Just getting caught up, but yesterday was a beautiful day so I went out for a ride in the afternoon. Just a quick spin up around Lake Montebello. I went up Chester street and by the market I saw this mural, not sure if I have posted it before.
A little further up this was on a wall, I know the guy on the left is Ray Lewis of the Ravens, but no idea who that is on the right.
A little way farther along is this project, Hopkins seems to have bought an entire row of rowhouses and is converting them into a faciltiy, there is a large new building being built as well just to the left of this. I imagine the bracing is to hold the brick walls up, I suspect that have completely gutted the interior.
Then it was on to Lake Montebello, as always a gorgeous but windy day here.
A quick lap of the lake, then I cut through Morgan State to end up over on the other side of Hopkins main campus, and into a neighborhood I hadn't been through before. This dogwood (?) caught my eye, it's really in full bloom.
I ended up over a the switchbacks going down to Falls Road, and spotted this tree just getting going for spring, the purple-red color is really startling, I am curious to see what the flowers/leaves look like in a couple of weeks.
After that it was back to the house to get ready for work that evening. We were providing audio for Fashion 4 Paws, which is a benefit for the Washington Humane Society. It was quite the scene, the models are all donors, and they do the runway thing with their pets. Then its drinks and dancing till midnight. Here is the set for the runway show, and all of the production in, they are doing model rehearsals here.
The show was a big success, and my client was thrilled, so all in all a good day.
Today turned out to be a nice day, Kathleen and I rode the city bikes down to the opening day of the 2013 farmers market season, and perused the wares on offer, a bit sparse since a week and a half ago it snowed here. Then back to the house for some breakfast before Kathleen headed out to the office to do homework. I fiddle-farted around the house for a while, then went out for a quick ride around the the harbor. Today was Paris-Roubaix, one of the cobbled classic bike races from Europe, so in honor of that I went and found some of our local cobbles. To give you an idea of what the race is like, here is a commercial Specialized did featuring scenes from last year's race with the eventual winner Tom Boonen. I always have liked this commercial, I can totally identify with the kid.
But the reality is that it is one of the toughest races of the year, 28 secteurs of cobbles, and they are brutal.
At any rate, I made it through the teeming throngs of the Inner Harbor, then riding up Light Street in Federal Hill I spotted this.
I am pretty sure that somehow the bus driver will get blamed for the cab door getting opened into his wheelwell. Then I ventured further around in search of the Phillips Seafood Crab tower. Not much to see in the daytime.
This is one of those things that bums me out a little, the Phillips Crab thing was one of my signs that I was almost home, it's just before the entrance to the Fort McHenry Tunnel, so when I am coming home late at night, it means about 10 minutes to home. What it used to do, is the can would open, and a crab would come out and go up the tower, then down the other side back into a can, all in neon. I was hoping to find a video of it, but no luck. At any rate, it's been broken for about a year now, I suspect that it will never do it's thing again. Moving on, I went out to Fort McHenry and swung a loop through the parking lot before heading back, around through the Under Armor complex, and back up Key Highway towards the Inner Harbor. The sun was shining, and the volleyball courts were hopping.
Then it was cobbles time, here is the first batch I encountered, this is going from Key Highway down to the promenade around the Inner Harbor next to the Maryland Science Center.
Then around the harbor towards Fells Point again, here are some of the cobbles at the end of Thames Street.
Here is an arty shot with the bike and the cobbles on Wolfe Street just around the corner, totally different style of cobbles.
After having my fillings rattled loose going 12 mph over the cobbles (the pros in Paris Roubaix do it at 25-30 mph) I headed for home. On my way to Canton Market for a soda I spotted this parked on Boston Street, it appears to be the baddest Euro motorhome ever, and they are on some sort of adventures of the Americas, the map on the side had them going all over north and south America. It caught my eye because of the bike on the side.
Then I stopped in at the market, got a soda, then it was homeward bound.
I know I have made some premature calls on this before, but it seems that spring is truly in the air at this point, it was about 50 degrees and blustery today, but that didn't stop Kathleen and I going out for a ride on the city bikes. First we headed down to the Red Star in Fells Point for some breakfast, then over to Federal Hill for some Cat Food. Here's Kathleen motoring along as we headed over towards Harbor East.
