Oh my goodness, it's been SO hot today. Bleurgh. Hooray for our car having a/c and also at least it's just been a very hot heat, rather than heinously humid.
So it turns out that Susan lives in a really nice area. It mostly just consists of one main street that runs along about three short blocks, but it's really pretty and has nice boutiques and cafes. Hampden is the heart of John Waters' world and we went for brunch at Cafe Hon, which 
celebrates the big beehives and horn-rimmed glasses of John Waters movies.
There's a little boutique in the corner of Cafe Hon, pedaling tat like plastic flamingoes and Cafe Hon glasses and stuff and we watched with amusement as three boys between the age of about 3 - 7 raided this boutique of its most flamboyant items, bedecking themselves in beads, feather boas, sunglasses and visors, all of which were very at odds with their baseball t-shirts! We got the sense that their father was a little mortified, as he made them take everything off. But just as he was unravelling one boy from a moulting boa, another was making a bee-line for something else distinctly feminine and flamboyant!
After brunch we wandered around a really nice boutique - a little like Joy in London - across the road from Susan's flat, then got in the car and went into town. Lots of the streets were blocked off for some street event, so we headed out to an out-of-town mall. On the way out of town, we kept our eyes peeled for blocks like on 'The Wire'. I was particularly 
keen to see somewhere like Hamsterdam. But then I realised that all that really is is a scuzzy and slightly threatening row of houses in a rundown area, and to expect to be excited by such a sight would be akin to a 'Shameless' fan being wild about Manchester's council estates.
As such, I found Baltimore a little scuzzy and gross, but got a bristle of excitement when we saw (and sped past) houses that looked like Snoop had been there with her nailgun.
Forgive me - I know an out-of-town mall's not the most edifying first stop for a visitor to a new and historic city, but it had shops in it that we don't have in DC! Anyway, I didn't manage to buy anything. Except an eraser and a pencil sharpener - I've been looking for those for ages and found them in a massive arts and crafts emporium that would've been a dream to the Fimo-obsessed 11-year old Soph!
We left the scary Stepford mall as soon as possible and went back into town, where we followed 
Anne's advice and visited the American Visionary Art Museum. She'd warned us that the museum itself is really expensive and pretty patchy, but that the giftshop rocks. And sure enough, it does! It reminded me of toyshops I used to go to when I was little, because it was just crammed with trinkets and boxes of little things, with stuff hanging from the ceiling and the walls busy with pictures you could buy.
There was enough visionary art outside the museum for us to get our fill, including an enormous shiny mosaic egg, a gigantic guitar and a big hand emerging from the building, as if giving away the location of the rest of the body belonging to the Monty Python foot.
Right opposite the museum Federal Hill Park, which overlooks the city, so we went up there to get a look at the Inner Harbour area, which has been redeveloped and swankified to persuade people that Bawlmer (as the locals call it) is a nice place to visit. It kind of isn't, really. The city reminds me of Philadelphia, in that quite rundown, no real cohesion way and the Inner Harbour is just really aggressively modern and souped-up.
There was a wedding party up on the hill, having their photos taken with the Inner Harbour as their backdrop, which seemed a strange decision to me, but I guess if you love Baltimore, then that's a good place to go.
We were boiling by the time we got down the hill to the Inner Harbour, so got some lishy sorbets then went up to the top of the World Trade Centre - the world's tallest pentagonal building - where you get panoramic views of the city and beyond, from 423 ft up.
It was as exciting as looking at any city from very high up ever is, but fun to spot the Orioles stadium where we were last night. As we were leaving, we spotted a suspicious abandoned brown paper bag full of something (ie not all scrumpled up and obviously empty) and told the giftshop girl, who very boldly just went over and picked it up. Turned out just to be some food.
So unimpressed were we by the Inner Harbour, that we decided not to have supper there, but head to a place Anne had recommended, called O'Donnell Square. But before we did, we hit Filene's Basement - Max's favourite store of designer bargains - where Max snapped up some sunglasses, swimming trunks and Lucky Brand top for something stupid like $40.
O'Donnell Square was really nice and reminded me a bit of a French place, as it was a rectangle of grass and trees lined with glowing bars and restaurants. We had supper at The Speakeasy Saloon & Dining House, where Max had the most enormous steak I've ever seen - it was wider and higher than any slab of meat really should be, if consumed by but one person.
Hampden was buzzing when we got back to Susan's flat, so we dropped off our bags and went for a wander up and down the main street. Much to my don't-shop-on-Sunday dismay, the street is lined with fabulous little boutiques of dresses and trinkets and I saw a couple of lovely dresses in windows, but unfortunately won't be able to go and snap them up tomorrow, due to my pesky principles. Ah well.
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