East - The Review

Besides the fact that my flights were delayed both in and out of Baltimore (I've got a bone to pick with United Airlines - rat bastards), my trip back east was perfect.


I arrived at BWI shortly after midnight. My original arrival time was supposed to be 9:45pm on Thursday night. (Thank you United, for being totally unreliable.) Meghan and Tim picked me up and we headed to York, PA. It's a long drive and I felt bad that after working all day and waiting at the airport for a long time, they then had to drive all the way back. Once we got into York, Tim took a road called Hill Road to their house. It was winding and pitch black and littered with wildlife. In a two minute span I saw a dead raccoon, a buck and some freaky rat-like creature that Tim assured me was a possum. It was like Wild Kingdom. We finally got to their house and it was just as I'd expected - warm and beautiful. Meghan showed me to my room - the Outer Banks room - and informed me that she'd given me the "fancy sheets". And they were. We stayed up chatting for a while and I think it was almost 3am when I fell asleep.

Megs and Tim both took Friday off of work so they made plans to take me around York. I woke to the smell of coffee brewing and when I walked into the kitchen, Tim offered me a cup as I realized I'd stumbled in without a) brushing my hair, b) brushing my teeth, and c) changing out of my pj's. Thankfully, I've been camping with Tim several times so he's seen me much worse. Meghan served a variety of muffins because she is the hostest with the most-est. After taking our sweet-ass time getting ready, we headed off to lunch at Tapenade Bistro for some of the best soup I've ever had - Baked Tomato. We then headed off to Brown's market. Meghan wanted me to see it because of my love of farmer's markets and all things cooking related. It didn't disappoint. I could have spent the entire day in that place. Apples were in season and I decided to make an apple pie so after Tim picked out 47lbs of apples (the guys likes apples) we headed out again, this time to the Amish market. We walked in and after browsing a bit we passed the check out where a man and three Amish women were behind the counter. When we got to the other side of the store Meghan whispered, "You got to see your first Amish person." And it's true, that was my first. We strolled through the foods section and made our way to the sweets. After getting sticky buns and pumpkin roll I realized that this weekend would be a caloric free for all. Rather than fighting it, I embraced it. After more sightseeing and picture taking, we headed back to their house. The plan was to go out to dinner that night but we were all tired from the eating and driving so while I worked on the apple pie, we decided we'd stay there and cook dinner. All three of us cooked dinner and soon we had a lovely meal of sesame crusted tuna, couscous and stir fry veggies. Oh, and mojitos. Lots of mojitos. So many mojitos that when it was all over there was just an empty bottle of rum and some sad sprigs of mint. It was another late night.

After another late start, we headed off to Anapolis on Saturday. (Tim is a patient soul because waiting for one woman to get ready is a trying experience but waiting for two women is just painful.) We had to make a quick stop at Meghan's office which looks exactly like Initech. Then it was off to lunch at Wegman's. Wegman's was enough for me to consider moving to Maryland. It was like the mother ship was calling me home. It was like Whole Foods on really cool steroids. (Not that steroids are cool, because as countless professional athletes have taught us, they're not. And they make your penis tiny. But I digress...)Anyway, then it was off to Anapolis just as the Navy Army football game was getting underway. We walked around, shopped (again, Tim is so patient) and stopped for lunch at Middleton Tavern where we all enjoyed crabcake sandwichs and cold beer. Later we headed to Baltimore where we were going to meet up with some of Meghan's friends. We checked into the hotel, got ready and headed to James Joyce . Since we were staying at a hotel, Meghan and I decided it would be ok to imbibe more than usual. And we did. I have to apologize to Meghan's very nice friends who were subjected to my ramblings. Sober, I talk more than most people. Drunk, I am unstoppable. Meghan's friend, we'll call him the Fire Marshal, was the poor bastard who drew the short straw and sat next to me at the first bar. Within half an hour, I'd told him about my love of baseball, my job, half a dozen college stories of Meghan and I and the fact that after a nasty reaction to a vitamin that morning, I threw up. That's right, I told him about vomit. Surprisingly, he still talked to me after that. (If you're reading this Fire Marshal, I am SO sorry for being that girl who wouldn't shut the hell up. Oh and also, I'm really not sexist - it is ok for men to cry.) We hit four or five more bars where I continued to drink and talk and impress the hell out of Meghan's friends, I'm sure. Also, note to self: cute heels + cobblestone roads = danger. I didn't wipe out but there were a few close calls. Some highlights of the night included: my awesome darts skills at one bar (seriously, I was on fire); going to a fantastic dive bar with fantastic hip hop - I was only one who wanted to stay so we left pretty quickly; seeing some bakery where they make all the buns for McDonalds; games of pool and bottles National Bohemian; a five dollar donation to the homeless guy who promised a good joke - Why doesn't Santa have any children? Because he's always coming down the chimney. (P.S. This joke kills with a bunch of drunks. We laughed our asses off); learning about the city's flashing blue lights and last but certainly not least - pizza at BOP. I have no idea what time we got home I only remember the ecstacy of crawling out of my shoes and into my bed.

Sunday we started moving some time around 11am. After checking out of the hotel we grabbed lunch and wandered around Baltimore for a bit. It was a gorgeous day and I took a ton of photos as we walked (see all weekend photos below). I felt great when I woke up but my hangover showed up as we drove to the airport. By the time Meghan and Tim dropped me off, I felt awful and exhausted...and very old. Because that's exactly how you want to feel when getting on an airplane for a nearly 4 hour flight home. But other than that, (and my intoxicated chattiness) the trip was pretty damn great.

And as if all of that wasn't enough...there was this.

Life is good.