Both Sides of the City
Aside from the waterfront neighborhoods, there are swaths of Baltimore that aren’t exactly pretty. Urban blight still resides here in a big way, so watch where you’re going. See the flip side in the absolutely lovely Mount Vernon Cultural District, where glorious architecture, fountains, parks and flowers abound. This neighborhood boasts the campus of University of Baltimore, founded in 1925, along with Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (home of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra), Lyric Opera House, Centerstage and our favorite: The Walters Art Museum. It has a café and an enticing gift shop, but is also known for its collection of art, from Egyptian to European. Its Art Deco jewelry and medieval ivories are a true source of fascination. Small in scale, the museum almost feels like the private mansion of an eccentric collector, with treasures from all corners of the world.
More Kid-Friendly Options
If you’re coming with younger kids, the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore has a 1940s feel and its small scale makes it a nice stop for a few hours. Nearby, on the grounds of Druid Hill Park, be sure to stop in to the Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens. The striking Victorian greenhouse is straight out of a storybook with five fascinating exhibit areas, including separate sections for tropical plants, dessert flora and fauna and graceful orchids.
Baltimore's Crab Cakes
The crab cake is the culinary star of this town, and I’ve honestly never had a bad one. When your college tour ends, be sure to pay a visit to Faidley Seafood, located in Lexington Market. This local treasure has been plying its briny trade since 1886—and the restaurant is consistently rated as having the best lump crab cake in the city.
There’s an enclosed parking garage right down the street, and Faidley’s has its own street entrance. The restaurant is one of those stand-at-the-bar kinds of places with nary a chair in the house. We downed a few dozen oysters before ordering our crab cakes—with their faint tang of mustard, they were succulent, tender and out of this world.
A short drive south of the city takes you to Nick’s Fish House in a warehouse-y district along the water. It has a nautical atmosphere, but not a corny one. With copious indoor and outdoor dining facilities, Nick’s has all the usual seafood specialties, and they’re all just fine.
The end of this story is a happy one. Ian was accepted at Towson—and he’s happy there. He’d asked for us to bring a few things down for his apartment and after unloading, we all headed for Nick’s on a warm afternoon late in October. As we sat on the sunny deck overlooking the inlet, the clams were divine and the Blue Moon Draft Beer was cold. At that moment, we were thankful he’d chosen Towson over U. Mass or University of Vermont where T-shirts and flip-flops would have already been retired—and snow, rather than seagulls, might have been swirling overhead.
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