Still Hot! Hot! Hot! in Baltimore

I know there was an original version of the song "Hot! Hot! Hot!" but it is blocked out in my mind by the version parents of children who are now around 20 will likely remember better, the Sesame Street cover with Elmo as the lead singer.  We watched the video on VCR tape long before DVDs and listened to the song on the tape player in the car along with hits by Raffi, Tom Chafin and Red Grammer.

The view out the deck door windows of the marina lounge over the boats in the marina looks deceptively inviting, with clear blue skies dotted with a few small puffy white clouds.  But it is 94 degrees out there (which would be pleasant in Sacramento) and humid, with a heat index over 100, with little to no wind.  So, listening to music through my earbuds, I sit at the large table on one side of the room along with a young man who is obviously working, with two screens, as he bops to his music, as two women work on quilts and sewing projects at two large tables they have set up in another area of the room.  This is the communal office, meeting room, living room and party room for the marina community.  (The African American Neptune Yacht Club held a fish fry here on Monday.  It was a large and convivial gathering, and the friendly people invited us to partake of the food.  Peter loved the fresh fish!)  It is where everyone escapes from the heat.

I escaped from the heat at an art museum yesterday, but let me backtrack to Tuesday, since my last post was on Monday.  Tuesday was a work day for me.  I had only cleaned three out of ten of the durades on the deck side the previous day, so I had seven more to do.  This part of the job involved using the hose attached to the water on the dock.  The advantage was that I could just hose myself down when I was hot.  Actually, I didn't need to do this.  As Peter knows, when I am using a hose to clean, I never stay dry myself.  I just become part of the cleaning project!

Sherri cleaning the durades on deck of Mantra

The previous owners were pretty meticulous about keeping everything clean, so the build-up of grime was not bad.  (Peter says I have to clean things that are already clean as a way of marking my territory.)  One advantage of my deep cleaning is that I find things that we didn't know about, like a durade that had obviously failed and been resealed; this gives Peter a chance to scrutinize items and fix them if necessary.  (He can fix anything!)

I couldn't spray water indiscriminately inside the boat, so I had to be a little bit more neat as I cleaned the sections of the durades on that side.  Peter told me to careful not to damage the head liners around the durade openings, and I didn't.  However, the one in the head (bathroom) fell off without my help, slivers of water-damaged wood flying all around.  Another issue for Peter to deal with!  And I had to re-clean the whole bathroom even though I had just cleaned it thoroughly last week!

I finished up my cleaning project with just enough time to shower before Peter and I had to leave to meet our new friends who run a non-profit which serves kids in Baltimore by teaching them sailing.  Steve and Susanna's boat is docked at another marina just a short walk away along the promenade.  They have a lovely 36 foot Sabre which sailed well in a light breeze (until the wind disappeared and we had to motor back to the slip).  They treated us to a light dinner, pointed out sights in the busy port  area of the outer harbor and regaled us with stories of the many boats they have refurbished.  The sun set behind a cloud, outlining it in a glow of orange and tinting the sky tangerine, salmon and lavender as we made our way back to the dock.

Steve, Susanne and Peter on Condor on the Outer Harbor of Baltimore

Peter decided that he had not accomplished enough that day, so he set to work replacing hinges on doors.  Had I known that he was going to work for two hours, I would have come to the lounge to write or read instead of sitting in my nightgown waiting to go to bed.  I could have gone to bed, but we only have one movable fan (there are five small mounted ones) and it didn't seem right to take it away from him, and it was unbearable in our cabin.  (I didn't make that mistake last night; I told him to text me in the lounge when he was ready for bed.)

Yesterday, awakened by the smell of the holding tank being pumped out, I hopped out of bed, got dressed and got ready to leave.  But, first, Peter, who had had a basal cell carcinoma removed from his right forearm shortly before we left home, needed to have his stitches removed.  In the pilot house, with the sun beating down on my back, I followed his instructions and pulled and cut the sutures.  At first, I thought it was the heat that was affecting me, but after the third or fourth stitch, I realized that the light-headedness and nausea I was feeling was a direct result of my acting a nurse.  I had to stop, go below, get a drink and stand in front of the fan until I felt better.  The patient, Peter, had to become the caretaker, grabbing a bucket in case I needed it.  Luckily, I did not.  Needless to say, he had to finish the job himself.

