{the city, from park across the street from Molly’s apartment}

Last weekend Paul and I hopped on a quick flight over to Baltimore (which has its own official webpage, if you were wondering) to surprise Joe for his 30th bday.

When my sister moved to Baltimore last year and started raving about what a great place it was to live, I was like, whatever.  I’ve seen The Wire.

Welp, turns out Baltimore is kind of awesome.  My sister and Joe live in Federal Hill, where there are approximately 400 really fantastic restaurants and bars within walking distance of their apartment.  The neighborhood sits right on the bay, it’s a 15 minute walk from downtown, and craft beer abounds.

They also have crab tots, which are just as delicious as they sound.

My roommate from freshman year of college, who I haven’t seen in like 8 years and who also happens to live in Baltimore, picked us up from the airport, which was beyond fantastic.  Molly took a pic of us, but it was taken in the rain, in the dark, and we both look like corpses.  So I’ll spare you.

Molly put together a little shindig on Saturday night for Joe, which was great.  A few people we knew when we were kids from SB who just happen to live in B’more showed up:

(please ignore my shapeless body)

…and at the end of the night Molly ran home with what remained of the monstrosity that was Joe’s birthday cake.

(The chef couldn’t find his 9” cake pan, so he used his 12” pan.  It was the size of a car tire.)

The next day was really cold and windy.  Molly had to leave early for Texas where she’s doing some pre-deployment training, so Joe, Paul, and I wandered around the city…

…stopped by a car show, where this happened…

(it started coming at me as I took the picture, scared the crap out of me).  And we ate some crab tots.  Then we flew home.

Good times.  Hope to go back soon.  Happy 30th Joe!