My brother brought my volvo to Baltimore so I can have a car. He’s moving to California to finish his last two years of law school as a transfer at UCLA. We had a nice day. We went running (he ran, I walked) through the woods near my apartment this morning. Then, I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast. He went to school with me at Johns Hopkins and did work in my office while I did lab work. We had lunch at Niwana, a Korean restaurant across from my school. I had a dolsot bibimbap (in a stone bowl) which was very tasty. However, the service sucked. They even charged us for the wrong table. Inexperienced waiter.
When we got home from work, we found the street behind my house (where the volvo was parked) flooded with about 6 inches of water. A water main had broken (due to construction further down the street, perhaps?) and they turned off the water in my apartment building until at least 11 pm tonight. Since we couldn’t use the restrooms or even wash our hands, I suggested we go out for dinner. I wanted to show my brother downtown Baltimore.
We drove to the Inner Harbor and ate at McCormick and Schmick’s. I had been to this restaurant in Boston. I didn’t expect anything special because it was in a touristy part of the city, but I liked the location (right on the water) and the fact that the area was safe. We found some street parking ($1/hour instead of $5/hour in the lots) and enjoyed a nice meal (nice service and good ambience). I had blackened catfish (from North Carolina?) with a cajun sauce underneath. The sauce was good, but the catfish too salty. My bro had a top sirloin steak. He enjoyed some nice food after eating fast food during last school last year. We shared a crab cake, which came with some creamy cole slaw. I liked the cole slaw more than the crab cake. It couldn’t compare with the awesome Faidley’s crab cake (at Lexington Market) but the crab was high quality–it just wasn’t fried enough for me.
After dinner, we walked back to the car and then we were going to get gelato. I wanted to stop at a cute shop along the street. When I went to pay for an item, I realized I had left my credit card at McCormick and Schmick’s (typical me). I suspect that the waitress forgot to return my credit card. Otherwise, I was just stupid and left it on the table. Either way, I got it back and then my bro and I walked 1/2 mile to Fells Point for Gelato at Pitango. It was well worth the walk. I had pistachio gelato–which I had been craving! The walk back from Fells Point along the river was nice and scenic. Makes me want to live near the harbor during my 2nd year of postdoc–especially when Ben moves out here. It will be nice to wake up and see the water/boats out the window.