As a fellow member of this marina community (which is a mixture of transients like us and people who keep their boats here year round) arrived to assist him with figuring out why the relatively new batteries are failing, I left to find some culture.  My destination was the Walters Art Museum in the Mount Vernon district of Baltimore.  I expected to spend a couple of hours there, but the collection was larger and more varied than I anticipated, and I left when the place closed at 5 p.m.

The museum houses the collection of William and Henry Walters, Baltimore businessmen and philanthropists who purchased art from around the world from the third millennium BC through the early 20th century.  William Walters initially made his money through the family's rye whiskey distillery and wholesale distribution and then amassed a fortune through investments in banking and railroads.  His interest in art fully developed when he and his family lived in Paris during the American Civil War.  His son Henry joined him in business and shared his passion for art.  Together, over a few decades, the assembled an amazing collection of over 22,000 works of art.  In 1931, Henry donated the core collection of the museum to the city of Baltimore.

The first exhibit I explored was called The Walters Story, which through signs beside works of art,  traced the history of the development of their collection.  It was interesting to learn about the artists they favored, the dealers whom they worked with, and the acquisition of art works they made while visiting various world exhibitions and fairs around the turn of the 20th century.  From there, I wandered through the rooms filled with wonders: Egyptian mummies, funeral masks, sarcophagi, jewelry and other artifacts from ancient temples; Greek, Roman, Etruscan and ancient Near East art; armor and weaponry including suits of armor, swords, daggers, crossbows, spears, halberds, flintlocks and muskets (The Middle Eastern daggers were the most ornate and the Japanese samurai armor the most intricately constructed); early Byzantine art; religious icons from the Byzantine Empire, Russia and Ethiopia; Romanesque and Gothic art and architectural pieces; Islamic art; Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art, including paintings and sculpture from northern Europe, Italy, France and Spain, with a special emphasis on 18th century European art (Artists include Signorelli, Raphael, Tiepelo, El Greco, Monet, Pissaro, Sisley and Turner); illuminated manuscripts and rare books; Art Nouveau jewelry and precious objects, including pieces by Tiffany, Lalique and Fabrege; Buddhist art from eastern and southeastern Asia; artwork from India, Nepal and Tibet; and contemporary Japanese ceramics.

Two areas were particularly fascinating.  One was a reproduction of an exhibition room that William Walters created in the late 19th century in his home to show part of his collection to the public.  Paintings were hung in three horizontal rows on the walls and display cases featured small bronzes and Asian enamel work.

Replica of exhibit room of William Walters

The other was a series of three rooms replicating the type that European aristocrats would have created to entertain and impress guests with their acquistions from nature and art from around the world.  Juxtaposed were such things as paintings by European masters, stuffed animals such as exotic alligators, pottery from Asia, fossilized animals, jewelry, masks from Africa and coral and shells from tropical seas.

"Chamber of Wonders"

The Walters Art Museum includes not just the modern museum buildings but One West Mount Vernon Place, a 19th century Greek Revival mansion recently renovated and opened by the museum. Originally built around 1850 for Dr. John Hanson (a man who, despite his education, never practiced medicine because he could not pass the exam to become certified--according to the delightful docent.  She also told me that Dr. Hanson, a Maryland legislator with Confederate sympathies, declared himself in favor of secession, which led to his arrest by Union forces and imprisonment at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, along with other Baltimore officials, when Lincoln, in 1861, authorized his military commanders to suspend the writ of habeas corpus between Washington to Philadelphia.

Other esoteric history:  The house was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Francis Jencks in 1892, and they expanded the graceful spiral staircase leading from the large foyer to the second floor, installed the oval Tiffany skylight in the coffered dome and redecorated in the Italian Renaissance style.  Following their deaths, the house fell into disrepair but was purchased and restored by Harry Gladding in 1963.  It was purchased from his estate in the 1980s and given to the city of Baltimore by Willard Hackerman in 1984.  Thus, it became part of the Walters Art Museum.

Staircase and Tiffany window in One Mount Vernon Place

About mid-day, I had reached an art saturation point, so, despite the heat, I wondered outside for a while. I walked around the Washington Monument in the middle of Mount Vernon Plaza.  This was the first major monument to George Washington, completed in 1829.  (Interesting fact:  The same architect, Robert Mills, also designed the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.)  Atop a colossal white marble Doric column is a statue of Washington as he made his resignation as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the State House in Annapolis in 1783.  Downhill from this statue in the south garden is a bronze equestrian statue of the Marquis de Lafayette erected in 1924.  On one corner of the plaza is the Peabody Institute, which includes the stunning Peabody Library, sometimes referred to as a cathedral of books.  Opposite this instituion is the striking Norman-Gothic style United Methodist Church, completed in 1872 with an exterior of five types of stone, including green Maryland fieldstone.  Four block-long gardens radiate from the central plaza and monument, and these are lined with mansions that were built after the monument was erected, when the wooded, unpopulated area became the premier residential district overlooking Baltimore Town.

