Basking in Baltimore!

In case you missed my first posting about our trip, I wrote about the last day and night below Mikie's rad video. I will be following this here lil story with a whole description of Inauguration Day, but for now...heeeeerre's Baltimore!

Here we are, bright and refreshed after about ten hours of deep unshaken utterly comfy and untouchable sleep. It was past 2 in the afternoon when we finally walked down to a cute little neighborhood coffee shop with Jacob, our loyal and attentive chaperone. This place, Common Ground, served deliciously locally roasted coffee and was a tiny VERY WARM little nook. Just what we needed! Here I am posing outside. Their neighborhood is called Hampden and has a Portland feel to it.

We went in a little gift shop with items from around the world. The woman in there talked to us all about her recent trip to Peru with her kids and husband, doing the four day perilous hike to Machu Picchu and the highest lake in the world. We got the travel bug, bigtime! She was also super nice and excited about the inauguration, telling us how emotional she felt when Obama spoke and when the poem was read. It made us feel really good to have been there. She also had this adorable little dog Phoebe, who took a liking to Em.

Here is Joey in a rad antique store that was like 3 stories of nooks and crannies and all sorts of goodies. He was reading his new book that he got in the used bookstore next door. We were looking at vintage clothes galore downstairs!

A lovely little street.

Joey wasn't too happy that all my pictures around town must insist on having living people in them. The red church doors just weren't cool enough on their own. Still, we got Fofe to smile somehow, so it's all worth it!

Here is the famous warm and cozy home of Jacob and Stephanie Chilton. Their gorgeous cat is Betty aka Butters. We took to calling her Betsy. She was a real love and gave us that cat-energy we'd been lacking! Softness and purring warmth..mmmmm.

Again, Butters. In the kitchen.

We went out for Thai food and then to a rad bar called the Brewer's Art where you go downstairs and around into little hidden corners and it feels like an old speak-easy. Our booth was in a basement nook all its own. And they brew their own wonderful beer which is not too expensive. HUH?! how does that happen!!! Here's Em, me and Stephanie indulging. Stephanie was a little sick and stuck to soda water but was still good-natured to hang out with us late into the night.

Jacob and Joey got along famously. They were calling each other "brothers from another mother." At this point they had discovered that they have the exact same tastes in food and spices. Addie looks on good-humoredly.

Our NOOK.

Back at home, we danced the night out to our new favorite song "Halo" by Beyonce. Why we have all found an extreme delight in Beyonce of late, we couldn't say. And yet it's true. We were calling this song our Obama song and dancing in tribute to him and his family and our whole experience welcoming in our new prez.