Over the last 11 years, Chris and I have visited pretty much all the U.S. presidential libraries and museums, as well as civil rights museums, historical monuments, sites, buildings, tombs, and cemeteries. While I am sure it is a huge generalization to say this, what I’ve noticed about the conversations I overhear while at all of these sites is that the vast majority of the people visiting tend to be more on the progressive side. Parents bring their kids here to teach them history; adults come to learn more about their own country, or the history that perhaps, they were not fully taught in school (self included). They recognize the connection of the past to our present and future, and they have conversations about this while visiting.

This long weekend, we visited Mount Vernon, which is George Washington’s home and mansion, as well as Fort McHenry, a U.S. historical site known as the birthplace and inspiration of the U.S. national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” I wasn’t sure how open Mount Vernon would be in terms of addressing all of George Washington’s hundreds of slaves I knew he had, but amazingly, they actually did address it, and quite openly and often. While many would argue that the way they address it is a bite muted, the fact that they repeatedly mentioned the “enslaved labor” or “enslaved people,” and that they had huge sections of the estate calling out the enslaved people’s living quarters, conditions, and work, shows that they’re not trying to cover up the past.

At one point while walking around the grounds, I came across some young children, likely walking along side their parents after visiting the female slave houses. The kids were asking their parents why the former president of the U.S. would have kept slaves and asking if Washington knew it was “wrong.” The parents were trying to explain it in the context of history, while also acknowledging how wrong it was. They even tried to connect the wrongness of Washington having slave labor to the persistent racism that goes on today. While I’m not sure those very young minds could fully grasp the gravity of what their parents were saying, I silently commended the parents for not only explaining the past so neatly, but also attempting to connect it to the present day for the kids to try to understand. There is very little possibility that those parents are advocating for all these stupid book bans that are an embarrassment of the U.S. today.

And then I thought: I suppose those types of conversations will be had by us when Pookster eventually learns different things, understands more, and asks us questions. And we’ll need to find ways to neatly package all this information without white-washing the truth and fully educating her.

One of our very favorite things to do when we visit a new place is to visit their local market. Some places call them farmers markets. In Asia, they’re known as “wet markets.” But regardless, we just love markets. It’s a great place to get a pulse of of a city or town, to see a mix of locals and tourists, and get a sense of what people like to eat, drink, and buy.

Although New York City is known for its Union Square Greenmarket, over the years, I’ve honestly gotten a bit bored of it. When I used to work nearby, I’d browse the market at least a day or two a week during my lunch break, but I didn’t really buy very much. As Chris has pointed out (and as I have begrudgingly admitted is actually true), most of the vendors seem to be selling the exact same thing, just one stall after another, and perhaps with prices varying by a quarter or two. There are a handful of unique stalls that sell specific Asian vegetables, and I do enjoy both of the main bakery stalls (Bread Alone is my standby), but overall, it doesn’t have much diversity. On top of that, most of the meat and seafood products are just so exorbitantly expensive that at the rates they are charging, you might as well just order that same cut at a restaurant because at least then, you won’t have to worry about cooking or cleaning up.

Some of our favorite farmers markets we’ve visited in the U.S. have been in places I wouldn’t immediately think of, but were extremely memorable: Omaha, Nebraska, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, really stand out. I always loved Pike Place Market in Seattle, which is quite famous. But now, we can add Baltimore, Maryland, to that list. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the Sunday farmers market here, but I was obsessed!

Baltimore’s farmers market had such a variety of produce and goods being sold that it was a struggle to keep up with all of them. They had endless locally grown, fresh produce, many bakery stands serving a wide variety of baked goods, both sweet and savory; kombucha, kimchi, brisket and pulled pork barbecue, barbecue OYSTERS, crab pies; and even a frozen dumpling stand. I was blown away when I saw all the beautiful mushrooms at The Mushroom Stand (yes, aptly named), as well as the relatively reasonable prices. I ended up picking up a pint each of the maitake (hen of the woods) and the lion’s mane, the latter of which I’ve never seen at any market anywhere and had only read about in food magazines. I LOVE mushrooms so much, but the special varieties are hard to come by, and when you do see them, they are usually so pricey. I bought two fat bunches of garlic scapes for just $5 (what steal, especially to what the farmers market stands charge in New York City for these babies!). We also got freshly made, cold brewed coffee, a slice of cherry and peach olive oil cake, mini caneles (which I even indulged Pookster with), an egg custard tart, a spinach ricotta flaky pastry, a ginger cardamom lemonade that was extremely refreshing and sweetly spicy; mini frozen hot chili wontons and lamb and chive dumplings; and even a pint of fat, sweet-tart blueberries for Pookster. Chris’s parents joked and said we may have bought the whole market! If we lived closer, I definitely would have bought more fresh produce, but alas, we do not. It was such a fun experience, and we were lucky to be in Baltimore on a Sunday to get to enjoy it.

