1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (23 page)

These creations fill six galleries in the three-story main building, whose soaring hand-cast central stairway by David Hess is an attraction in itself. The Jim Rouse Visionary Center and the Tall Sculpture Barn hold larger pieces, including, at different times, a life-size chess set of metal angels and aliens and a car covered with 5,000 psychically bent spoons and forks. The adjacent sculpture plaza is home to a multicolored 55-foot creation by the mechanic, farmer, and artist Vollis Simpson, while the selection in the museum’s gift shop is totally wacky and fun. Don’t leave without a bit of recharging at the museum’s third-floor Joy America Café. Its creative and delicious organic menu has been packing them in since the day it opened.

The “Whirligig,” a 55-foot multicolored, wind-powered sculpture, stands at the front of the museum.

A whole slate of events challenges you to awaken your creative juices and design your own inventions during museum-sponsored workshops. The Visionary Pets Parade over the July 4 weekend offers awards for pet-owner resemblance and “animal least likely to succeed as a pet.” The biggest happening is the annual Kinetic Sculpture Race in early May, during which human-powered works of art—from solo ships to 50-foot vehicles—are piloted by “kinetinauts” over land, water, and mud. It’s part race, part moving art show, with prizes for originality, engineering, and finishing next-to-last.

A
MERICAN
V
ISIONARY
A
RT
M
USEUM
: 800 Key Hwy. Tel 410-244-1900;
www.avam.org
.
When:
closed Mon.
Cost:
lunch at café $10.

Centuries of Masterworks

Baltimore, Maryland

The Baltimore Museum of Art’s collection of Matisse paintings is the largest in the world. They are just part of the 100,000-plus objects in its permanent collection, making it the state’s premier repository of art
. The Cone Wing, named after Baltimore sisters Etta and Claribel Cone, is famous worldwide for its collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century European masters, including Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Cezanne, Gaugin, and Van Gogh. One room is set up to echo the Baltimore apartments in which the sisters began their astonishing collections.

Other highlights include the West Wing, which focuses on post-1945 artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns, and the Jacobs Wing, fresh from a renovation and reinstallation, which houses paintings and sculptures by European artists from the 15th through the 19th centuries. Thirty-four modern sculptures by Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, Auguste Rodin, and others populate the 2.7-acre outdoor sculpture garden. The culinary feather in the museum’s cap is Gertrude’s, where you can enjoy a view of the sculpture garden while dining. Chef, cookbook author, and Baltimore native John Shields named the restaurant after his grandmother, who taught him the joy of cooking as a child, and the menu is filled with local delights prepared with organic ingredients.

Baltimore’s treasures don’t stop here. Begun by the father-and-son team of William and Henry Walters in the early 20th century, the Walters Art Museum has blossomed into one of Baltimore’s finest historic art collections. It spans 55 centuries—one of the few museums in the world to cover such a vast range—in over 30,000 objects, from ancient sarcophagi and Japanese armor to Fabergé eggs and Tiffany jewelry. The Walters’ Egyptian holdings are said to be among the country’s best, as is its collection of French paintings.

B
ALTIMORE
M
USEUM OF
A
RT:
Tel 443-573-1700;
www.artbma.org
.
When:
closed Mon–Tues.
G
ERTRUDE’S:
Tel 443-889-3399.
Cost:
dinner $25.
W
ALTERS
A
RT
M
USEUM:
Tel 410-547-9000;
www.thewalters.org
.
When:
closed Mon–Tues.
B
EST TIME
: summer for jazz series in the BMA garden.

At the Seafaring Heart of Charm City

Baltimore, Maryland

Reborn three decades ago from a downtrodden industrial zone to become the city’s gleaming tourism epicenter, Baltimore’s Inner Harbor was a catalyst for the citywide renaissance of Charm City (where everyone calls
you “hon”) and is now one of the liveliest destinations in the city. It’s still a working harbor full of prows and sails and sparkling white dress uniforms. On the west side of the harbor, Harborplace is chock full of stores and restaurants and has a handy visitors center at its northern end. Architect I. M. Pei designed the octagonal Baltimore World Trade Center that dominates the harbor’s skyline, but the real action is closer to ground level—or, more accurately, sea level.

Start under the three glass “sails” on top of the Baltimore National Aquarium, where over 14,000 animals live both above and below the waterline, from bottlenose dolphins and sharks to puffins and frogs. A new exhibit, Outback, showcases life Down Under and is the only one of its kind in America.

