Blogs from Baltimore, Maryland, United States, North America - page 3

I recently enjoyed a work trip up to Baltimore (Maryland), and found myself with a morning to kill due to a cancelled meeting on the final day. My work colleague, Sean, who also doubled as my tourist guide suggested a trip to Fort McHenry, battle site during the English/American War of 1812, and known as the birthplace of the Star Spangled Banner. Now I always had pictures in my head of the American forces stoutly defending the fort against the better trained and equipped redcoats, teaching them a lesson in tenacity they would not soon remember (not unlike the way we beat the Poms in the Cricket world cup, but I digress.....). However, the story doesn't quite go like that..... After giving US forces in DC a bit of a 'pantsing', the Brits headed for Baltimore ... read more

Since we began blogging we’ve been proud that we produced our blogs in a timely fashion. We began writing this blog in the fall of 2014 and promptly got side tracked with a busy life. Personally we had mixed emotions about Merry Jo accepting a job in Baltimore because it would mean we were working in different cities and we had never done that before….nor had we wanted to. Dave would be 40 minutes away in Virginia so we thought we could make it work. Sadly, what we didn’t know at the time was Dave’s job would end shortly after MJ went to Baltimore, his next job would take him to Newtown, PA and then to a job in Oklahoma City, OK all while MJ continue to work in Baltimore. We accepted the jobs so we ... read more

I have gone back to school to get my Mates license. I will be spending the next two years between classes in Baltimore and working on Tugboats in the NorthEast. I will come out on the other end with my 1600 ton Mate of Towing License then get my Masters of Towing. I am attending classes at the Maritime Institute of Technologies And Graduate Studies, MITAGS, and obtaining my sea time aboard The Vane Brothers tug boats. The first three weeks of class we learned what to expect when we get underway and also all the ways we can loose limbs, burn up in a fire, drown, and die from hypotherma too! I had a two week "vacation" at home waiting on the Coast Guard to issue my documents, thanks to the governmment shutdown, and now ... read more

This was a stressful start to what will hopefully be an awesome adventure. I was so excited about my $140 one-way ticket- too bad they won't let you into Panama with a one way ticket. I sold part of my soul for a way more expensive one-way return flight, while my dad haggled with the Spirit Airlines reservation associate. But hey, I made it to my gate. Now I'm sitting at gate 13C next to an adorable little Indian girl with a puppy purse and cute little riding shoes... Nothing like little kids to brighten my mood:)... read more

One thing that I learned early in my adjusting career is that every state produces wine, some good some bad. Lots of bad to find the nuggets of good. I’ve probably written about our wine tastings, well I try to buy wine from wherever I am for the next wine tasting. And so it is here in Maryland, I figured that if Virginia wines are good then Maryland must be ok too. I’d heard about a wine festival on TV, advertised that lots of Maryland Wineries would be there, lots of food and crafts. I thought it might be fun to do a wine tasting ourselves, eat some good food and buy some Christmas Presents at the craft show. As it turned out we were really late as I had claims in DC. Dolly went sightseeing ... read more