Baltimore exploration, Day 2 - I'm stupid

I am just a remarkably stupid woman sometimes. Thursday was one of those times. I decided Thursday would be the Walters Art Museum, but I took my time getting my butt in gear and only gave myself a couple of hours for the museum and lunch. Which means I seriously underestimated Walters Art Museum. In spite of the fact that each and every thing I read about started with people saying "Wow - I seriously underestimated Walters Art Museum."

I headed downtown, (in the rain of course - seriously does the sun never freaking shine here?!?) a little after noon. Found it with no problem... But finding a parking spot was a whole 'nother matter. Found one just a couple of blocks away, but then I couldn't get the stupid park and pay kiosk to take my credit card. So there I stand, juggling my umbrella, my purse and my credit card... Obviously not having fun yet. But then a really nice older lady stopped (holding up traffic), rolled down her window (in the rain, mind you) and offered me her ticket that still had two hours left on it. Very sweet. Charm City indeed! Believe in the kindness of strangers, folks, it's still out there!

Hoofed it to the museum and went in. The museum is right by the original Washington Monument on Mount Vernon Square. Had to snap a pic, of course.

So on to the museum... when I looked at the floor plan I was a little overwhelmed and had my first twinge of "oops". And then I walked in and began to wander from room to room.
Words fail me. I love words, I'm a writer, I love to write and I feel that I excel in communication via the written word... Yet words fail me. There is just no way to describe how wonderfully full and varied this collection is.

I was just completely overwhelmed and taken aback at what I saw. And as much as I was enjoying it (and honestly I was on the verge of tears at times), the joy and admiration was mixed with disgust and utter disappointment in myself. I'd really cheated myself here. It's like seeing a large bar of the deepest richest chocolate and walking away with a shaving of it. When you finally take that taste you immediately regret that you didn't take more!

This is a must-see and I'm going to have to make sure that I revisit, giving myself an entire afternoon to explore and enjoy it appropriately.

I hit the special exhibit "Mummified" first and was immediately introduced to Mery. Mery is the Walters' mummy. Also on display is the "virtual autopsy" they did on her recently. It is really fascinating and a little bit creepy. Mery was probably about 60 when she died (very old for her times, around 850 B.C.) and had 16 abscesses - ouch! Which may be what killed. I feel a special kinship with Mery, at approx 57 " she is considered quite diminuitive and was too short for her sarcophagus. So short folks are always getting screwed! I feel ya, Mery.

This picture illustrates just how much there was to see. Every time I entered another room there was just so much to see! This is the room of natural wonders - lots of dead things. I told J he would enjoy this room.
George is here. Handome as ever. This iconic portrait (it's the one that was copied for the one dollar bill, y'all) is one of the must-see pieces at the Walters.

I had a hard time getting a good picture (especially since I was using my Blackberry - too lazy to haul J's big old camera with me), but this incredibly ornate altarspiece depecting The Passion of Christ is totally freaking amazing. Gorgeous. It's from the 1490s and each of the seven scenes are carved from a single block of wood.
Long before I was done and to my frustration (as I've described in ridiculously whiny detail above) it was time to leave the museum. I hadn't really left myself enough time for lunch, but on the walk back to my car, past several lovely shops, I spied Joss Cafe and Sushi Bar with it's bar at the window and couldn't resist... So lunch was tonkatsu and a glass of Toasted Head chardonnay. Mmmm, chardonnay. As I was leaving I saw this piece of paper in the window:

Turns out Joss's is also a favorite of local celebrity, Duff Goldman, from Food Network's Ace of Cakes! I LOVE DUFF! So anyway, since Duff loves Joss's, they're going to be featured on Food Network's new show, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" in a couple of weeks on the "Fried" episode - he likes their fried shrimp heads. So yeah... I didn't try those. But my waitress was one of the girls he filmed with when they filmed the show there (that's her on the far right), so maybe she'll get her fifteen minutes of fame...

Anyway, this is all about me, not her - let's move on.

So I finished up my lunch (it was good but not Gertrude's fried oysters good but that's probably because fried oysters are better than pork all day every day), and headed back out to the burbs to pick Jeremy up from training.

For dinner we met up with a friend of his from high school and her boyfriend that live here in Baltimore. They took us to Bertha's for mussels. Good freakin call. The mussels were DELICIOUS. We ordered a plate for the table to share as an appetizer and I should have canceled my crabcake order and just had another plate of mussels for dinner. Honestly - these were great, tender and juicy and briny.

Note the martini shaker in the left edge of the picture. The waitress couldn't find a martini glass big enough for the dirty martini she made me - so she brought me the whole thing. Yeah... Bertha's was a good choice. I should have gotten a t-shirt...

So anyway - that was Friday. Now I'm going to wake J up and we'll head back into Baltimore for a little more sightseeing before we have to head home.