Baltimore Life: Barcstoberfest at Patterson Park

This Saturday October 23rd at 11am for the 6th annual BARCStoberfest!

Bring your family and friends (furry or not) out for a walk to benefit pets less fortunate. Last min registration is at 11:00, Strut Your Mutt lines up at 12:00.

And if you like to oogle the silliness of pet costume contests, you are in luck. There will also be food, live music, local arts and crafts vendors, adoptable cats and dogs from BARCS and other rescue groups.


We have to make the most of the these beautiful Autumn days! Come over to southeast Baltimore, enjoy Patterson Park and raise some money for a good cause. We plan on going to the event for our first time this year, I think my 5 year old is going to love this!

Baltimore Life, SalsaPolkaLooza, This Weekend!

image by greencitybaltimore

SalsaPolkaLooza is a multi-cultural street festival hosted by the Creative Alliance in Highlandtown. Attend this free event and get a whirlwind of culture and fun in a one block radius!

Kids can paint a community mural all day. With sloppy paint and brushes in hand, they can make their mark on the giant painting! There are lots of other art making stations for kids provided throughout the day.

image from tigerlillyshop

The list of performers, both music and dancing takes you around the world! I took a salsa lesson last year and then later I was doing the polka! This year the Love Peace Project gets the crowd going with hip hop African drum fusion, then later Mexican and Russian folk dancers hit the stage. There are break dancers, face painting, and you can even make your own music video. Shop Arts and Craft vendors, too!

Get some Caribbean food, a Dos XX or 2, and get cultured in this diverse community. Highandtown is a neighboorhood like no other! People from all walks of life really feel welcome at SalsaPolkaLooza! Ultimately, this is Baltimore's unconventional cuture at it's best! Your family will definitely have fun and make some great memories.

This Saturday July 10, from 12:30-5:30 FREE!!!

Tutorial- Enjoy Fall

It's the weekend and, for once, it's not raining. So it's time to enjoy the season, right here in Baltimore. There's really no need to travel far because we have hundreds and hundreds of acres green space. Right here.

By far, one of the greenest, Druid Hill Park alone boasts 745 acres.


Map to the "ghosts" of Druid Hill Park in Baltimore from Unsung Monuments in the Monumental City

A perfect Fall adventure awaits. Visit the site for a walking tour of the park's forgotten architecture. Part scavenger hunt, part history lesson and a lot of getting back to nature awaits. Now bundle up and get out there!

Baltimore With Babes: The Fair's in Town

The Howard County Fair in West Friendship is currently running daily from 8Am- 11Pm through August 15th. Parking is free and admission is $5 for adults (age 10 & up), $2 for seniors (62 & up) and kids under 10 are free. Some Daily events include the "Kids & Critters" Barn, Chain Saw Carvings, a Magic Show & Pig Races. Rides include a Ferris wheel, carousel, the Zipper, and much more. Thursday is "Dollar Ride Day". There are also plenty of games to be played, farm animals to be seen and lots of traditional fair food to eat. I took my boys over the weekend and despite the heat, we had a great time.

Exploring Baltimore With Babes

Since moving to Baltimore City a year ago with our three kiddies under six, my husband and I are always on the hunt for Baltimore’s more kid-friendly charms. We have been thrilled to find that there is no shortage of childhood delights in this town and I hope to start sharing some of our best finds with you here.

First stop, the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. This is our hands-down FAVORITE place to spend an hour on the weekends. On their 1.8 miles of track you can actually ride in any one of their four working streetcars which have been lovingly and painstakingly restored to their original, charm-laden condition. Our favorite streetcar is the “summer car” which is open on both sides to the elements and was once used to give “cool off rides” through the summer nights. For one nickel you could ride the summer car from 6:00pm to midnight, being cooled by the natural breeze of the streetcar before the age of air conditioning. Even a century later, its cooling breeze hasn’t lost its refreshing, romantic effect.

A family membership to the Museum for the entire year only sets you back $45. We regularly drop by on Sunday afternoon for a quick ride on all the running streetcars and head home. I suspect that as our oldest son gets bigger, we may soon find him volunteering his own weekends to work away on the machines—at least that’s what he tells us!