United Methodist Church on Mount Vernon Place

Mount Vernon Place mansions

Washington Monument in Baltimore

When the museum closed at 5 p.m., I started walking back down Charles Street, hungry and thirsty.  I had had absolutely nothing to eat all day.  I skipped breakfast after recovering from the medical incident in the morning and had been too enthralled by art and architecture to stop for lunch.  (My husband and children have to remind me to stop and eat when we are touring together.)  Google maps revealed a McDonald's a couple blocks off Charles Street, so I detoured there for a salad and Diet Coke.  I found myself the only white person among the couple dozen people ordering, waiting for food or eating in the facility.  Most of the customers were young and seemed to know each other and were conversing in slang.  I looked out the large windows and didn't see any other people of my race out there either.  Having been raised in an all-white town (practically an all-white state, West Virginia), I had been brought up to avoid areas where blacks lived or congregated.  Dangerous!  However, everything seemed safe to me, as I have long ago rejected this prejudice.  What a surprise then when the people around me became excited and all headed outside.  The next thing I knew, a slightly grungy looking white woman was running backward down the street away from the crowd as a white man who seemed to be with her weaved toward and away from the small crowd of young black people.  They seemed to be taunting or threatening the white woman, who was yelling back at them as she departed the scene.  Then she was back!  And one of the yound black women was chasing her with a baseball bat!  Yikes!  Luckily, she ran away for good and the black youth fell to joking among themselves.  They greeted me in a friendly manner as I exited and headed for a nearby bus stop, seeming unconcerned with my white presence in their milieu.

Before heading back to Mantra and the marina, I walked along the waterfront of the Inner Harbor.  Several historic ships are permanently moored here as museum pieces, and the National Aquarium is a fixture.  It is a picturesque area with many shops and restaurants.

USS Constellation in the Inner Harbor

Nacho Mama's in Canton

Peter took a break in his work at 9 p.m., and he and I walked the few blocks to Nacho Mama's on O'Donnell's Square in Canton for dinner.  The neighborhood has an interesting history.  In 1785, John O'Donnell, an Irish merchant, settled in Baltimore and began trading with merchants in the Chines port of Guangzhou, then called Canton by English speakers.  When he purchased land, he named his plantation Canton and that stayed the name when his son sold the land for development.  All of southeast Baltimore including Canton became the home of a vibrant packing industry.  To supply the containers, tin can factories such as American Can and Continental Can built large factories here.  In the second half of the 20th century, these industries disappeared and the area became derelict.  Now it is revitalized and the old canneries, can factories and wharehouses have been transformed into residences, restaurants and businesses.  Across the street from the marina, American Can's factory now houses Safeway, Chipoltle, Coldstone Ice Cream, Outback and other popular retail establishments on the ground level and businesses such as DAP have their headquarters on the upper levels.  Parts of the original machinery has been placed as sculpture in front of the buildings.

American Can Company factory machinery

After we had a great meal and Peter enjoyed two well-deserved and delicious margaritas, we headed back to the marina after 10 p.m.  Peter wanted to finish "just one more thing" on the boat, so, remembering Tuesday night, I headed for the lounge, where I watched Djokavic beat Millman in the US Open and then some political reporting on MSNBC.  The only other person in the lounge chose the stations.  As we watched, he ventured to ask me about my political leanings.  Relived to find that we both lean the same way, we talked about Trump and the election that put him office.  He mentioned that he would have voted for Hillary if he was allowed to vote.  When I raised my eyebrows in a questioning way, wondering if he were a felon, he alluded to possible reasons for not being able to vote, such as the witness protection program.  Who knows?  Interesting people here.

Well, I have managed to spend many hours here at my computer.  Outside, the sparse, bright little clouds have grown and accumulated into banks of cumulus ones.  The weather is changing, and it is supposed to be 10 degrees cooler tomorrow, with rain over the weekend and temperatures in the low 70's!  Relief from the heat!  Now I just have to plan what to do with myself tomorrow as Peter continues to work, work, work.  The laundry is waiting, but that can be done this evening.  Maybe the sunset will look like this again:

sunset at Anchorage Marina

I can be of no help with this: