My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
January 2023
On the ship it is difficult for me to keep up in touch with friends and family, especially when the time difference is so vast that when I, on rare occasions, notice that I have enough free time to make a phone call, the person I want to talk to is either asleep or at work. Amanda understandingly forgives my silence, and, just when it’s been too long, sends me a message asking me when I’m coming to visit. Good point! She had found a new job and was moving from New York City to Baltimore. I made sure to add a stop in Baltimore on my way back from the UK. My attention was so frenzied that I was only about 60% sure that I’d confirmed when exactly I was coming to visit. She messaged me asking if I’d like to do a day in New York. Absolutely! We’d done a day in New York when I visited her in Philadelphia and it was great. We had taken the first bus into town in the morning and then the last one back that night. What shows did I want to see? I had no idea what was even playing, so she sent me a link. I responded with narrowed down preferences. The one I’d heard the most hype about was Six the Musical, so I picked up those tickets, and Amanda handled the rest of the details. When I arrived in Baltimore, she dropped the surprise on me- we were doing two days in New York! For the cost of two train tickets, she could rent a car, and she had enough points to get us a hotel. We had tickets to the matinee of Kimberly Akimbo, which looked like the show that will sweep the Tony’s this year, Six, which I knew about in the evening, and then a very special performance of Into the Woods on Sunday. I’ll go into more detail on that in my next couple of posts. What a great friend! It’s so nice to have a buddy who loves the same things I do- in this case, great food, drinks, New York City, and theater.
We had two lazy days on either side of our New York weekend. The first night we met Alex at Dutch Courage. Alex is a longtime friend of Amanda’s and I’ve met her several times while visiting Amanda. The last couple of times I’d come to Baltimore, we’d stayed with Alex and her husband, Brendon. For years Brendon was putting together plans to open his own bar, and here it was! I’d seen pictures and video, but the number one thing I wanted to do in Baltimore (besides see Amanda’s new digs) was to experience Dutch Courage in real life.
The food was amazing and the cocktails were delicious. None of the vintage glasses matched, so sometimes we would order the same cocktail, but they would show up in different glasses. They also had fancy garnishes and very clever names.
Alex’s family is from Scotland, and Amanda is a big fan. When I asked if Amanda wanted anything from Scotland, she said Jaffa Cakes. She shared some of them with Alex who demonstrated how she used to eat them as a kid to make them last as long as possible.
After our New York City weekend, we had another lazy morning. We ventured out to find some local restaurants (preferably Mexican) and explore Amanda’s new neighborhood. First we walked down to the water.
And then we ended up at Nacho Mama’s.
The restaurant had a great happy hour, a very pleasant bartender, and aside from all of the Elvis paraphernalia, we had the place to ourselves (granted it was about 4pm).
One more thing before I let you go-
On my way back to California I had a layover in Denver. When my friend Emily said she wanted to see me, I said, Well, it’s a long shot, but do you want to meet me at the airport?
And she did! We had about an hour together, but it was so nice to see her in person. This was truly a whirlwind tour where I was able to see so many friends. Emily, thank you for coming to see me if only for a little bit of time- we’ll do a real visit next time!