So to commemorate the occasion there was an airshow, lots of visiting ships both modern and tall ships, and lots of stuff happening around the Inner Harbor.   You may recall I got some pics of the ships 2 years ago when the celebration started.

At any rate, the Blue Angels were practicing for today's airshow yesterday, they were flying right over the house, so I went up on the deck to watch a little.

They were hauling around, and couldn't have been much more than 300' overhead most times.

So today's ride, I went around to see what I could see, in Fells Point I spotted this ship across the harbor, if I am not mistaken that is the FGS Niedersachsen.

Then at the Fells Point public pier was a representative of the Royal Navy, The HMS Argyll.   It's been like Fleet Week in Fells Point all weekend, lots of sailors out having a good time.

This is one of the several schooners that were in the harbor for the event coming in from a sail.

This huge catamaran ship was parked next to Pier 5, it's the USNS Choctaw County.

Here is a size reference, that is the USCG Taney in the foreground, it's utterly dwarfed by the other ship.

Down in the Inner Harbor proper there were these three tied up, from nearest to farthest they are The Gazela, the USCG Eagle, and the Kalmar Nyckel.

Across the way were another pair of schooners.

More of the three, I love the contrast of the old ships and the modern downtown behind them.

This is the Pride of Baltimore (sideways to me) and the USS Constellation which lives here all the time.

This is the NOAA Okaenos Explorer with the Choctaw County just astern of it.

The Navy had ships down at the commercial piers in Locust Point, but this was about as close as I could get with my bike.

Then it was back to the house to clean up and get back to work.   If you are interested there is a map of the Inner Harbor with all of the ship locations on it here.