What a Weekend!

 I mean that in the VERY best way!  Check out our room at the Admiral Fell Inn (don't you love that name?! And, yes, there really was an Admiral Fell.).  It's in the Fells Point section of Baltimore right on the Harbor and right smack dab in the middle of gobs of bars, restaurants, boutiques, bookstores, pizza joints, small museums and more things to do than is possible in a weekend. 

We tried to do it all and will have to come back again to give it another try!  In the meantime, here are just a few of the places we hit...we'll post recipes throughout the week for some of the cocktails we enjoyed and some of the really special dishes we encountered!



The Forbes Room - Admiral Fell Inn

The sheer number of  pubs - Irish and otherwise - and bars packed into a walkable distance of picturesque cobblestone streets (yes, I wore heels...and lived to tell about it) is mind boggling.  Of course, if you visit enough of them in a row, the mind might be boggling for another reason!



One-Eyed Mike's - Grand Marnier Bar



The vibe of this place makes you feel as if you've time-traveled back to when sailors piled off of sailing ships looking for their first on-land grog.  Well, maybe not the striped shirt grunt sailors that sailed in the belly of the ship, probably only the finely uniformed and highly decorated officers would have gotten their drink on here because only the upper crust officers could afford One-Eyed Mike's!  While it was cool, you were paying for the atmosphere.  Do your REAL drinking elsewhere.

Bad Decisions on Fleet Street 
BEST Bar in Baltimore!

Despite the name, Bad Decisions is a great decision. The most unique and finely crafted libations in town are here and made of the finest liquors, fresh fruits and herbs, house-made syrups and infusions to be found.  Voted Best Bar in Baltimore repeatedly over the years in all sorts of media, the very casual bar was featured on the show Food Paradise, the Bacon Paradise episode, on the Travel Channel.  If you're lucky enough to get to one, catch the monthly Beer and Bacon Night featuring an all new bacon-laden menu - appetizers to desserts each and every month.

For starters, John and his very skilled staff made a fresh fig caipirinha for me and a flaming fresh passion fruit drink for Kimber...I wish you could see the flames in the pic!





            

 Fresh Fig Caipirinha







Flaming Fresh Passion Fruit Drink



We couldn't begin to list and mention each and every place we managed to visit, but a few are: Riptide by the Bay - fantastic spiced steamed shrimp and potatoes redolent with Old Bay; The Point in Fells where we enjoyed a well-prepared pork belly and a creamy fresh musroom soup; The Waterfront Hotel - good drinks and live entertainment ALL through the day! The Horse You Came In On - decent drinks and MORE live music all through the day!  Tapas Adela - our favorite tapas place serving house-made charcuterie platters and finely made cocktails.  The chilly day we sat there, a warm pumpkin-infused cider simmered behind the bar.  It was delicious! 

I wish we had pictures of the truly amazing collection of art we viewed, and in some cases, interacted with at the American Visionary Arts Museum across the harbor from Fells Point in Federal Hill.  (No photos allowed.)  We wondered at the 3-story high, giant momma bird peering into the metal sculptured nest affixed to the side of the outside wall of one of the buildings and wandered through the winding outdoor sculpture gardens. 

The building itself is festooned with an undulating mosaic of blue tiles and mirrors while the inside is three stories of paintings, assemblages, thrones made of rulers, the Titanic made of toothpicks, woven artwork, spaceships made of vacuum cleaner parts, styrofoam cup sculptures, the list goes on and on and on.....and the wonders leave you giddy as a kid at the end of the ride.  Don't miss it if you're an untraditional kind of art fan!

We had a weekend filled with fun, food, fine cocktails, fine art and wonderful memories.  Go make some of your own!