Baltimore Museum of Art May 14-15

On Friday, May 14th, we were going to take a bus to Baltimore, MD. I was supposed to meet Todd at the bus station in Manhattan. I was working for the Census and rushed home, grabbed my bag and ran toward the subway. I had 20 minutes to catch the subway and meet him...I decided to try and catch a cab as time was ticking away. Todd was already there and on the bus and I was riding the cab across the Manhattan Bridge. Tension built up as I needed to be somewhere else but had no power over where I was. The cab driver was trying as hard as he could but there just wasn't enough time. I stayed on the phone with Todd as he said he had to get off as the bus was ready to leave. My heart sunk. We usually have great luck with our trips, the traveling, the hotels, etc. Now we had to make a plan B. He went back to Robin Hood and I found a pizza joint on the corner.

It was after 3:00 and we both hadn't had lunch. I sat outside on a bench to regroup while I ate a slice of pizza. Just relax and breath in I kept telling myself. There's always a reason why something happens and I was going to trust that there are no mistakes and we were always in our right place. Todd called and said he found another bus company that the bus would be leaving in a couple of hours. Relieved, but knowing I had to keep moving forward, I headed towards Times Square and to walk to meet him at another bus station. Todd was already on the bus and I bustled through the crowd to get on the bus.

The trip to Baltimore was harmonious except a little stint traveling through a storm (Mom don't read this part). The visibility was low through the clouds and rain coming down. Again, I said a little prayer, knowing we were always safe and everyone on the bus was safe. The storm cleared and we continued on our way. We arrived at the bus station and decided to walk to the hotel, which was about a mile away. We enjoyed walking through downtown, seeing the different shops and restaurants. We walked past the George Washington Monument (which I didn't know there was one in Baltimore, MD).

We got to the hotel, unloaded and then went seeking a restaurant. We ate at _________ close by. We ordered the bbq meatballs, but instead was served the _______, which they gave to us since we didn't order them. The food was excellent. We ate at the bar and enjoyed a conversation with the friendly bar tender. We walked back to the hotel room and crashed.

Saturday I got up and went to have a coffee at Caribou which was close to the hotel. Then Todd and I walked to the Seaport, which was similar to the South Seaport in lower Manhattan. A lot of the shops and restaurants were chains. We ate at a noodle place (which was a chain, which we TRY not to eat at, but we were hungry and it was close by). We then took the above ground tram back to the bus stop and then we walked to the Art Museum. This was a further than we had anticipated, but got to see more of the city this way.

The Museum was free and we only had to pay for the special exhibit, which was a Paul Cezanne exhibit. It was an impressive exhibit along with his contemporaries. There was also a Henri Matisse collection, which is the largest collection in the country. We liked the Matisse collection better. I realized I just like Mattise's work better. Cezanne seemed to be set on creating still lifes of bowls of fruit. Which is fine, but a bowl of fruit can only go so far. The Matisse collection displayed his wide choice of medium, such as sculpting besides painting.

There was a large African collection, which is another of my favorites. Todd skipped this part.

Then we took the bus close to the bus stop and had a little bit of time before the bus took us back to New York. So we decided to go to a Tapas place which was close by. We finished 3 Tapas and were still hungry so he ordered soup and I ordered another Tapas. The thing with Tapas is I don't feel they completely fill you up. I ate two and were still hungry. I always leave filling still hungry. But it's fun to try new things.

We went to catch the bus and the trip back went harmonious and quick.