Baltimore, 2011
Quick business trip to Baltimore, combining a working meeting and a seminar at JHU.
Sunday April 3, 2011
I had packed and printed out my boarding pass the night before, but then fell asleep on the couch while reading,
so I wasn't at my best in the morning as I was finishing up the last few things before heading out. Got out the
door at just past 10am though, and managed to catch a bus without too long of a wait. Then I had to scurry a bit
to catch the red line train pulling in, and then had a short wait at South Station for the silver line bus, but
overall a low key commute to Logan C. But once I got there I had a hard time finding my gate info. I eventually
found the check in counter and asked someone, they didn't have the flights up on any of the boards, just the
JetBlue and United ones were on their screens. My gate was off to the side, but it had a backscatter xray so I
had to wait a while for my hand search. The woman was professional and gentle with my knee and we had a short
conversation about my inukshuk necklace. I didn't have too long to wait before boarding, but I was far back enough
in the group order that I had to stuff my laptop carrying backpack under the seat in front of me, and just put my
rain coat in the overhead bin. It was a short flight, only an hour in the air, but a bit turbulent. The woman next
to me and I stayed buried in our books, and I let most of the rest of the rows behind me de-plane before I got
up.
The water and pretzels on the plane weren't enough for lunch, and a delicious pizza smell side tracked me on the
way to the taxi stand, so I ate a deep dish vegetarian slice in the airport before heading to my hotel. We drove
right past the Baltimore Museum of Art, it's on the other side of the JHU
campus from my hotel, an easy walk. I asked at the front desk if they were open on Sundays, but she didn't know.
Luckily wireless access is free, so I checked myself and it was open until 6pm. I'd checked in at around 2pm, and
by 3pm I was unpacked and out the door to walk over to the museum. It's always free, so just going for an hour and
a half made perfect sense, using up the time before Anthony would pick me up for dinner. The "Seeing Now:
Photography Since 1960" exhibit was neat, with some Diane Arbus and Helmut Newton pieces. I liked the candid shots
and the series, as well as reimaginings of paintings. The American paintings collection was neat, but the best
part of the visit was the impressive collection of bronzes. They have multiple pieces of Rodin's, cast after the
pieces that we saw in Paris, as well as some by Degas, and less well known names attached to gorgeous pieces. I
went back to the hotel via their sculpture garden, it's got a nice mix of modern and classical pieces. The stairs
were giving me trouble though, I'd done my first parkour jam of the year the day before and my quads were killing
me. Thank goodness for elevators, escalators and hand railings.
I had time to take a quick shower and change into business casual instead of airport casual and Anthony picked me
up at 5:45 for our 6:15 reservation at Woodberry Kitchen. He's got a
cute red Mini Cooper, so I got to enjoy my second ride in one. Our table was ready for us, but it turned out it
was on the second floor balcony, and it took me a while to make my way up there. :) Once I was seated, I happily
forgot my sore legs and enjoyed a cocktail to start, going with the April Showers after a bit of internal debate.
It was a bit too summery/refreshing for the chilly day, but delicious in any case. My sunchoke soup could have been
a bit more complex, but it was good. The main dish, buckwheat noodles with basil and spinach, was delicious, and
filled me up. We had a bit of a wait for our main courses, but the time filled up with talk of books and travel
and finding old class mates. He dropped me off and I happily changed into my sleep wear and settled in to catch up
a bit on the computer. I have a bit to prepare for tomorrow but a couple hours before I have to sleep.
Monday April 4, 2011
Up at 7 and down for breakfast. I had a hard time getting stuff out of the server, I had to go and get my tea, and
milk, he just brought me a pot of hot water. Then I found that there was another tea collection that had Earl Grey
and I could stop trying to choke down the Lipton's. Then I had to ask for water specifically. My french toast
wasn't bad, and it came with the full breakfast buffet so I could add as many blueberries as I wanted to. Back up
to my room and had some time to catch up on email before I headed down to the lobby at 9 to meet Min. We walked
over to Clark, stopping for some tea along the way, and had a fast day of working on SPECTRE. I had lunch with him
and Aaron (a good made to order tuna sub in the cafeteria) and also popped upstairs to help Sonia test the
workshop set up for the next day. Got a short power point to cover a module in my session as well. Found out that
the museum was closed Mon and Tue, so Sonia couldn't go. It was chilly and threatening rain when I got up
(thunderstorms during the night), windy during the day (lots of interesting sound effects inside buildings), and
then hot on the walk back to the hotel at 5:30. I just had time to drop my stuff, wash my face and then head back
downstairs to meet up with Rai, Sonia, and Ron for dinner. I had to laugh when Rai started describing the cuisine
of the place we were to go and it turned out that we were on our way to Woodberry Kitchen. :) Only bad part was
that we were upstairs, but on the other end of the balcony this time, at a table for 6 since Mike joined us as
well. Amazing food again, the cheese plate was great, the chicken+biscuit and kale and carrots were amazing, and
the chocolate sherbert had me rolling my eyes and checking out while I savoured it. Back to the hotel at 9pm, and
I managed to finish up the coding with a tip via email from Min, and then caught up a bit with email and some
videos I'd saved up to watch. Have to meet up to walk back at 7:30, so an earlier night tonight.
Tuesday April 5, 2011
Gah, slept horribly. I kept waking up every 5 to 10 minutes after 5am,
worried that my phone alarm wouldn't go off and I'd miss the meet up time.
Once I got up, I had lots of time to get packed up and downstairs and
checked out (zero balance folio as JHU paid for my room for me, sweet!).
We walked over to Clark and found that the workshop wasn't giving us
breakfast, just a mid morning snack, so we walked back out to the coffee
shop and picked up tea and food. Eating while setting up in front of the
workshop participants was a bit awkward, but we got everything set up and
started only a little late. The room set up wasn't idea for me, I had to
range around the room to see everyone's screens to make sure they were
following along. We also had quite a few crashes. :/ Overall, it went well
though.
It was raining as we walked across the way to the next
building for Ron's lunch time talk, so my lugging my raincoat around paid
off finally. Got to chat with Timothy for a bit as well, and Peter K was
sitting next to us as well. Min and Aaron came as well. It was useful for
me to attend as well, it's always good to get the executive summary of my
projects. Back to the workshop room, and one more hands on session. Then I
gave a quick demo and Ron did one as well and then we were done at around
5pm. I went downstairs to work with Min a bit longer, and we finished up
the project we'd started the day before. It was close to 6pm, and Sonia
had headed to the airport and Ron to his group dinner, so Aaron, Min and
John took me out to Niwana for
sushi and Korean food. My chirashi took ages to come (they were almost
finished eating) but the shrimp shumai was delicious and some of the
sashimi was amazing. We had green tea ice cream, but then time caught up
with us and Aaron offered to drive me to the airport at 7:45 or so. A quick
drive later and I was there well before my 9:25 departure, only to find
that my flight was delayed to 9:40. Just a metal detector at security, and
no line at all, and I had time for a lovely Manhattan at a bar near my
gate, the (ri)^1 whiskey was lovely. Bit of a bumpy flight, and I was in a
middle seat somehow (had checked in via phone at lunch, but didn't see my
seat assignment then), but the two ladies on either side of me were very
quiet and I just read during the hour long flight. I'd convinced Cris to
come pick me up, the two rides today saving me from covering $100 in
taxis, though I paid for the tunnel fare out of Logan. Cris was a bit
late, but it was nice to stand in the crisp air for a bit.
Back to my diary page.