Baltimore, you surprised me. I have passed through BWI airport many times. I have never stopped to explore the city though. I’m embarrassed to admit, that I assumed the city was an unsafe dump. Perhaps there may be some parts of Baltimore that are a bit more crime ridden, but our experience in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor exceeded my expectations.

Upon arrival in Baltimore, we took the Light Rail right from the airport terminal to the stop at Camden Yards. Our hotel was just a short walk from the hotel. This $2 train ticket was just a 30-minute ride into town. Alternatively, and Uber was about $30.

Once at our hotel, we took a chance at an 8am check-in. Thanks to status with Hyatt, we were able to check in! The Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor was right in the heart of the inner harbor. As we soon found out, also a popular destination for weddings. The hotel has connections to the conference center and the inner harbor shops.

Being breakfast lovers, we headed out to find what the Inner Harbor had to offer. A quick visit to Trip Advisor sent us to seek out Miss Shirley’s. After careful consideration, we ordered one of everything. Actually, we wanted to, but we settled on ordering three items. Their “world winning” pancakes, chicken biscuit gravy omelet, and the luau deviled eggs. Everything was delicious enough to send us into a little food coma.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the inner harbor, including a trip to the National Aquarium where we got to touch jellyfish, and my first trip to Camden Yards to see a Baltimore Orioles game. The $17 game ticket was quite a sticker shock (in a good way) compared to a night out at Fenway Park.

The main event for us, which was the whole reason for our visit, was “The Big Dill”, the worlds largest pickle party. You read that correctly, a whole street festival dedicated to pickles. There were pickle costumes, pickle contests, pickle snacks, pickle booze, pickle beer and pickle desserts. Overwhelmed upon entering the festival, we dove right in for a pickle sundae. This was dill pick ice cream, with peanut butter syrup and Reese’s pieces. Although the pickle sundae topped the snacks on the day, we also tried pickle eggrolls, pickle pizza, pickle grilled cheese and pickle donuts.

Just a short one-hour flight from Portland, Maine, Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is a really great weekend getaway. If you have kids, there’s a ton for kids to do such as the aquarium, science museum, children’s museum and of course Camden Yards. For the adults, there are plenty of restaurants, bars and shops just in the Inner Harbor alone. If you extend your time there, Washington, DC and all its historical museums and sights are close by.

~Kel