A Family Visit

Lori's parents and her little sister came to visit us this past weekend. We ventured into Baltimore, DC, and Great Falls National Park.

Baltimore is hard to classify. It's one of the oldest cities in America, so there's a good deal of history. It latched on to industrialization in the early 1800's and didn't let go, providing the Eastern US with steel and auto manufacturing for decades, however the process of de-industrialization continues to occur moving the city firmly into a service economy. Baltimore Harbor still serves as a decently large shipping port, where you can see huge ships loading and off-loading their goods.

The "Inner Harbor," as it's called, is very nice and touristy, with shops, restaurants, museums, an aquarium and street performers. There's also a neighborhood known as Fells Point, which has a nice variety of bars, pubs, clubs and a large market located on cobbled stoned roads.

Lori and Kari at the Inner Harbor

Great Falls National Park is a very scenic and seemingly out-of-place park. I say that because it reminds me of something you would see in the Rocky Mountains, yet it's just 2-3 miles outside of the Beltway. The park is located on both the Maryland and Virginia sides of the Potomac River. We were on the side with the B&O Canal which runs nearly 150 miles from DC to western Maryland. Used to transport goods until WWI, there are still a few working locks with a boat that one can ride pulled by mules on the original towpath.

Here's part of the canal with a one of the locks, which were activated by good old fashioned man power.

The "falls" refers to extreme rapids in the river which drop in elevation by 60 feet in a relatively short distance. The pictures don't do it justice because it's hard to get a sense of scale.

This was a smaller off-set of the river, as we headed towards the Falls.

For perspective, a person in this picture would be nothing but a speck.

I'm always up for going into the District. I usually see something new and always enjoy seeing architecture. The five of us went up into the tower of the Old Post Office. It's an historic structure that used to serve as the city's post office, but has since been converted into offices, shops and restaurants. The tower contains the Congress Bells which are rung at the beginning of new Congressional sessions and other special occasions. It has an amazing view.

Looking from the tower towards the Capitol Building.

Good Times!