Day 2...

Hello from Baltimore.



OK, I've got some catching up to do. I have to apologize, the hotel we got in D.C. wanted $13 for internet connections, and we just didn't see the point (but more on D.C. later...).



When I last left you all, we were enjoying the local flavor of Baltimore. On Saturday morning (ok...let's not lie)... On Saturday mid-day, we woke up, got ready and went in pursuit of lunch in the inner harbor area of Baltimore. Parker suggested the Little Italy district (his Italian blood was shining bright). I'm glad he did, though, because I had some of the best food I've ever had in my entire life. We ended up at a little place called Amicci's. Honestly, some of the best Italian food I've ever had. I believe I got the the Rigotoni Bolognese (as did Foss), but my poor fallen friend was suffering from a wicked hang over, so he didn't get to quite enjoy it as much as I did. Matt has been suffering from a fierce case of allergies all weekend, and he can't taste or smell anything. I think Parker and I were the only ones truly enjoying lunch. Parker and I split some awesome calamari with this marinara sauce from heaven. (Quick side note: I'm going to refer to a lot of the food in this blog as being heavenly, divine, etc., etc. I've had some awesome food this weekend!!) And on with my story..... After we finished the main course, we ordered what might possibly be the best canoli I've ever had in my entire life! (Close competion from a place in Little Italy, New York and Saggio's in Albuquerque). Our lunch experience was enhanced by a beautiful, young, blonde waitress who said "shit show" and "retarded" a lot. Example sentence: "We went to this bar you guys would like in downtown D.C., and it turned into a shit show. It was a retarded time." (all compliments believe it or not). Anyways, she was really cool and recommended a bar called Irish Times in D.C. (but more on D.C. later...).



After lunch we walked down to the inner harbor and enjoyed the sites. At this point, the weather started taking a pretty cold turn. Winds really started to pick up, and the cold was intensified by the water completely surrounding us. The four of us decided to check out Fort McHenry, birthplace of the Star-Spangled Banner by a Mr. Francis Scott Key. Luckily, we all love history, so it only made sense. Fort McHenry was a quick 5 minute drive from the inner harbor area where we were coming from, not too shabby. The history involved and seeing all of the canons facing the harbor really put the historical significance into perspective. It was quite a site, and I'm glad we did it!



At this point, we had already decided that we were going to spend the night in D.C. to avoid some really bad traffic driving home. We found an awesome hotel!! The J.W. Marriott, roughly only 3 blocks from the White House!! Thank God for Foss and his dad's Marriott discount!! This was definately one of the Marriott's nicer lines. We got our room (standard rate as posted on the door...$999 a night) for only $230! Split four ways...overall, not a bad deal.



We drove into D.C. Saturday afternoon to begin the D.C. part of the journey. Once we finally found parking for the hotel, we checked in and started to get ready for the evening. After some freshening up on our part (looking damn good too) we found an awesome restaurant just a block down the street from the hotel. The place was called Central Michel Richard (Foss totally butchered the name when making reservations, but let's just say it's French pronunciation). It was a very fancy, really nice restaurant with a good atmosphere. Parker and I shared an appetizer of frog legs (first experience with that, not bad). I had a really good hanger steak with pepper corn main dish, accompanied by a great glass of Argentinian Malbec. And the best part.........the dessert. OK, you all know me, and you all know how big of a part dessert is in my life. I've had several desserts in my day, but none better than the $9 chocolate bar at Central Michel Richard on Saturday, April 17th in the year of our Lord 2010. Here's the run down.....a

double layer chocolate bar served in what can only be described as a lake of maple / peanut butter sauce. The top layer of the bar was soft, easy to cut through, milk chocolate. The bottom layer was a slightly darker chocolate, slightly denser, and included bits of rice krispies. The chocolate bar was accompanied by a simple scoop of house vanilla bean ice cream. Unbelievable dessert........seriously, the best of my life!!!



After dinner, we took the Metro to the Irish Times bar recommended by our lovely waitress from Amicci's. It was a charming Irish bar (definately college crowd!). We met up with a bunch of Parker's friends in the downstairs portion of the bar (his roomate Brian, Diana, Alyssa, and Sarino). Sarino (real name also Brian) is one of the funniest people you'd ever meet. He's from Jersey and talks out of the side of his mouth like nobody I've ever known. We decided to leave the over-crowded Irish bar and took a cab to another bar district in D.C. (that's right....8 people in one cab!). As soon as we saw the lights from the cop cars, we knew we found our place. We stopped by two little bars in the area, the last one being a cool little place called the Capitol Lounge. Another fun night!

I'll continue on with Day 3 tomorrow.

Peace and Love,

Jer