Tropical Nuthouse: Baltimore, Maryland

Our little island is about seven hours of drive time away from Baltimore, Maryland. Brian had some Coast Guard business to take care of there, so we made it into a fun little adventure. B, Charlie, and I piled into the Camry and arrived in the city of Baltimore after a harrowing highway ride. We have become quite used to living on small islands and we hardly drive at all. We usually ride a bike. So, the highway traffic was pretty stressful. We do love road trips though. I especially love them. I really do not like to fly if I can help it. Just don't like being packed in a commercial plane like a sardine. Cities quickly overwhelm us, but we get comfortable pretty easily and love playing tourist. I'd been to Baltimore before as a child, but B had never been there. We made no prior arrangements, hoping to get a better rate at a hotel as a "walk-in." That worked out even better than we expected.

We found a cute hotel catty-corner to the waterfront in the "Fell's Point" area called "The Admiral Fell Inn." Ha, ha, ha... Clever. Anyway, we ended up securing a $189/night room for $130 and got out of the pet fee completely, pretty nice.

I was honest about the dog! It's pretty hard to hide a 72 lb furry black dog anyway, especially when we had to walk right past the front desk every time we went anywhere. But they were cool with it.

It was really a great place. Brian hit the goody store around the corner and returned to the room with rum, wine, and mixer. Charlie was a little wigged out, first ride in an elevator and all. We went that night to an Irish pub and just enjoyed being somewhere new. The next morning we had a kick-ass breakfast at the Blue Moon.

On the way back to Ocracoke, we decided to forego the highway hell and take a beautiful scenic bypass, which we enjoyed all the way. Hey, we might not be sailing in tropical latitudes right now, but it's all about appreciating the moment right? And we definitely do.