Wait, where are the palm trees?

This past Saturday brought Springtime weather, a very welcomed change from the sub-freezing temperatures that we have been experiencing since the new year. What better way to spend a beautiful day than in the car? A "quick" trip up to Baltimore turned out to yield more than 5 hours in the car stuck in traffic - a sure-fire way to get to know your passenger.

Save Squidfire, all of my trips to Baltimore have been to see Kelsey and Sean and their surrounding areas; I had a tinge of cheating-on-your-girlfriend guilt heading up there to see something else.

A big part of the trip was to walk around the Hopkins campus. It was cute and picturesque, but I just kept thinking - where are the palm trees? It occurred to me that I had only really spent time walking around Florida college campuses - all clad in palm trees, fountains, and greenery. Hopkins had the brick, the copulas, and the columns; it had the freshmen in pajama pants, the kids playing frisbee, and the athletes in the gym on a Saturday morning. But in place of a soft green bed there was winterized grass and there were no swaying palm trees in sight. Hm, maybe going to school in Florida was pretty awesome afterall.

Bringing All Back Home.
Next we walked around some of the neighborhood around the campus, particularly Charles Village. We came around one corner and I had a flood of comfort like I was home again. A whole street of row homes were painted in varying hues, each expressing indivuduality and combining to make on big piece.
I don't think that I would have necessarily opted for some of these hues, but the effect is pretty cool alltogether.
This railing was one of my favorites.

Why does this remind me so much of home? Well I grew up in a little place called Pine Island. A cute barrier island inhabited by old fishermen and artsy folks. Coming onto the island you pass through an area called Matlacha (pronounce the end like it rhymes with paper mache). I am embarassed to say that I've never really photographed the island, but courtesy of google images, here are a few of the buildings that welcome you to Pine Island:

Lots of art galleries, shops and restaurants. This is the kind of place that has "shirt and shoes required" on the door of the grocery store because they're not required anywhere else. White mullet boots are known as the Pine Island Nike's, and you'll never encounter a stop light.
We sit at about 3 feet about sea level, so we know how to bail out not only our boats but also our homes. And every resident has been to at least a handful of "hurricane parties".

Well I began this post with the intention of talking about fun places that paint their buildings funkily. But now I kind of want to go have some gator tail and a cold beer at The Waterfront.