Charm City, baby

Hey! It’s only Jonelle…just wanted to give everyone my first impressions of Baltimore (where we spent the 4th of July). This being my first time to the real East Coast, I was a little unsure of what to expect…besides the crazy stories Stace had told me about Sherwood Forest (a cult-like, 1950’s esque, country clubish, really cute neighborhood for all of our dear readers who are unfamiliar with it). The weekend was really wonderful, complete with crabs cooked in Old Bay…absolutely amazing…and really fun to sit and pick with everyone. Directly after arriving at their summer house in the Forest, I was chauffeured around in a golf cart on a personal tour of Sherwood and the Severn River. This neighborhood is located about halfway between Baltimore and D.C. I got to meet a lot of Stacey’s really nice childhood friends, as well as her family, who were all really nice and welcoming – apart from them actually somewhat liking soccer, which I guess I can overlook. The whole neighborhood was so cute and they even had their own firework show on the 3rd! On the fourth, we walked in a neighborhood parade, and ate hot dogs at 9:30 a.m.! We had some more crabs for lunch then went on a boat-ride on the River.

After dinner (typical 4th fare) we traveled to Baltimore to check out the city. Well my first impression was perhaps not the most flattering, I thought the city was really nice. When we arrived in the city, just past the Ravens Stadium, I glanced out the window toward the car next to us, and saw a guy shooting up in the backseat. This was the first time Stace or I had ever seen this—yikes! I did get to see her high school, which was really quaint, and we stayed overnight in her house which was in a really nice part of town—not like my first impression at all. It was really fun meeting all her high school friends and seeing the place where she grew up. We headed back to the Forest (ha) in the morning and had a little bit of time to hang out before our flight. Stace and I went to Robin Hood Beach…yes this is the actual name…with Mrs. Collins and we relaxed in the sun and went swimming off the pier for a much too short hour before we had to jet off. The flight back home was essentially a 2 hour nap for us after the awesome weekend eating crabs, hanging out with family, and exhausting our patriotic wardrobe.