Preakn' Out

Ahh, Pimlico, Home of the Preakness.  It's where I, along with 121,308 of my closet friends, spent last Saturday and it was a fabulous day.

Like I mentioned before, we pulled a Jeffersons a couple years ago and moved on up to the Grandstand seats.

I got to rock the look I put together last week, and see my boo in his seersucker suit for the first time since our wedding.

Thank you fascinator for not squeezing my melon-sized head

I love all of the energy of being at Pimlico and the fanfare that goes along with the race.  This year it included a visit from the Budweiser Clydesdales (and dalmatian).

A very patriotic parachuter, which I of course loved

And what we all agreed was the coolest part of the day, a fly-over by a Stealth Bomber

But I really adored seeing everyone in their Preakness finest

The girls

Mad props to pregnant Pam for being such a trooper.

The boys

Group picture, sans Doc

Obligatory Preakness cat picture

And I was a big fan of our seats that were only a few rows back from the rail; we got to see all the Preakness action.

The start

The second time around:

Amazing how much distance I'll Have Another made up in the final yards.  It was crazy being there in person and hearing the record-breaking crowd go absolutely bonkers for this horse.

We'll all be pulling for him to be saying I'll Have Another...win at the Belmont next weekend (had to do it).  But seriously, it would be awesome to say we were there when the first Triple Crown winner in Lord knows how many years (I could look it up but I'm too lazy), won the Preakness.

Weekend Preview

There's so much going on this weekend, especially in Baltimore, it's going to be hard to pick one thing to do.

Festival Season problems.

For starters, on Saturday, there's the Kinetic Sculpture Race, where vehicles made to look like just about everything under the sun propelled by nothing other than human strength race their way through both the harbor and the rest of town.

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These things are quite a sight to behold, y'all.

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The Kentucky Derby is also on Saturday, and to help get into the Triple Crown Spirit, there's a viewing party at Pimlico, home of the Preakness.

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And FlowerMart is this weekend, which I've always wanted to go to, but have not yet made it in my 5 years here.

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Not to mention, Saturday is Cinco de Mayo, an event in itself.

So what's it going to be for me?  Well, only one thing is for sure, I'm getting my hair did Saturday morning. (Trust me, it counts as an event).

That and the most important event of all going on this weekend (no offense, Cinco de Mayo), these two are coming to visit:

Photo by Rachel Barker

I love me some L&B.

Happy Festival Season

Late April and 70-some degrees, it's beginning to look a lot like festival season in Baltimore, and one of the big ones to kick it off is the Federal Hill Spring Block Party (especially since the Highlandtown Wine Festival was postponed). 

However today, it was uber crowded.

But there were $4 big beers and great weather.

And we managed to run into some friends.

Plus for the after party we went to Ryleigh's, home of the, in my humble opinion, best crab pretzel in town.

Raw Oysters, Steamed Clams, Crab Pretzel, and Oyster Tacos: a Quintessential Baltimore dinner.

And I'm still rocking my Mod-ern Girl Pedi

A happy festival season to all, and to all a good night.

Wine Festival: Part I

This was not the email I wanted to get this weekend:

Noooooooooo!  The Highlandtown Wine Festival is just blocks from our house and definitely one of the highlights of the year.  We had been looking forward to it for weeks.  But after seeing what the weather has been like today, postponing it was definitely a good call.

However we did not let this get in the way of some good times this weekend.  We had leftover crabs from last Sunday's dinner so the Hubs made his mom's crabs and spaghetti recipe and invited some friends over Friday night for our own little impromptu festival.

It was all kinds of good, too.  I wish I could share a recipe but the instructions are a whole lot of "just add enough until it tastes right" steps.   Any attempt to document it would just result in me leading innocent souls astray.

We didn't have dessert prepared, but thankfully another friend arrived just in time. And his name was Mr. Tasty:

Nothing like seeing a couple of grown men excited about the ice cream truck

And I engaged in a whole new kind of double fisting:

Since our friends usually end up coming over to our house after the wine festival anyway for dinner and the inevitable visit from the ice cream truck, this was the perfect way to tide us over until May 20th.

Man, I really love it when a Plan B comes together.

Cheers to Plan B

I couldn't have asked for a better Baltimore weekend.  Summer-like weather in April certainly didn't hurt the equation.

Friday night was date night with dinner at Johnny Rad's, a walk to Fells point, and a glass of wine under the stars at V-NO.

Saturday was a run around the harbor, a birthday party with good friends, and corned beef from Attman's for dinner.

Sunday we attempted to have a picnic at Boordy, a winery just outside of the city, but it turned out that they were having an event that day and we arrived there only to be informed that it was sold out.  However, Plan B was not too shabby either:

Welcome to Baltimore Hon

Lunch was Caponata Paninis made by the Hubs. He added some chicken to Giada's recipe to give it more substance and it was spot on:

We had perfect weather with breezes coming off the harbor and it was an ideal setting for a picnic.

Canton Waterfront Park

It was like plan B should've been plan A all along.

And to top it off, this was our dinner on Sunday night:

Crabs and Natty Boh's with friends outside at a picnic table as the sun went down.  Doesn't get much better than that.

I'm ready to do it all over again.  Is the weekend here yet?