The Baltimore Marathon

While I wish I had the ability to run an entire marathon, I still wanted to be part of the fun that is called the Baltimore Running Festival, so I put together a team of four to run in the marathon relay. We still run the entire marathon route, but split it into four parts, one for each runner! I had an unbelievable time out there. From the bands playing along the course to the crowd cheering the runners on. I cannot wait until next year's running festival, and thinking about maybe running the half-marathon. Fingers crossed that the knees hold out! If not that, then definitely the relay again, with Tyler joining in as well!

Here are a few shots from that day. Not too many, but I was busy running!

 Our team time below. I ran the third leg, and after those hills, and with 2 bad knees, I was stoked to pass the baton off to the fourth leg of our team!

And the team! My closest friend Sophia is on the right, and then two of her co-workers in between. They are all transplant nurses, hence the name of the team! A great day shared with these ladies!

And a big congrats to all of the runners! Especially our close friend Matt who ran the ENTIRE marathon in just about five hours! He helped to raise money for a family member who has been battling cancer. It was so inspiring to hear his stories about training and then running the marathon. And it's a tough marathon with a lot of hills, so congrats are definitely in order!

Tyler and I will hit the streets of Baltimore again soon to run in the Kids Peace 5k at the end of October. The proceeds of that race will go to kids who are in foster care. Check back soon for updates!

Bird is the Word!

THE ORIOLES ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!!

I have been waiting for 15 years to say that again!

Let's recap for a second here... at the beginning of the 2012 baseball season, the pundits thought that the Orioles had no chance... again. Some claiming that the Orioles would be faced with a possible 100 loss season. Well guess what... as I write now, the Orioles have clinched a playoff berth, and are still tied for first in the AL East. This city is so excited, from selling out games at the end of September, to painting the town Orange with pride. Tyler and I shared in the excitement this past weekend by attending the last two home regular season games. And now we'll have to watch the Orange and Black play out the season in Tampa to find out the next stop on the road. We have our tickets for the ALDS already, so fingers crossed we will be at Camden Yards again this October!

Just for fun... I gathered all of my Camden Yards photos from this past season to put together a recap of the year. I realized I didn't take a picture at every game, but it is still a fun little montage. Enjoy! And hope we will have another post up in a few weeks showcasing another trip to the Yard! 

ORIOLES MAGIC!

Opening Day 2012. 

April 6th. Orioles vs. Minnesota Twins

Orioles Win 4-2 

May 25th Orioles vs. Kansas City Royals

Orioles Win 8-2 

June 26th Orioles vs. Los Angeles Angels

Orioles Lose 3-7

July 25th Orioles vs. Tampa Bay Rays

Orioles Lose 1-10

August 14th Orioles vs. Boston Red Sox

Orioles Win 7-1 

September 7th Orioles vs. New York Yankees

Orioles Lose 5-8

September 11th Orioles vs. Tampa Bay Rays

Orioles Win 9-2

September 29th Orioles vs. Boston Red Sox

Orioles Win 4-3

September 30th Orioles vs. Boston Red Sox

Orioles Win 6-3

The Baltimore Centennial Homes

In what I kind of think is the circle of life, people buy a home, raise their families there, and then when their kids are grown the kids move out and start the process over again. It is rare to find a home that is passed on from generation to generation. The Baltimore Heritage Foundation however, started a program to try and find families in Baltimore that have lived in the same home for 100 years or more. Cool enough as it is, but even cooler is we knew someone who lived in a Centennial Home!

Barbara is a woman that used to work with me, she has since retired. She is an amazing lady who is very active in the Baltimore community and we could not be more lucky to have met her. She shared our wedding day with us, I have driven her down to the beach, shared a few beers with her and this past Christmas we took her to the Irish Tenors when they were here in Baltimore.

But I digress. I had heard through work that Barbara's home was going to be dedicated this fall, and I made sure that we would be able to be there to share the day. There was a block party on her street in Canton (neighborhood of Baltimore), and many there to help celebrate. Above is the plaque that has been affixed to the front of her house.

Barbara's grandparents bought the house in 1912 when it was first built, her mother remained there when she was married and raised her kids there, and then Barbara has been there ever since! It was such a neat thing to share with the family, and I think it would be very difficult to find people who would be able to say the same thing about their homes! We did learn though, that there are seven other homes in Baltimore that are Centennial Homes! Kind of cool when we think about how when we bought our house, our plan was to only be there for a short period of time!

Thank you to Barbara for letting us share this day with her!

Friday Date Night in the City

Friday nights are usually not a night when we really do anything. Tired from the busy week and tired thinking about our busy weekend ahead. So this was a typical Friday, but we wanted to get out of the house and enjoy the last few days of warm weather. So... we went to a food truck rally in a park in the city.

Food trucks are big in other cities, like NYC, and are just starting to gather steam here in Baltimore. Thanks to some legislation to help them out, we are seeing more and more trucks and events to get people interested in them. Last night we went to a food truck rally in Swann Park in South Baltimore City. The proceeds from the event were going to the MD SPCA, so even more reason to stop by!

This rally had five food trucks, one dessert food truck, and local MD brewery Heavy Seas serving up beer and wine. There was a live band, lots of puppies to play with, beautiful weather and beautiful views of the city and the water. It was perfect!

