Baltimore Bliss

We arrived yesterday without incident, and with only minor turbulence on the second leg of the flight (MSN-DTW-BWI).  After locating our hotel and unpacking, we stopped at the hotel restaurant's bar for a snack around 5:00.  I had a Yeungling Lager and DH had Sprite (pout).  The lager was okay, and way better than a Bud or Miller.  We also had the "Seafood Potato Skins" which was 4 skins topped with a creamy combo of shrimp and crab and buried under melted cheese.  This dish totally satisfies any craving that includes creamy, cheesy or salty, but otherwise was a bit bland.

After the snack, we set out for the Inner Harbor.  Yay!  We walked around in the most touristy section, perused several gift shops and checked out all the seafood restaurants' menus before deciding to grab carry-out from Phillips.  We must be true Wisconsinites now, because even out-of-state we had to do the Friday Fish Fry! LOL.  My sampler basket ($9.99) had 3 mini crab cakes, 6 butterflied fried shrimp, 3 grouper fish sticks and 4 crabby mini spring rolls, plus tartar and cocktail sauces and a lemon wedge.  DH had the harbor platter ($12.99) which included a crab cake sandwich (roll, lettuce and tomato, which he skipped), 6 butterflied fried shrimp, a handful of very tasty hush puppies, and fries, plus tartar and cocktail sauces and a lemon wedge, AND a miniscule helping of slaw.  He ordered a soda, I got a pint of the "house" Amber Ale and we headed out to a bench on the water to eat.  The food was of course, very fried.  The crabcakes were tasty but over-browned slightly, the slaw had a strange aftertaste.  There was way more than either of us could eat.  The amber was actually on the pale side of the style which suits my taste perfectly, and is more in line with a west coast recipe than an east.  All in all, a very satisfying dining experience, even though I generally don't eat fried seafood.

Today we headed for the light rail and back down to the Inner Harbor.  A day pass is only $3.50/person and all-day parking down there is $18-20. You do the math.  We probably walked more than we should have, given DH's stamina issues, but we rested a lot and managed to duck into air conditioned spaces frequently.  We toured the visitor center, the Civil War Museum, thought about the National Aquarium but decided $24/person was a rate designed for a full day tour, and then we headed back.  We happened past another restaurant McCormick's & Schmick's (ETA: corrected the name) and decided to have lunch.  If you define lunch as a platter of raw oysters and a glass of vodka!  Seriously, we did the large sampler - 2 each of 6 types of oysters for $20, accompanied by a hunk of sourdough, a virgin mary for him and Ketel with lemon for me.  The Beausoleil oysters from Novia Scotia were tiny little slurps of sweet delight!  So we had two more orders of just those brought for $7.80 each!  Heaven!  

Now we're heading out for a local version of Low Country Boil with all DH's baseball buddies.  We've decided that when you're in Baltimore, you can never have too much seafood.