{"id":88,"date":"2006-04-25T13:57:55","date_gmt":"2006-04-25T19:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/cherry-blossom-festival\/sunday-04022006-day-two\/"},"modified":"2012-08-20T11:12:13","modified_gmt":"2012-08-20T17:12:13","slug":"sunday-04022006-day-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/cherry-blossom-festival\/sunday-04022006-day-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Baltimore and the National Museum of Health and Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nedgar allen poe house<\/em><\/p>\n

Did you know the Baltimore Ravens are named for the poem? It had never occurred to us. So, Edgar Allen Poe’s house is in kind of a dodgy neighborhood. The rest of the townhomes are boarded up, but I guess they’re doing a lot of ‘renewal’ in the area. Which is code for ‘fixing things up and selling them to white people for a lot of money’.<\/p>\n

I stopped to use the bathroom at a gas station in this neighborhood. The supernice guy at the counter passed me the key, which was attached to a spatula, through the bulletproof-glass double-plate window and pointed towards the back room. I had to roll a mop-bucket away from the door first. There was blood on the wall.<\/p>\n

I hope I didn’t get herpes in there.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The harborfront area in Baltimore has been very much renovated in recent years and looks identical to the tourist-zones in any other city: Honolulu, Santa Monica, Houston, Chicago. It’s bright and depressing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We drove back to the district and the parents dropped us off at the National Museum of Health and Medicine<\/a> at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. We had to go through security, which included undercar-mirroring and ID checks. It was awesome. My dad, a former federal agent, got really squirmy about it.<\/p>\n

The museum is located a couple blocks inside the complex. It’s a very unassuming-looking building. We went inside and the dudes at the counter took my picture and made me a sticker-badge. I fell in love with them immediately, because they were super-laid-back Latino guys with gothic-script tattoos up their forearms. I bet they and the army guards didn’t have much to say to each other. They were giggly, and we stood around talking with them for a while before entering the museum, which we had decided to visit for the sheer creepiness factor. It’s very highly rated in Roadside America.<\/p>\n


\nlincoln’s bullet<\/em><\/p>\n


\nthese masks represent the expression on the faces of people who have been through chemo<\/em><\/p>\n

Because they’re really creepy, I’ve put most of the photos from the museum over here<\/a>. I’ll warn you that they’re pretty icky and include a lot of dead, malformed fetuses. If you have a low threshhold for gross, I’d skip it. FYI, the ones at the top are now officially known as the SKELETON BABIES FROM HELL.<\/p>\n

Oh, despite what the tour books may tell you, the museum is only about 6-8 blocks off the metro. They warn you to take a bus or cab. You should only do this if you’re lame, because it’s an easy walk.<\/p>\n

In the evening, we had dinner at Rosa Mexicano, an even better<\/em> Mexican restaurant, known for their pomegranate margaritas. Hey, I discovered that I liked good tequila. And that, rightfully, is the end of THAT particular story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

edgar allen poe house Did you know the Baltimore Ravens are named for the poem? It had never occurred to us. So, Edgar Allen Poe’s house is in kind of a dodgy neighborhood. The rest of the townhomes are boarded up, but I guess they’re doing a lot of ‘renewal’ in the area. Which is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[15],"tags":[86,55,87,85],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"geo":{"latitude":39.29038620000000037180143408477306365966796875,"longitude":-76.6121902000000005727997631765902042388916015625,"description":"Baltimore, MD, USA"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2006\/04\/315666467_7b40a5db7d_o1.jpg?fit=800%2C600","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Z5R-1q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3222,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/washington-d-c-2\/mallwalking-and-natitude\/","url_meta":{"origin":88,"position":0},"title":"Mallwalking and #Natitude","author":"Jenni","date":"05.8.2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We got up Sunday morning and headed back down to the National Mall, to cover the half we'd missed on Saturday. 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