Three boats and a lighthouse make up the Baltimore Maritime Museum just next door. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter
Taney
and the submarine USS
Torsk
both saw action in WWII; the former survived the attack at Pearl Harbor and the latter sank the last enemy warship of the war. The lightship
Chesapeake
and the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse, relocated from the mouth of the Patapsco River, both steered sailors safely into the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. A short walk west is the USS
Constellation,
a three-masted sloop of war launched in 1854 and the last vessel from the Civil War still afloat. Learn about life on board a 19th-century warship, then head 3 miles southeast of the Inner Harbor to star-shaped Fort McHenry, where shelling by the British on the night of September 13, 1814, with “rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air,” inspired local son Francis Scott Key to write the poem that became the U.S. National Anthem and still makes America’s heart swell. The fort was never attacked again.

A significant Civil War ship, the USS
Constellation
has its home at the harbor.

For the best views of the Inner Harbor, head to the Top of the World observation level on the 27th floor of the Baltimore World Trade Center, or else make the short climb to the top of Federal Hill and bring a picnic lunch.

W
HERE:
innermost section of Baltimore Harbor, between Pratt and Light Sts.
Visitor info:
Tel 877-BALTIMORE or 410-659-7300;
www.baltimore.org
.
B
ALTIMORE
N
ATIONAL
A
QUARIUM:
Tel 410-576-3800;
www.aqua.org
.
B
ALTIMORE
M
ARITIME
M
USEUM:
Tel 410-396-3453;
www.baltomaritimemuseum.org
.
USS
C
ONSTELLATION
: Tel 410-539-1797;
www.constellation.org
.
F
ORT
M
CHENRY
: Tel 410-962-4290;
www.nps.gov/fomc
.
B
EST TIMES:
early Jan for Chesapeake Bay Boat Show; late Apr for Baltimore Waterfront Festival.

Crab Town’s Gold Standard

Baltimore, Maryland

Seldom is a city more associated with a specific crustacean than Baltimore is with the
Callinectes sapidus,
or blue crab. More than 2 million pounds of these spindly-legged side-crawlers are hauled in from the
Chesapeake Bay every year, and a sizable chunk of them are merrily consumed at Obrycki’s, a family-run joint in the historic Fells Point neighborhood that’s been packing them in since 1944. What it lacks in atmosphere—bare tables covered with brown paper, anchored with a pitcher of beer and a bucket for scraps—it more than makes up for in the freshness of its featured specialty and savory recipes for all things crabby. This is the quintessential Crab Town menu, from a teeming platter of steamed crabs to crab soup, deviled crab balls, crab marinara linguini, and the house broiled seafood combination, piled high with enough fruits of the deep to sink a trawler. (Follow the local inclination to go heavy on the Old Bay Seasoning, invented in Baltimore by a German immigrant in 1939.)

Fresh, delicious crab has been luring diners to Obrycki’s for over 60 years.

For another take on no-frills epicurean delights, head to Baltimore’s venerable Lexington Market, which claims to be the world’s largest continuously running market. Started in 1782, today it houses more than 140 merchants. You may be glad to come just for the sounds and smells.

Or head straight to Faidley’s, the seafood shop and raw bar whose all-lump crab cake has been called the best in the Chesapeake and perhaps the planet. Faidley’s still occupies its original location, where it was opened in 1886 by John W. Faidley Sr. It’s an egalitarian, stand-and-eat kind of place where you’ll share space at waist-high counters with cops, tourists, and smartly dressed business types. Faidley’s also serves delicious codfish cakes and scrumptious shrimp, but the crab cakes have always been the real draw. You go out on a limb when attempting to anoint Baltimore’s best crab cake, but if any place can claim the title, it’s this one. Grab a plastic fork and dig in—and cast your vote.

O
BRYCKI’S:
1727 E. Pratt St. Tel 410-732-6399;
www.obryckis.com
.
Cost:
dinner $25.
L
EXINGTON
M
ARKET:
www.lexingtonmarket.com
.
F
AIDLEY’S:
203 N. Paca. Tel 410-727-4898;
www.faidleyscrabcakes.com
.
Cost:
dinner $20.
B
EST TIMES
: June–July for soft-shell crabs; Aug–Oct for hard-shell.

Ballpark Bliss and the Birthplace of the Bambino

Baltimore, Maryland

The Colts may have packed up for Indianapolis in 1984, but Baltimore’s pro sports fans scored big eight years later with the completion of Camden Yards, perhaps the best place in the country to catch a ball game. The
former railroad center just four blocks from the Inner Harbor (see p. 120) was reborn as a retro-themed stadium with an arched brick facade and natural grass turf, uniformed ushers to show you to your seat, and a walkway behind the outfield peppered by the occasional home run. The black-and-orange-clad “Os” play 81 home games here from April through October—try to see one. The next-best way to take it all in is on a guided tour,
which lets you experience firsthand the team dugout, the excitement of the JumboTron control room, and the clubby atmosphere of the press and suite levels. The emphasis is on history, from the days of local son Babe Ruth to infielder Cal Ripken Jr.’s record-setting streak of 2,632 consecutive games that ended on September 20, 1998.