I went up to Baltimore with a friend on Friday evening, where we explored the Inner Harbor for a while. That was kind of fun. The Inner Harbor is a very fun area, though it seems a bit overcommercialized. But such is what happens, I suppose. I loved the smell of the sea air, everyone was having so much fun out and about, and there were all kinds of fun ships sailing around.
The first ship we saw was The Black-Eyed Susan, a paddlewheeler:
The Black-Eyed Susan was chartered for a wedding on this particular evening. Seems a handy place to have a wedding, as they had the ceremony up top, and then went down to the lower level for the reception.
Another fun ship that we saw in the Inner Harbor was the Fearless, which is operated by Urban Pirates, a company that runs pirate cruises. This is the Fearless:
That ship was amazingly fun to watch. From the looks of it, they were doing the adult “Bring Your Own Grog” cruise, and it was obvious that everyone involved was having a blast, firing water cannons mounted on the side of the ship into the harbor, and just generally having a good time. Note to self: this might be fun to do one day.
Then there was the Spirit of Baltimore, which was hosting – get this – the senior prom for Rockville High School (yes, from Montgomery County):
From what I understand, this is one that’s great for the parents’ peace of mind, since the kids are for the most part captive. The ship takes off and cruises the harbor, and no one can get on or off until the ship docks again at the end of the prom. I found it amazing that a school would go that far to have prom (Rockville High School is not that far from where I live), but for Montgomery County, it kind of doesn’t surprise me.
But the biggest surprise of the night was all of the attention that I got for what I was wearing. I was wearing this:
Yeah, I was wearing my newer Power Rangers shirt. And it got a lot of attention. I’ve worn Power Rangers shirts before many times, and it’s never gotten attention like this. The people on the pirate cruise noticed me and people shouted how much they liked the shirt. Folks from the prom group in Rockville loved it, too, and took photos. Someone even took my picture just randomly as my friend and I were walking along. I was a little surprised because this is the same shirt that they have sold at Hot Topic for a few years now. Walter Jones has even worn the Black Ranger one in public. But there you go.
And then I got the photo feature for this week while I was up in Baltimore:
Yeah, my friend spotted that car in the garage where we parked. From the looks of it, with two flat tires and all, that car hadn’t moved in a while, and wasn’t going anywhere soon. Go figure.
So all in all, Baltimore was fun. And it’s really not that far away. Hopefully I’ll get over to Baltimore again soon. Realize that before this, the last time I actually visited Baltimore was in 1997 on a trip with my high school Latin class. Before Friday evening, every time I was in the city limits, I was just passing through on I-95 on the way to Philadelphia or other points north of there. So I definitely need to do some exploring here…