Leg 2 - Baltimore

 On Tuesday, May 9, we backtracked from New York down to Baltimore - due the vagaries of the MLB schedule.  That meant taking the train back to Trenton and then driving back down I-95 past Philly to Baltimore.

One of the nicknames of Baltimore is Charm City, but for some reason Google Maps took us through the less charming portions of East Baltimore to our hotel (which was easy walking distance to the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards).  On Wednesday, before the game, we spent the morning and early afternoon walking through the Inner Harbor area and practicing our selfie skills.  We'd been here a number of times before, but not for many years.  When we lived in Herndon, Va in the early 90's, there was no MLB baseball in D.C. so we would come to Baltimore to see the Orioles.  We recalled some of our other trips to Baltimore including meeting my parents to go to the National Aquarium (when my Dad locked his keys in his car - don't ask) and going to the 1993 All Star game Fan Fest with our kids.

We arrived before the gates opened and enjoyed the stadium immensely.  In center field there are statutes of the Orioles in the Hall of Fame (Brooks Robinson, Eddie Murray, Jim Palmer, etc.).  It's hard to believe, but Camden Yards is now 30 years old - it was revolutionary when it was built. Many new stadiums have copied ideas from this park including our own DBAP in Durham.  As you can see, the stadium is oriented for a great view of downtown Baltimore, and they wisely kept the warehouse in right field along Eutaw St.

As for the game, this was the third game this week between Tampa Bay and Baltimore, which have the best and second  best records in the American League respectively.  The Orioles and the Rays split the first two games of the series.  So we were surprised that only 14,000 people showed up for game three on a beautiful night.  The O's won 2-1 in a pitching dominated game.

Our next stop is Newport, RI before we head to Boston and the Red Sox.