Summer in Baltimore

September 14 thru September 16

—Blogpost written by Bob

Saturday, September 14

Saturday is almost always an easy day for me, particularly during college football season. We had a light breakfast in the boater’s lounge to start the morning. These (free) breakfasts will soon end for the year—probably at the end of this month. The slow pace of a Saturday morning breakfast leads into a Penn State football game in the afternoon. Today’s game was the 100th (and possibly the last) game between the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State (my alma mater). Penn State won by a score of 17 to 10 and it was as close a game as the score indicates. Penn State's defense was mostly responsible for the win, holding Pitt one yard away from the goal line to tie the game in the fourth quarter.

A screen shot taken during today's
Penn State-Pitt football game.

During the game while Maggie was sewing a blouse in the main cabin, I restitched all the closure buttons on my (many pairs of) shorts with heavy-duty sail twine and sail repair needles.

Our cozy and colorful v-berth at night, after
a tiring day of (watching) football.  We
each have some of our clothes
storage on the shelves
beside the v-berth.

Sunday, September 15

One of our better habits we have while in Baltimore is to go out to Starbucks (right across the street from the marina) for breakfast on Sunday mornings.

Maggie (on the right) waits in line to order
our breakfast at Starbuck's.

My morning cup of coffee
at Starbucks.

The mornings are usually cool at this time of year--this morning's outside temperature was in the low 70's.  The temperature is expected to reach 87 degrees by the middle of the afternoon.

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I'd like to share one of my findings in the YouTube universe.  I recently ran across a YouTube channel by Jonna Jinton, a young woman artist in Sweden, who is able to make a living selling her art while living near the arctic circle.

In this screen capture from her vlog,
Jonna is hauling fire wood in an
IKEA shopping bag on a
plastic sled.

She is a painter, designer, vocalist, and photographer.  Her life as shown on her vlog may seem simple and playful but she is technically proficient with a video camera, a drone, and, quite apparently, as a video editor.  It is very difficult to make video content so interesting.  Her youth, beauty, and artistic skills certainly provide great YouTube content and I've certainly learned a lot from her channel.  (I'm going to try to incorporate some video clips in this blog in the future but I have no intention of making a vlog!)

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We went out for lunch in Little Italy again this Sunday, this time at a restaurant called La Tovala.  I had an absolutely delicious lunch--Linguini Scoglio.

A view of a window sill from
our table at La Tavola.

Linguini Scoglio at La Tavola was my
lunch (and dinner) today.

Some very colorful lights outside
a restaurant in Little Italy.

Monday, September 16

I just recently realized that I am only 72 years old—not 73. This may sound ridiculous but it is not only true but I feel a year younger today as I sit in McDonalds having breakfast. I just read on the news that Ric Ocasek, lead singer of the Cars, died at 75 years old. Even though I never heard of him, he died at an age very close to mine. Well, forget about my feeling younger—the feeling was nice while it lasted.

A floral arrangement on the
table at McDonalds.

Maggie had her annual checkup with her doctor today, which was the primary purpose of our trip to Annapolis. Our secondary purpose was to drop by our storage unit and start the process of sorting out clothing for our trip south. We will need the full range of clothing from dealing with freezing temperatures on our way south to dealing with warm temperatures in the southern Bahamas and our return trip north. The challenge is to get our selected clothing in the correct proportions to the amount of time we experience the various temperatures. I packed less cold weather clothing than previous years—I hope that I’m not sorry.

We now have one month to go before heading south for the winter and our attention has turned from major boat projects (except for one: changing out the seals in the water maker) to preparations for our trip south.  While traveling we are in quite a different mode than during our typical summer in Baltimore.  At this time of year the difference becomes obvious because we are between the two modes since most of our boat projects have been completed and our mood becomes much more relaxed.

Stocking up on oil filters for the coming
winter-spring season.

In the next blogpost, I replace the seals in our water maker.  Stay tuned...


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