We got there early and scoped out the trucks to make our decision, Tyler went for Koopers Chowhound and got a cheeseburger and garlic and truffle oil french fries, I decided to grab a grilled cheese from the Grr Che truck. It was on sourdough bread, so I had to!

Our grub! It was fun to eat delicious food out of paper bags and drink great beer out of a plastic cup. Something romantic about sitting on a park bench for dinner, watching the sunset and listening to music

Our view of the city. Under the highway is downtown Baltimore. Behind us was the water and an old train bridge. Couldn't get that picture because the sun was setting that way so it just looked like a big shadow. It was beautiful though, trust me!

The perfect Baltimore date night! Thanks to the SPCA for putting this on, hopefully you raised lots of money for the animals that are still looking for homes! And anyone in Baltimore, make sure to check out the food trucks if you see one. Better than even going to a restaurant! Have a great weekend!

The Chefs Martin

Well I feel like I had to claim this personal victory for myself and Tyler. Now, we enjoy cooking, but don't really cook anything fancy. And if it is something fancy, it doesn't happen that often. And typically on a weeknight it's something quick for dinner before we are running off to lacrosse games, or doing school work or whatever.

Last night however, we must have summoned Julia Childs as we made a souffle as a side dish to our filet mignons. That's right our little inner chefs came out last night to make this beauty:

So let's see... two pans, three bowls, a baking dish and countless utensils later, we have this beautifully puffy souffle. High fives all around! We had watched Alton Brown on the Cooking Network one night talk about the difficulty in making a souffle so we were a little nervous. Didn't want to waste all those eggs. He said that a successful souffle is one that rises. But it only stays risen after baking for 5-10 minutes. Deflation as soon as we cut into it.

This was a broccoli and parmesan souffle, so a perfect compliment to our steak dinner. And even though it doesn't sound like it, this was calorie friendly as well (approximately 120 calories per serving).

Cooking miracles apparently do happen! Definitely going to try a souffle again in the future... maybe next time chocolate though!

Thanks to my co-worker Bart for giving us this baking dish since we didn't have anything that would work for our experiment! 

The Tunnel Run

Well, we did it!! We completed a 5k through Baltimore's Ft. McHenry Tunnel this past weekend. I have no idea how we heard about it, but when we did we decided it would be a lot of fun. I don't have a bucket list, but if I did I would have put this on it. Especially considering how much I drive through the tunnel.

This 5k would be Tyler's first, and my second. I shaved three minutes off of my previous 5k, so I claimed a personal victory on Sunday. It was a blast, and helped to raise money for Maryland Special Olympics which is a great cause!

 Now, I have to say, the tunnel was not as dirty as I would have expected but it was a little stuffy in there. When we exited the tunnel (oh I should say that it was one tube of the northbound tunnel and you ran south and then came back north to the finish) you could really feel the fresh air. It was weird. 

I highly recommend this to anyone in the Baltimore area next year! Now, we are looking for our next 5k to run. Tyler is on the wait list for the 5k that takes place for the Baltimore Running Festival in the middle of October, and I am already in the marathon relay (four legs between 5-7 miles for each one). But I am thinking I need another race before then... we will see what happens!

Photo Credit: Baltimore Sun

O Baltimore!

Around this time each year (well since I have been blogging), I have written a post talking about how Tyler and I am enjoying the nice fall weather by taking in an O's game, and the O's are having a horrible season, but it's ok because we love watching them... blah blah blah

And each year I talk about how everyone in town is so excited for the start of Ravens football season so that we can watch a stellar home town team. Well... this year we sure are excited about the Ravens, but the Orioles are giving Baltimorians a reason to cheer again. (Twelve losing seasons, it's about time!)

The excitement in and around our neighborhood in particular has been palpable. Orioles fans took over all weekend, followed by Ravens fans on Monday night, and the O's fans are back now! We made sure to take in a few O's games, when we win the lottery we will be season ticket holders. When we weren't catching a game, we were hanging out at Ravens tailgates, and walking amongst the crowd enjoying the excitement. Now this is why we moved to the city! A party every night!

 Friday night's view when the O's took on the Yanks. The O's ended up losing, but we still split the series with them, so as the Yanks left town, we were one game out of first in the division, and still held a wild card spot. Also, it was an extra added bonus that for the first time in years we could go to the Yard and there were more O's fans than Yankees fans.

 Then on Monday night, the Ravens were back!! It was the season opener for the boys in purple, and while I didn't go to the game, I got to go and tailgate! I just can't do the night games. My bed was calling my name.

I have to say, this is the best tailgate I have ever been to. Beers on tap, more food than you can imagine, a DJ, and just great people to party with!

We also celebrated Art Modell who passed away last week. Art brought NFL football back to Baltimore after 13 years without it. This town loves this man. 

  

And to complete our Baltimore Pro Sports week, we decided we wanted to go to an O's game this week. We decided on Tuesday night (throwback prices, price of tickets were what they were when Camden Yards opened 20 years ago, so $8 for a pretty good seat). It was a beautiful day on Sunday, so we took the dogs for a walk to the stadium to buy our tickets, and then walked to Pickles for a beer before heading home. The boys loved making new friends and hanging out!

 

And the view from our seats for Tuesday night's game! And the O's won, putting them back in a tie with the Yanks for first place! The yard was electric, and has not been that way for years! So exciting!

We couldn't be more excited to be in Baltimore right now. As huge sports fans this is what we have been waiting for. Stay on the edge of your seats this October! It's the year of the Bird!