We continued around the Inner Harbor, and passing by the new pedestrian bridge, they were hard at work on it again today, it's coming right along. Once again the traffic back up due to Light Street being closed was pretty epic.
A little further along Kathleen pointed out that the daffodils are starting to bloom, and so they were. Hopefully they will survive Monday, we are supposed to get some rain turning to snow.
We successfully scored cat food, and some soda and then headed for home. On the way back I noticed that our decorating neighbor has been at it again with a Saint Patrick's Day theme.
Then we went out to run some errands before a quiet evening in.
I missed my calling, had I been a weatherman I could continually be wrong, yet stay employed. It was supposed to be nicer today, it wasn't. It was about 40 degrees this afternoon, and dropping. But in honor of the pros who suffered much worse today at Milan San Remo, I got my butt in gear and went out for a ride. Here is a scene from Milan-San Remo early today, courtesy of Velo News.
Not quite so bad here, although now the weather people are saying we might get some snow overnight. At any rate, I rode around through the Inner Harbor again today and, as promised, here is the result of the closed road construction from yesterday.
Should be nice when they get it finished. I continued on through Federal Hill, this was the St Patty's Day scene next to the Cross Street Market, I am thinking the cool temps aren't really helping the outdoor party scene.
Then it was a quick jaunt out the Gwynns Falls Trail and then back in via Baltimore Street, nothing new or exciting there.
No big dramatic ride today, just a quick run on the city bike over to Pet Valu for cat food. It has been a lot colder this week, and today was no exception, and blustery breezy to boot. I went out around the inner harbor, and over into Federal Hill, with a quick stop at Race Pace (where my groovy Linus city bike came from) to adjust the saddle angle. While I was there I spotted their new display of bike bells, and this one spoke to me, so I got one and they threw it on for me.
That completed, I continued on to the pet store and got a bunch of food for Sophie the cat, and a stop at the Royal Farms for soda, then headed back towards home. This gives an idea of the kind of day it was, not a whole lot of beach volleyball going on today.
A little further along Light Street was closed so they could install a new pedestrian bridge that goes from the Light Street Pavillion on the right, to the parking garage on the left. Made me glad I rode my bike for my errands, the traffic backup from the detour was pretty impressive.
Here's the action from the other side of the operation, the big item at the end of the boom is one of the bridge sections that they are getting ready to put up.
That excitement behind me, I headed back to the house to take it easy the rest of the day, it's supposed to be marginally nicer tomorrow, so I will try and head out again, this time on the roadie :)
Today was Saint Patrick's Day here in B'more, and no I don't know why it was being celebrated this weekend, when it's in fact next weekend, but there you have it. My day started off checking up on the guys at the Shamrock 5K here in town, then Kathleen and I rode the city bikes down to Americana in Canton for Breakfast. After breakfast I headed out for a ride around. First I had to navigate the parade watching folks on Pratt Street.
Then I did a big loop around the Hammonds Ferry area, before heading back in on the Gwynns Falls Trail. On the way back in I spotted this, I have been seeing more and more of this project around.
Then it was through Carroll Park, where the new thing going on in addition to basketball, football, softball and such is RC cars, there are a group of guys who turn up there almost every weekend to have some fun with their cars.
Then it was time to head for home to get cleaned up and update the blog (tada!).
Well at least it felt like spring, it was 60 degrees and sunny out today, so after a sleep in morning, and a schlep on the town bikes down to the Red Star for breakfast Kathleen and I went out for a ride. We rode up to Druid Lake Park where Kathleen pointed out the other sculpture that I had missed when I was there last.
We rode out the Gwynns Falls Parkway up towards work, then caught the Gwynns Falls Trail back towards home. As we crossed over Baltimore Street I spotted these guys loading up a pick up. They said that this was nothing, sometimes the get it 8' over the bed :)
On our way back we stopped by the Maryland Arts Council parking lot in Federal Hill where this groovy sculpture marks the parking lot. I would have liked it a lot better without the towing sign in front of it.
Then it was back to the homestead to get cleaned up so we could go to an art exhibit opening at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson Theater tonight.
