It's late and I'm sleepy, so my comments here will be brief.

I went on vacation to Baltimore and Washington, DC, April 1-6. There was some inclement weather which prevented a lot of photo taking, but here are the few I took in Baltimore on the first and third days, April 1 and 3, of the vacation. (On the second day, I took the MARC train down to DC for a Capitol tour that I had previously scheduled with Sen. Harry Reid's office. I'll get those photos up tomorrow, probably.)

Since I was just going to be in Baltimore for two nights, and I was being frugal, I opted to stay at the Baltimore Hostel. Several years ago I stayed in the Hosteling International hostel in DC. The stay there was OK, but construction noise and traffic proved to be a major headache. The Baltimore Hostel proved to be much quieter, and I was pleased with my stay there.

Here is the exterior of the building, at 17 West Mulberry St in downtown Baltimore. It is the dark-brown 3-story building, second from the right.

The dormitory style rooms of the hostel remind me of summer camp, when I was a kid. See the bunk with the red blanket? That's mine. I'm pretty OCD about bed-making. Unlike the DC hostel, this one had a one-person bathroom for each dorm. I kind of liked the communal showers in DC...

One of the coolest things about this hostel was the big common room. It had a nice fireplace, a window looking out on the Baltimore Basilica across the street, and a baby grand piano. I attempted to play the piano. The action was weak, the keys yellowed, and the sound a bit twangy. But it cost like $25 a night to stay there, so I wasn't expecting a concert quality instrument.

Across Mulberry Street, at the corner of Cathedral St, sits the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as the Baltimore Basilica. It is referred to as the nation's first cathedral, since it was the first built after the adoption of the Constitution. It was completed in 1821. One of the architects, Henry Latrobe, was also the first architect of the U.S. Capitol building. A quick story about my visit there: as I was entering the cathedral grounds, I saw a couple enter the building. They appeared to be tourist, also, since they were snapping photos. I thought nothing of it. As I was exiting the adjacent gift shop-- which had shot glasses with a picture of the basilica, quite an oddity considering the church I grew up in, not Catholic, was dry-- I saw the lady practically running down the steps and out the gate, her boyfriend/husband in tow. She was sobbing loudly. Another gentlemen followed them and caught up with them on the sidewalk. He appeared associated with the basilica. The whole thing was weird. I wonder what she was crying about...

Like DC, Baltimore also has a Washington Monument. It is less than half the height of the DC monument, but more than half a century older. There is a museum at the base, and you can take a long flight of stairs up to the top of it. During my visit, it looked closed up and I was unable to get any closer than the iron fence around it allowed.

In the park across the street from the Washington Monument was a statue of George Peabody, sitting in front of the eponymous Peabody Institute..

One of the main reasons I decided to visit Baltimore was to see the grave site of Edgar Allen Poe. On the way to the cemetery, I stopped by the University of Baltimore Law School to see his statue. As I began to compose the shot, three girls, who appeared to be students, sat down right next to the statue for a smoke break. I kindly asked them step away. They did.

In the yard of Westminster church lay the remains of Edgar Allen Poe. The cemetery was already existent before the church itself-- so they just built on top of it. Poe's remains were moved to their present, more prominent location, at the corner of the lot, in 1875.

At his death in 1849, Poe was buried in a plot marked only with a numbered stone. This marker was erected later, after his remains were moved.

A photoshopped version of the gravesite photo...

You can't visit Baltimore without having crab cake! Just before I took the train down to my DC hotel, I stopped by the famous Lexington Market and had a yummy bite to eat from Crabpot Adell's. The famous market itself was jam-packed with shops and eateries, but was not in the best of neighborhoods. The sidewalks around it were crowded with not-so-well-to-do peoples.

That concludes the Baltimore portion of the vacation. On the afternoon of the third day, I took the train back down to Union Station in DC, and then the metro to the largest hotel in the city. I'll continue from there tomorrow...