Home Slyce is a pizza bar in Baltimore that offers free pool and varying kids of pizza and pizza-related food and beverage items. Mark and I went and had a great time Sunday.
Our recommendations: Beer and Pomegranate Lemonade, and the Strongman Pizza.
Here is a video montage of our morning biking through this wonderful city. A lot of people visiting Charleston South Carolina, choose to rent bikes and go by the water, and I completely understand why, now. This is the third part of our earlier road trip posts along the East Coast (see also, Virginia Beach and Wilmington, and Myrtle Beach).
Stayed at the Spectator Hotel, easily one of the best hotels I have ever stayed in or will ever. There was a butler! His name was Chuck and he had the best stories about the city and his life. Even helped us figure out where to go to dinner. Note: there are so many free snacks (My favorite were the benne wafers by Charleston Specialty Foods), and free cocktails in the room (as well as water, coke, and local sweet tea) that you might not get that hungry.
But the weather was wonderful and we could hear a local troubadour singing from City Market nearby, so we wandered down a block or two and saw the night stalls that were open. Through there and another block or two, we made it to Anson Restaurant. Really nice ambience, and a perfect romantic dinner of chicken for him, and grouper for me, by candlelight. On the way back from the restaurant, back through City Market, the singer was now singing 'Perfect' by Ed Sheeran, and I couldn't help but hum a little bit and stop with Mark against a wall to listen to him finish til the end.
Can we just talk about the view one wakes up to?
Brunch was at Butcher & Bee, a super hipster cafe where I got a Lamb Pita and Turmeric Tang juice, and Mark got the Roast Beef Sandwich. Took this photo outside:
'A good time occurs precisely when we lose track of what time it is' -Robert Farrar Capon
Drove to the nearby Shepherd Fairey mural that was still on the wall of their old location, then it was on to Savannah, Georgia.
The rain was coming down really hard, the morning we set off for Myrtle Beach. This city is on South Carolina’s Atlantic coast, and the hub of the Grand Strand, a 60-mile string of beaches. The plan had been to get toes wet at the water's edge, but the downpour and a slight burn from Virginia Beach the day before discouraged us. Went to Wal-Mart to get some sunscreen and snacks, and I researched from last minute indoor activities.
Black Biker Week was going on, as it happens, every year over Memorial Weekend at Myrtle Beach. It was the coolest thing to see all the bikers and their motorcycles. I remember seeing the event on an episode of Eastbound and Down, and it was something we also hadn't planned but were really happy to be unwitting spectators.
There was an area on Celebrity Circle that had a bunch of cute shops. The rain had stopped a bit we were able to feed fishes from a boardwalk. I'll never forget, relaxing in one of the deck chairs under a shop awning, watching the rain. Everything smells more clearly when it's wet, and the all the colors around you look richer, more saturated.
Wandered into a Laser Maze Challenge. This was probably more for children, but made us feel like Catherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment. And we beat the Expert Level- twice! There was also a connected Mirror Maze, that was really fun. They give you gloves when you go in, because you keep your arms out to check which pathways are real, and which are the mirrored halls.
Grabbed lunch at a big restaurant by the water called the Sea Captain's House, mostly because it had a big parking lot across the street and you could walk from the dining area to the water. Pleasantly surprised to try she-crab soup for the first time there; it was really good.
Went back to another boardwalk and shops area but this time to see some tigers!
The best possible last minute thing ever - the T.I.G.E.R.S. Preservation Station at Myrtle Beach Safari. The first time slots start at 5:00 pm, so we hit up a magic store across from the entrance (saw a 'Zoltar Speak's machine, just like they have at Coney Island and the Tom Hanks movie, Big). When the time finally came- we were so excited. The admission goes to funding preservation efforts- and the monkeys, wolf cub, and two-month-old tiger were so amazing to hold and touch. I still can't believe we had that once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it was my favorite part of our time at Myrtle Beach.
And then it was off to Charleston for the evening.
Little Havana Restaurante y Cantina off of Key Highway in Baltimore is just a short walk from Riverside Park to the water. Like I wrote in my Presidents Day Brunch Post- there's the coolest huge mural on the wall here with a handwritten headline 'Land of Eternal Spring'. We were definitely in the mood to enjoy the Spring weather, and hopefully it'll stick! It was an ideal date. Not too hot or cold, and all we needed was a light jacket.
I didn't know until coming back here, that they've been serving Cuban-inspired cuisine on the South Baltimore waterfront for almost 20 years, and it was once a former Feed Supply warehouse!
This time last year, we were in front of where Harry Truman used to hang out in Florida on a family vacation to Disney World. It was my first time, a bucket list item.
RIP Barbara Bush. Half of another Gemini couple (George Bush Sr. and her were the longest married presidential couple), and someone who accomplished an incredible amount in her life. She said in 1990 Wellesley College commencement address:
"At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend, or a parent."
There's a place in my heart for the International House of Pancakes. Doesn't matter what location (for the most part). My favorite one is where I'm constantly trying to convince Mark to take us as a reward for a good morning workout after the gym.
The best brunch- when I close my eyes and imagine my go-to order at IHOP: steak tips and eggs (poached, cut them in half over your hash browns and drizzle a little hot sauce over that mmmhmm), the neverending coffee, and pancakes with sprinkles on the side, with whipped cream on top.
I put my favorite dream breakfast aside this week, when I heard that a new type of french toast debuted, using Kings Hawaiian Rolls. If you've ever put that fluffy goodness in your mouth- I understand you. So I tried the bacon, sausage combo with that new french toast with strawberries and bananas. This is an unapologetically focused description of just how much I value these ideas and breakfast executions- keep doing you IHOP.
