The City to Ourselves

Tuesday morning at the Inner Harbor East, John & Don further spiffed up the boat, I practiced some yoga, and we all then went out to see the sights in Baltimore. Walking to town for lunch we came upon The James Joyce Irish Pub so I persuaded everyone to eat there due the weight of this literary icon (and it was a cool looking place). We ate a lovely lunch on the patio listening to Irish music.  Later we toured three historic ships in the harbor: The USS Constellation a sloop-of-war built in 1854, The USCGC Taney, a Coast Guard cutter, and the USS Torsk, a WWII era submarine.

Then it was a tour through the National Aquarium with only about two dozen other tourists in the whole place. It was lovely walking through and looking at sea horses, dolphins, tropical fish, brightly colored frogs, sawfish and even crocodiles. The octopus was big and gorgeous. He played with toys put in by the keepers and gracefully showed off his tentacles it seemed just for Debbie and me. He watched us as he maneuvered about seeming to know we were appreciating it.

The message in the jellyfish exhibit was that jellys are on the rise as they thrive in warmer (global warming) waters and can handle more polluted water due to their primitive systems. Unfortunately, as they eat small fish and organisms that larger fish feed on, it’s taking away much of the food for bigger fish and hurting their populations.

We then headed to Little Italy for dinner at Joe Benny's (where Joe himself encouraged us to come on in) and walked back to the boat to hang out under the city lights on the fly bridge