I like Baltimore. I like the various neighborhoods. I like how the sports and inner harbor area pull those neighborhoods together. I like eating crabs and drinking Natty Boh’s. I like that Baltimore has a grittiness to it without necessarily Philadelphia’s hostility. I wish Philadelphia took a page from Baltimore’s civic planning - have an inner harbor of our own. Wait. What happened to the Baltimore? Where’s the city that made me jealous? Where’s the Baltimore that I thought I’d bring my daughter to every three to four years? I don’t know. I don’t know where that Baltimore went. I’m not sure when we will return but it won’t be in the next three to four years. Let’s jam it all in over 30 hours - or jam in what a child should see on a Baltimore visit.
Early arrival in Federal Hill. At 7am there was already a mile-and-a-half backup going into the Fort McHenry tunnel which translated into a ten minute traffic jam - which is not bad at all. A few photos of Baltimore from Federal Hill Park. The purpose of this trip was to hit up previously missed Baltimore neighborhoods starting with Federal Hill. The neighborhood has a Society Hill / South Street vibe. Very nice town homes - some old, some new - none within my price range. Views of all of Baltimore - the Ravens Stadium dominates the skyline to the West - very cool. Then on Pratt Street it’s a bit dirtier. Was there a parade down the street yesterday (there wasn’t) vibe. It’s the South Street piece. Ate a unique In-n-Out inspired Animal-style omelet at Blue Moon Too. Picked up a coffee from Ceremony Roasters in Cross Street Market. That’s a good start to Baltimore. A blitz through a unique neighborhood.
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Plus, it’s close to Fort McHenry. I’m sure at some point I’ve been to Fort McHenry but the only thing about this visit is how similar the fort feels to Fort Mifflin in South Philadelphia. A star design. Barracks line the inside. You can walk the ramparts. Like Fort Mifflin, Fort McHenry is small. Small enough that after 45 minutes I gave way to Charlottes prodding and we left having seen everything.
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Since Fort McHenry was such a quick stop, we shot up to the Hampden Neighborhood - Baltimore’s Manayunk(?) equivalent. Not hipster, in a good way. Not much going on at 10:30 on a Thursday morning although everyone was packed into Catalog Coffee, our Hampden Destination. From here it was back into Central Baltimore to Lexington Market and Faidley’s Seafood. Faidley’s supposedly has the best crab cake in Baltimore. It’s the crab cake of choice for the characters of The Wire - who’s going to debate Bunk Moreland on such a topic? A very good crab cake. The size of a softball, so yes there was a bit of filler, but there was also whole chunks of crab too. The surprise hit was the cod cake - a cheesy mini cake of cod. Side note, the original Lexington Market is boarded up. This new version opened in October 2022 - it's nice, it's new, not a ton of character but plenty of time to develop.
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It's easy to have a singular focus when searching for Baltimore activities - National Aquarium, Inner Harbor, etc. A block away from the National Aquarium is arguably the best children's museum we've visited - St. Louis's City Museum falls into its own category. The atrium of the Port Discovery Children's Museum has a large boat hull jutting out from a few stories above. On either side of the atrium are cargo nets where you can climb four stories up then take a slide back down. Educational factor? Eh. Wow factor? This place is amazing. We spent the first thirty minutes here completing a climbing the cargo net up, slide down cycle - the cargo nets are designed for little feet.
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The surrounding rooms off the atrium have a lot of other hands on exhibits, some like the grocery store you see everywhere, but they did have a cool make your own rocket and an Egyptian room that kept us busy. We spent another hour covering the rest of the museum.
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We even squeezed in a quick trip to Fells Point. I really wanted to visit a bar/restaurant/music venue called The Horse You Came in On. It is Baltimore's oldest continuous operating bar - in the sense that there has been a bar in this space since the 1700s. The current iteration has been around for 30+ years. The bar also claims to be where Edgar Allan Poe had his last drink, although this claim comes with an even bigger asterisk than the current iteration is 30 years old, and that is, Edgar Allan Poe did NOT have his last drink here. At one point in his life did he grab a beer at the 1840s version of this bar when he walked from the pier to his house? Maybe. But he definitely did not have his last drink here. Knowing all that we still came here, had some chicken tenders, and enjoyed the place.
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Charlotte's favorite toy is her princess suitcase. On a road trip we played "road trip" where Charlotte packs up our "car" and head off to a destination. In the hotel on a Baltimore road trip we played a road trip to California.
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And here's the Inner Harbor. Where did all the people go? This is a Thursday afternoon in mid-June. It was hot but there was a time when this place was mobbed with people. I can vividly remember a street performer doing ladder trips in the pavilion. The place was dead.
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This was the best explanation I came across detailing the Inner Harbor's deterioration:
I can remember coming to the Inner Harbor on a 5th grade field trip and essentially being let loose to have free reign over the Inner Harbor. I have no idea how all the kids got back to the field trip bus on time, how the chaperones managed us, but I remember being overwhelmed with all the shopping and dining options. In June 2026 the dining options were basically Phillips Seafood or Hard Rock Cafe. We went with the Maryland icon.
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The National Aquarium is still the National Aquarium. Still a great spot. Still a best-in-class attraction and an amazing anchor on which to rebuild the inner harbor. And, if your kid is under 4, they can enter the aquarium for free. Can't beat that. The aquarium hasn't changed in thirty years - nothing is dingy, all nice, clean, new feeling, but the format and structure of the visit is the same. You take inclined escalators up and then a circle ramp back down through Shark Alley. Ten-year-old me thought the aquarium was larger. The shark silhouettes are exactly as I remember.
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A quick stop at Chap's for a pit beef sandwich - Baltimore's other must try delicacy other than crabs. From here we drove back through Bel Air, Maryland and picked up Route 1. Brutal drive on Friday afternoon.
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