Baltimore

The waterfront, alive in the early evening with live music.

Walking through Johns Hopkins University, observing scientists preserving the validity of their projects like anxious parents.

Light Street.

A long table at McCormick & Schmick's, eating crab and artichoke dip with bay shrimp and pita chips. And washing it down with a chilled Chardonnay.

Memorial Field, overgrown with grass and weeds, the ghosts of Jim Palmer, Mike Cueller and Dave McNally fading to gray.

Turtle races in the courtyard.

Hot muggy afternoons that soak your shirt from the inside out. And wicked, wild thunderstorms racing across the harbor.

The incomparable Camden Yards.

Drinking a 16-ounce Amstel Light outside at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Summer feel in May.