free fall baltimore is here!!![this blurb also appeared in
the quindecim]
baltimore is sometimes a generous city, offering special deals to students, hosting a myriad of public festivals, and sponsoring the third annual
free fall baltimore series. spearheaded by mayor sheila dixon's office, free fall baltimore grants free entry into a range of events, museums and cultural experiences. here are a few highlights:
-
the homewood museum is offering a guided art walk to the baltimore museum of art, located just adjacent to johns hopkins university. these will take place every saturday in october. to get there, take the collegetown shuttle to hopkins.
-also offering free admission for the month of october is the
contemporary museum, an art gallery in mount vernon. they are open from noon to 5 p.m. wednesday through sunday. to get to mount vernon, take the mta #8 bus northbound to lutherville (catch it by the quarter, across from superfresh), and then hop on the light rail southbound and get off at centre street. note that the acclaimed
walters art museum, which is free year-round, is located just a stone's throw from the contemporary museum.
-the
baltimore streetcar museum, which is only open from noon to 5 p.m. on the weekends, will be free for the month of october. the museum is located on falls road-- another short light rail ride away-- and usually costs $7.
-the
babe ruth birthplace & museum will be offering free admission on fridays in october. the museum is located on emory place, close to the stadium at camden yards. this is easily accessible via light rail as well.
-learn about this nation's history at the
flag house and star-spangled banner museum, a house located near little italy and the inner harbor. they will be offering free tours at 10 a.m. and noon every day. take the collegetown shuttle to the inner harbor and walk east on pratt street.
-the
maryland science center will be open to the public for the first 200 guests to come after 5 p.m. on friday, october 31 (halloween). this includes admission to an imax movie. the museum is in the inner harbor area, which is best accessed via the collegetown shuttle or light rail to the convention center.
in addition to these awesome events, we've got the 35th annual
russian festival coming up this weekend, october 17-19. held in east baltimore, it features performances, crafts and plenty of food.
below are some photos from the autumn glory festival held in oakland, maryland (in the very western most part of the state) last weekend. i would really, really recommend checking out western maryland if you have time to drive out there (3-4 hours each way). it is gorgeous this time of year: rolling hills plush with vibrant foliage. we went camping at rocky gap state park, visited the once-booming and now eerily-empty town of cumberland, and could have made it to west virginia and pennsylvania easily but instead chose to stop at antietam battlefield on the way back. also awesome. i saw more mccain signs out there than i ever have here. i definitely felt out of place among the largely older, rural, conservative, religious crowd, but found the town of oakland really interesting.
the festival seem to take over the entire county, ranging from the main parade-- lots of cheerleaders, high school marching bands, shriners and beauty queens-- to glass blowing, clog dancing, choral performances, free admission to the historical museum, a tour of the court house, and many food vendors. we saw a puppet show entitled "autumn declares god's glory," which featured gospel singing puppets proclaiming "jesus saves." very interesting stuff.