While Chris’s parents are in town, Chris wanted to do a side trip with them somewhere like we did last year via car, so we went to Baltimore this long weekend. Although Maryland isn’t that far away from New York City, the last time I was there was in 2011, when we went to Ocean City for Thanksgiving weekend. When I think of Maryland, I immediately think (of course) of the famous Maryland blue crabs, amongst other local and delicious seafood such as oysters and fish. But when I think of Baltimore, stereotypically, the other things that come to mind are the fact that Baltimore, also known as B’More or “Charm City,” is also unfortunately always featured as one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. It is usually in the top five when it comes to violent crime as well as property crime. In addition, from what I’ve heard from friends and colleagues who either have lived or are living there, it’s a city that is deeply segregated by race; there are very clear “White” neighborhoods vs. “Black” neighborhoods. The other thing about it is that in some ways, driving and walking through parts of the city today certainly felt a bit like Detroit: you could have a really nice hotel right next door to a dilapidated, totally abandoned building with its windows fully blown out and the doors boarded up. That seemed to be quite the norm walking from street to street in the downtown area where we are staying.

The city clearly wants to attract more tourism, though. While walking in the tourist area right by the waterfront, we went into a huge new building that served as Baltimore’s visitors center. Inside, they had a lot of tourism information (obviously), as well as many interesting artifacts, displays, maps, photos, as well as free Wi-Fi and very clean restrooms. I’d never seen such a well done, modern, and clean visitors center in the U.S. like this one before.

The same area also had a lot of fun play structures and areas for young children. Most were for kids slightly older than Kaia, but she did get to enjoy Federal Hill and the swings up there. While up on the hill, a huge mosaic of the Aurora Borealis caught our attention, which was covering the American Visionary Art Museum facade: the mosaic features over 2,300 square feet of recycled bottles, glass, and mirrors, and was created with the help of incarcerated Baltimorean youth.

The other highlight of the day was definitely our first meal in Baltimore, which we ate at Nick’s Fish House. Given how popular this restaurant appeared on Google Reviews (5,700+ reviews at 4.5 stars), I wasn’t sure if we’d even get a table and might get turned away given we’re a party of five with no reservation. I got especially nervous when Chris went to park the car and we got in line to check in with the hostess, who I heard turned away the party of 4 ahead of us and said there was no table available for a party of their size for at least an hour. When we got to the front, the hostess got really oogly eyed when she saw Kaia… and somehow, out of nowhere, a prime table overlooking the water (that she apparently overlooked with the party ahead of us…) was available on her table diagram, and we were immediately seated! We really scored with this one, and I wonder if we can attribute it to Pookster’s cuteness!

So the last time (or really, only time) I’d had memorable, delicious crab cakes with lots of crab and little to no filler was when we were in Ocean City, Maryland, in 2011. And today, I was reminded of how good (and relatively inexpensive) they were because today, we had what is likely the next best crab cakes to the Ocean City ones: we got two fat Maryland blue crab cakes, and they were just STUFFED with crab and almost no filler at all! I couldn’t believe how meaty and juicy each piece was, and it was so, so fresh. The crab meat was flavorful and sweet. Kaia only had maybe two pieces of crab and preferred her mac and cheese, but I intentionally left two bite sized pieces of crab cakes until the very end of my meal so that I could properly savor them. These crab cakes were not cheap, but they were most definitely worth it. In addition, the fish and chips were done perfectly: the fish was done just enough to be flaky, juicy, and moist, and the outside was fried well — crunchy and not greasy. This place was incredible!