Guess When They're Open

  So, there we were in this hot, un-air-conditioned that was supposed to be air-conditioned  house in Baltimore and we were heading off to see the Jays play in Washington Friday night, remember? Well, we had a few hours to kill before game time so, like most places we visit, a browse through Atlas Obscura was called for. Like most people do when they have a few hours to blow we headed to the cemetery. Our first stop, Edgar Allan Poe:

There is a place in Philadelphia where you can see the stuffed raven that inspired his most famous poem. We didn't. BTW, a trivia tidbit... not his raven. It belonged to Charles Dickens.

  After Poe we headed off to Green Mount Cemetery for some real oddities. Our first dead guy was our roadside friend from Virginia, John Wilkes Booth. He's in his family plot but his stone is blank. The authorities at the time didn't publicize the location of his burial for fear the citizenry would deface or destroy the headstone:

We know it's his, though, from the neighboring monument (expand it to read the inscription):

With Booth out of the way we went in search of some other notables. Our first stop was this guy:

  Allen Dulles, for those of you who aren't up on twentieth century American history, is a significant figure. His brother, John Foster Dulles, was Eisenhower's Secretary of State and a staunch anti-Communist. Allen had been the head of the CIA from it's post-war inception. Throughout the 1950's the brothers helped escalate the Cold War with John influencing the US foreign policy and Allen's CIA running spy operations.

  Allen was sailing along until 1961, when he was fired by JFK over the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Kennedy also threatened to destroy the CIA. If you're curious about the history you can click here. Dulles hated Kennedy for not supporting his Cuban adventure. There are many theories that present convincing evidence the CIA was involved with Kennedy's assassination in 1963 and that Dulles was one of the people behind it. Those same theories posit the Warren Commission was just a coverup so it's not surprising that Dulles was appointed as a member. Yeah, the guy that had a hate on for Kennedy and got fired by him was on the committee investigating his murder. Coincidence? I think not.

  Meanwhile, our next stop was the founder of one of the world's foremost hospitals, in Baltimore:

And, finally, this guy:

Yes, inventor of the Ouija Board, which is on the back of his headstone:

  Some pretty weird and cool stuff there. Anyway, after that trek it was time for us to head to Washington for the ball game. It was a nice stadium and the Nationals aren't such a good team these days so it looked like the Jays had a good shot at winning.

  Unfortunately things didn't go our way. First, the weather changed and a cold wind started blowing right after we arrived. We were sitting in a very open part of the stadium so we froze. Good time to get something to eat so we wandered around until settling on Shake Shack, an expanding American fast food chain that serves reasonable food. Two burgers, fries and a bottle of water and we were out of pocket $50. American dollars. To add insult to that injury the Jays collapsed in the seventh inning in a very ugly fashion so we took our frozen bodies and lighter wallet and left. The 3-0 lead they had before we left ended up a 9-3 deficit. We didn't miss anything.

  The weekend promised a return trip to DC to see some stuff we'd missed on earlier trips, specifically, the Library of Congress and the Bureau of Engraving (where they print money). Saturday dawned cold and rainy so we just hung out at the now, cooling off house, and left DC for Sunday. Of course, on Sunday I found out the two places we'd planned on visiting are closed Sunday. In case you've not been keeping up, "closed" has been a recurring theme on this trip.

  We ended up seeing a movie Sunday afternoon and tried to have dinner but, wait for it, a lot of restaurants were closed. We also thought a donut and coffee would be nice after the movie but, again, closed.

  Monday morning it was time to hit the road once again. This time we were bound for Philadelphia, City of Brotherly Love. Ostensibly, we were going because the Jays were playing and it was yet another ballpark I hadn't been to, so off we went. Along the way we passed through Rising Sun and, incredibly, no one had thought to open a bar called The House. Seemed like a natural to me. This was as close to a house as we could find:

  We had booked a place on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River for the night so we did our George Washington imitation and crossed it. Of course, with an afternoon to kill we fell back on the ol' Atlas once again. Our first oddity was "Rusty":

Yes, that's a real house. We followed shortly after with "Mighty Joe":

I mean, what's odd about a fifteen foot tall gorilla by the roadside? This is why I love the States.

  Now, we were going to Philadelphia and what is Philadelphia known for? Cheesesteaks, of course. I did my usual exhaustive research and found one of the best ones in the entire area was five minutes from our hotel. Perfect. Closed Monday. Sigh.

  Tuesday afternoon was for touring Philadelphia before the game so we headed to one of the most famous backdrops in movie history, the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I can hear a collective "Huh?" Yes. In the first Rocky movie he runs up the entire flight of stairs in front of the museum as he completes his five mile training run.

  They put a statue of him in on the sidewalk and keep him clean and shiny.

In fact, you see images of Rocky all over downtown. I'm sure that movie has accounted for millions of dollars of tourist revenue over the past fifty years. They even have his footprints at the top of the stairs:

  Well, I love a challenge so I wasn't going to be intimidated by seventy-two stairs. Before Penny had a chance to record the whole thing for posterity (and this blog), I was at the top celebrating my movie-echoing accomplishment... sitting down.

I mean, it was hot. And I'm not a kid anymore. And I didn't want to upstage all the other middle-aged (or older) guys who were doing the same thing. Did I mention it was hot?

  Down the street was a copy of Rodin's Thinker:

We found out that the one we saw at the Rodin Museum in Paris isn't the original. That one sits at his graveside in rural France. Apparently he churned out a whole raft of copies, kinda like the Washington Monument thing we kept seeing. These artistic guys sure know how to milk a good thing. Speaking of artists, here's a shameless plug:

  We kept seeing "No Outlet" street signs. Nowhere did we see a "No Plug" sign.

  After all that jocularity it was time to spend $24 on parking and see the Liberty Bell.

The crack has been there since 1846. I offered to fix it. I mean, I can do wonders with drywall compound. They thanked me and the nice man with a gun asked me to leave. I think they're still sore over that whole UK radar installation thing in Cyprus.

  The final stop on our tour was the US Mint, where they make coins. We figured we'd stop by, take the tour and see if they were giving out free samples. No such luck. We did see another grave on the way. This time it was Benjamin Franklin, a pretty accomplished guy:

The thing that jumped out at me was the Franklin Stove. I think they still make those things, three hundred years later.

  Finally it was time to get to the ballpark. Citizens Bank Park is pretty cool. The sightlines are great, there's a varied selection of food and the fans are passionate. It is, however, very expensive to see a game there but that's what we came for so we sucked it up and took our seats preparing to cheer our heroes.

  Unfortunately for us, the Jays played like something the cat threw up and they were down 8-0 before the fourth inning was done. Now, those passionate fans I mentioned? Being the only guy within a hundred meters wearing a Blue Jays hat while the home team was beating them senseless made me a great target as we climbed the stairs on our way out. I'll come back here one day... maybe without the Jays hat.

  And that was that. Our trip ended with a longish drive home where we're house sitting for our son and daughter-in-law while they attend a wedding in Norway. We're here for the next two weeks and then off to Nova Scotia for our next assignment in mid-June. Until then, I'm taking a break from the blogging thing so look for me when we ship out next month.

Until then, be good. If you can't be good, play the piano.

Cheers.