Results tagged “Baltimore” from Intelligent Travel Blog

There may be no better way to end a weekend than by paying a visit to the Cafe Hon in Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood. After driving seven hours home from the Catskills this past weekend, I was starving, and recalculated the iPhone map to direct me to the eclectic eatery. Replete with a life-sized Elvis statue, a rack of neon sunglasses, and enough beehive hairdos to make you think you're an extra in Hairspray, this high-ceilinged restaurant anchors funky 36th Street and is easy to find thanks to the huge pink flamingo hung outside. Inside, the restaurant, with its attached bar next door, serves up a mix of American comfort foods with a Maryland twist. (One favorite element: the menu offers its own dictionary of 'Bawlmerese'.) I ordered the crab and shrimp pizza (which comes laden with cheddar cheese) and some mussels along with my cream of crab soup. So stuffed was I that I had to skip the pie, which I later learned was a huge mistake.

So what is a Hon anyway? The cafe's website defines it: "[T]he Bawlmer term of endearment, Hon, short for Honey, embodies the warmth and affection bestowed upon our neighbors and visitors alike by historic working-women of Baltimore." (And yes, my waitress utilized the phrase multiple times during our meal.) Every year, the restaurant's proprietor, Denise Whiting, holds the annual HonFest (pictured, above), a celebration of these women and their role in the community. This event basically manifests itself in the form of beehive hairdos, blue eyeshadow, leopard skin tights, and funky sunglasses, and appears, from the many photos, to be a complete hoot. HonFest just passed two weekends ago, but mark your calendars for next June.

Cafe Hon, 1002 W. 36th Street Baltimore, MD +1 410 243 1230

Photo: Hip2bDaniel via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool

Online editor Kathie Gartrell recently learned the virtues of natural fibers at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

As a novice knitter who has recently taken up the craft, I was excited to attend the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this past weekend, the largest and longest-running show of its kind in the U.S. Held at the Howard County Fairgrounds, just west of Baltimore, the annual festival is a showcase for hundreds of vendors who sell hand-dyed, hand-spun yarn. You can even buy your own spinning wheels... and sheep.

Amid the barns and tents filled with yarn and wool roving (the raw material used to spin into yarn) were several pens with llamas, alpacas, and angora rabbits. Sheep of all sizes and breeds were shown in the sheep ring. But the crowd favorite was the sheepdog demonstration, where Nancy Cox Starkey and Mark Soper showcased their hardworking border collies. The dogs directed five hapless sheep through a series of patterns, including a figure eight around two cones.

Traveler photo editor Carol Enquist and I just started knitting earlier this year, so we were a little overwhelmed at all the yarn choices at the festival--merino, bluefaced leicester, cormo--but senior editor Sheila Buckmaster, a knitting pro, met us there and gave us good advice on what kind of yarn and patterns to buy.

To mark the release of our March issue (now on newsstands), we're celebrating cities over the next few weeks, and we've asked our readers to share what they love most about their towns. Would you send Rome a bouquet of roses? Did you get Miami a box of chocolates? Is it Rio you're snuggling with in the back of the movie theater? Declare your love for that special city in your heart!

We've put together a list of fill-in-the-blank questions that should help get you started. We'd love it if you would copy and paste the list into an email, fill in your answers (as many as you like) and send your responses to IntelligentTravel@ngs.org.

Today's city-lover is Anne Ditmeyer, of Baltimore, Maryland, who writes the lovely Prêt à Voyager blog. 

Baltimore is My City

The first place I take a visitor from out of town is the American Visionary Art Museum.

When I crave crabs I always go J.P. Steamers.

To escape B-more I head to D.C. on the $7 MARC train.

If I want to see a movie I go to The Charles.

For complete quiet, I can hide away in Peabody Library.

If you come to my city, get your picture taken with the Cosmic Egg @ AVAM.

If you have to order one thing off the menu from Tapas Teatro it has to be spinach and crab.

Sideshow is my one-stop shop for great random gifts.

Locals know to skip the Inner Harbor and check out Hampden instead.

When I'm feeling cash-strapped I go to Trinacria.

For a huge splurge I go to Housewerks.

Photo ops in my city include the Kinetic Sculpture Race and the best vantage points are the water entry in Canton.

If my city were a celebrity it'd be John Waters.

The most random thing about my city are snowballs with marshmallow fluff on top (trust me, it's delicious!).

A few weeks ago, I took my own advice and headed north to make the most of Baltimore's dollar museum days. My boyfriend is a sucker for sea turtles, and we figured we were long overdue for a trip to the amazing aquarium. But as it turned out, everyone else in town had the same idea, and all of the tickets were sold out by noon. So, with our original itinerary thwarted, we set out to explore the city without a predefined plan (though admittedly, this time, having the iPhone helped). As we tried to convince ourselves that deserving children were probably enjoying the turtles in our place, we circled the harbor and decided to instead explore the American Visionary Art Museum. What a treat. I've seen fish, but this, this was incredible.

The museum is an amalgam of works done by untrained artists, described simply by the museum literature as "entirely spontaneous and individualized... like love, you know it when you see it." And indeed, I was in love the moment I walked through the doors. Perhaps it's because when you go to a museum, you can typically predict what you'll see inside just by reading the name on the building. But here, you have no idea. In the current exhibit, "The Marriage of Art, Science and Philosophy," there was a collection of Bic pen drawings of sci-fi fantasy scenes, a gallery of tiny sculptures carved from the lead of pencils, and a series of gloriously funny quilted pieces by artist Chris Roberts-Antieau, whose works include "The Nine Wonders of the World, The 21st Century Edition," (highlights: rolling luggage, hair plugs, and Ziploc bags). There's also an outdoor warehouse which holds a series of entries in the museum's annual Kinetic Sculpture Race, and a sampling of screen paintings, which are a Baltimore tradition. If you're anywhere near Charm City, you should go. Go.

And what to eat while you're there? Find out after the jump.

Got plans for this weekend? Got a dollar? Well now you've got some.

Baltimore is hosting Downtown Dollar or Less Days on December 6 and 7, meaning that all you need is a buck to get into some of the city's most popular attractions, like the National Aquarium, the Port Discovery Children's Museum, and the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards.

With 20 attractions participating in all, it's also a great chance to explore some of the lesser-know gems, like the National Museum of Dentistry at the University of Maryland Baltimore, which has George Washington's famous teeth on display. (Which, we might add, were not actually made of wood, but ivory from hippos and elephants.)

Visit the Downtown Partnership site for more information about the weekend's cheap tickets and a list of all the participating museums.

Image: Downtown Partnership