Wednesday Night

Kathleen called me at work today to let me know she was skipping the Wednesday Night Worlds and wanted to see if I wanted to go out for a ride.   So I made sure to get out of work on time and head home, and out we went.  We headed out and passed by the recently completed Pierce Park outside the Columbus Center on Pier 5.  It turned out pretty cool with some groovy sculpture.

There is a brick walkway right next to it with words that sound the same but are spelled differently engraved in some of the bricks.

Then it was off around the Inner Harbor to Fort McHenry, here is Kathleen following me with the fort in the background.

We continued from there over to the west side, and passed this great mural and urban garden near Carroll Park, not sure how I have never seen this before.

A little further along Kathleen pointed out this sign, not a great sales pitch.

Then it was back to the house for some dinner and the Tour De France preview show.

We've been invaded!

This weekend is the 200th anniversary celebration of the War of 1812 in Baltimore, as you may or may not know, the Star Spangled Banner was written during the shelling of Fort McHenry.   As a part of the event, there are lots of visitors to Baltimore, including a number of tall ships, and some modern navy ships from several countries.   I decided to take a spin around the Inner Harbor and see what there was to see.  I headed down to Fells Point, and at the rec pier is the HMCS Iroquois of the Canadian Navy.

I continued down through Harbor East and tied up at Pier 6 were these training patrol ships that came up from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis.  Pier 6 is the tent structure behind them in the second picture, it's a concert venue here in Baltimore during the summer.

I continued on around to the Inner Harbor proper, where the real tall ships are tied up, this is the KRI Dewaruci of Indonesia tied up on Pier 1 with our very own USS Constellation, which lives here in the Inner Harbor.

Continuing around to the Light Street side, came these two. In the foreground here is the Cisne Branco of the Brazilian Navy, and behind that is the ARM Cuauhtemoc of the Mexican Navy.

I rode around to the pier where the speedboat tours live, and shot them from the other end, the Cuauhtemoc is in the foreground here and the Cisne Branco is in the background.

Also almost hidden amongst the larger ships, this is the Pride of Baltimore, a reproduction of 19th century Baltimore topsail schooner.  It's tied up her at the end of the Constellation Pier.

I continued around the Inner Harbor to get a shot of the BAE Guayas of the Ecuadorian Navy.  It's tied up on the backside of Pier 4 which houses the National Aquarium.

I continued out to Fort McHenry to see what was going on, there were a bunch of US Navy ships tied up on what are normally commercial piers, this was about as close as I could get.

Then it was back to the homestead for another busy day at work, hopefully I will be able to get out there again tomorrow, I believe there are some more tall ships due in.  There are a bunch of things going on in addition to the ships, here is a picture Kathleen shot this afternoon from our deck of the Blue Angels practicing over our house.

Hot

A day off (finally) today, and I stupidly chose to get out for a ride at 2:00PM in the 95 degree heat.   It was a beautiful day, almost cloudless, and you could feel the heat radiating up from the pavement.  It reminded me of this.

But I soldiered on (pardon the pun).  I ended up riding through the Clifton Park Golf Course, where these guys were enjoying an impromptu rain shower on the green.

I continued on up to Lake Montebello, did a half a lap before cutting over to Herring Run Park in search of shade. The bike trail there is pretty shady, it was quite a relief from the direct sun.

Coming out the other side, I took the long way around to avoid the hill climbing back up Sinclair Avenue, which is a bit of a fools errand, as there is no flat in Baltimore. But I wound around and eventually made it home for a cold shower.

Just a Commute

Gorgeous day out today, and since I didn't have any commitments outside the office, I rode my bike into work.   Nothing out of the ordinary to see, spent the day in the office, then headed back home.  The ride home was pretty quiet too, I really enjoy the Gwynns Falls Bike Path for it's quiet and lack of traffic.

These are a new addition to the route, all of the areas where the trail is not obvious have been marked with these little things so you know you are going the right way. It's actually very helpful, it definitely took me a while to find all of the parts of the trail.

Then it was off to the homestead through the Inner Harbor for dinner on the deck.

Two days in a row

I managed to get up and ride again this morning, and even combined it with work stuff.   I got up early-ish, and rode over to the Baltimore Museum of Industry where we were providing audio for the Inventor of the Year Award luncheon.   Met the guys there, got them going on a plan, then headed out to get some miles in before going home.   For a change of pace I rode up Charles Street, this is the original Washington Mounument in the Mount Vernon neighborhood looming ahead.

A little further along up Charles I spotted this mural across from the Charles Theater.

From there I made a big loop out of it through Charles Village and across to the Alemeda and back to the house to get on with my day.

Back to the AM

I am trying to get back in the habit of riding in the morning, it has been pretty difficult lately to do with work, but this morning I got my butt out of bed and got out for a ride.   A pretty flat spin around the Inner Harbor, here is the scene at the bottom of Chester Street.

Then around the Inner Harbor and over into Federal Hill where the bridge that they have been rebuilding is finally at least partially reopened. A little ways further up Fort Avenue from the bridge there was this in the middle of the road, no idea what it's for/from, but I thought it was pretty cool.

Then back home for another busy work day.

Komen Global Race for the Cure

It has been crazy busy with work the past few weeks, hence the lack of posts here.  But today was different, I provide the audio support for the Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure in Washington DC, and since this year's site was stretched all over the mall due to construction, I took the mountain bike down to get around.  I really enjoy this event, it's a good cause and the participants all seem to have a great time.  The start line site was at the Washington Monument Grounds, here is the crude paste up panorama I did from the top of the hill that the monument sits on.  For reference that stretches about 1 city block from the stage (on the right of the picture) to the start line (on the left), or about 750' or so.

Here is the view from just beyond the walkers start line, that postage stamp sized object at the center is the stage.

This is Suzy running the show, she was my lead engineer for this site, and has been doing this for the past 3 years for me.

Once they got the runners started I headed over to the finish line at 4th & Independence Ave, where the announcers were waiting for the runners to start coming in, the fastest male did a 15:22 5K, the fastest female was about 2 minutes behind. The folks in the little booth to the left acknowledge the runners/walkers and groups coming in.

That was moving right along, so I headed over to the entertainment stage just past the finish and around the corner in the middle of the block on 3rd street where Colbie Dee was entertaining the participants, and they had the awards presentations from here as well.

Everything went really well, despite the utter deluge of rain the night before, thanks to plastic and tarps. When everything there was wrapping up I racked the bike on the car, and headed over to the Washington Hilton & Towers to visit my guys who were doing the Bark Ball for the Washington Humane Society. Not nearly as exciting, but still a good cause.

I met up with my client there, and we discussed some other upcoming projects before heading home to get a nap in.