Wild Week in Baltimore

Moments before hurricane Irene blew into Stone Hill Uncle Charlie secured a few shingles on the roof. The flag gives you only a hint of the wind gusts that hit us. It was loud, scary and exciting.

It rained and rained and rained. We lost tree limbs and power at 4 a.m. last Sunday morning. I couldn't sleep I was so afraid our big maple tree would fall on the house.

The power went out but our gas stove still worked so I...of course....cooked bacon!

And canned figs...until it got dark and our sweet neighbors Paul and Viv brought us dinner.

The damage was minimal, mostly many large limbs fell down. Eric loves any excuse to get up on the roof and that was a power line.

He was very careful.

We moved into a hotel on Monday night. Storm troopers? No, these gorgeous guys were flown up from Atlanta to help get power restored to hundreds of thousands without power and were staying at the same property. Stone Hill didn't get power until late Wednesday night. We met these guys in the elevator and I wanted to hug them all! After working tirelessly for days they were still chipper and happy to be up in Baltimore to help out. We finally have power and are so thrilled to have had the luxury of friends in high places. Thank you Renaissance Harborplace for taking such good care of us during the power outages. I was able to walk to work and get so much done staying downtown.

This was our view at 6:00 a.m. over the Inner Harbor. Amazing how pretty it was the day after hurricane Irene passed over.

This week started with a hurricane, power outages, and a Yankees v. Orioles game. All of these items created havoc on our streets. We also have a little race happening this weekend called the Baltimore Grand Prix. It's the first time Baltimore has hosted this style of street race. The cars will be driving around a 2.1 mile loop in the middle of downtown. That is the Somaru (our nickname for the new car) on Pit Row just outside of the Camden Yards warehouse!!! How funny is that? 

All week signs of the race became more and more visible.

Taking this turn really made me want to speed for some reason.

Our neighbor Guy sent this to the Stone Hill list serve. It sums up the week so well. 

Shake, shake, rattle and roll!
Blow, blow, bless my Soul!
We'll shake and shake with a lil' earthquake
Then lose our lights in Irene's wake
It's Baltimore before the prix
The grandest thing they say we'll see
Streets all closed including Pratt
C'mon to Bmore hon that's where it's at!

Guy Holliday

Last night many of the racing team crews were seen all over town. These are a few of the Newman Haas team. I know nothing about racing but look forward to visiting this pit crew in the paddocks on Saturday. It also reminded me that Paul Newman passed away three years ago. The guys said that racing was his passion and you could tell they really missed him.

I'm really excited to see more real races tomorrow. Tonight's qualifying and practice rounds were pretty cool, even though I still have no idea what it all means. Hoping to learn all I need to know about the Le Mans race tomorrow and Indy Car Race on Sunday.

This car needed a tow. It looks like a ribbon is pulling it.

Enjoy the weekend everyone. If you are in Baltimore hope you get to ride, bike or skateboard downtown. Traffic is nutso crazy but I have to say it is very, very fun to see cars driving 170 miles an hour down Pratt Street.

Kindness and thanks to Susan and George for letting me shower at your place on Monday morning. I loved seeing sweet Jemma all smiles! And we can not thank the Renaissance enough for our accommodations during the week. The views and ability to walk everywhere downtown really lowered the stress level.