I am going to Baltimore Sept 17th - Sept 20th, by car. Suggestions needed on places to stay and places , eat and party...is Inner Harbor the place to stay? I am interested in experiencing the local tastes, especially the crab! What are the key places to visit in my limited time there? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Oh..I live about 30min from Baltimore! The Harbor is a great place to visit. There's an eatery with tons of shops and restaurants and fast-food places. Plus, the Baltimore Aquarium is right there on the Harbor. The aquarium is really nice!
I'd recommend staying near the harbor...they have great seafood around there!

The harbor is a great place, and don't miss the baseball stadium if the Orioles are in town, but also get to Fells Point. Obrycki's for crabs--don't wear anything nice and plan on getting messy

The inner harbor is a glitzy tourist promenade with two pavilions, one
predominantly devoted to food, the other with shops ranging from chic
clothing to T-shirts. I'd avoid the restaurants; most are over-priced.
The promenade is usually home to all kinds of street performers: musicians,
magicians, acrobats, the whole gamut. The U.S.S. Constellation is berthed
there and open for tours. Water taxis will take you to Little Italy and
its myriad restaurants, Fells Point and Federal Hill. The tall building in
the center of the promenade has an observation deck on the upper level that
might be worth a visit. Above all, the inner harbor has the aquarium which
should not be missed.

For an inexpensive lunch, consider Louie's, the Bookstore Cafe, 518 North
Charles St., telephone 962-1224. It's an artsy bookstore with a small
restaurant in the rear that serves vegetarian and seafood dishes as well as
conventional foods. Check out the black-bottom and pecan pies.

The Walters Art Gallery is worth a visit, too. It's at 600 North Charles
just up the block from Louie's. It's collection is eclectic, ranging from
Roman to contemporary art and reflecting the tastes and interests of its
collector Walters, whose mansion has been converted to a museum.

Fell's Point has some interesting attractions. Predominant is the Broadway Market which lies just outside the Admiral Fell's Inn and to the left.
It's a boisterous two or three block long series of pavilions that house an
interesting assortment of purveyors and produce.

I don't know whether it's still there or not but a couple of blocks down Thames Street from your hotel there used to be a corner bar called "John Steven's, Ltd". I spent one evening at the bar dining on steamed shrimp and consider the evening to have been one of the more eventful occasions in my experience.
I engaged in conversation with two Costa Rican sailors to my left and an
astro-physicist from Johns Hopkins to my right until distracted by an exhuberant young lady who decided the time was right to perform a semi-modest strip tease on top of the bar. If you're feeling adventuresome you might want to check it out.

The Waterfront Hotel on Thames Street, directly opposite the building that
poses as Police Headquarters for the television drama "Homicide" has a
small bar and a pleasant restaurant to the rear. You might want to check
it out in the course of your walks.

If there's any questions you may have, feel free to ask.

Couple of more thoughts!
For a truly unique experience, you should visit Hausner's for lunch or
dinner. It's an experience and a long standing tradition in Baltimore
dining! A cavernous restaurant, it's walls are covered with oil paintings;
statuary is everywhere, including busts of Roman emperors in one alcove
dining area. There is absolutely no rhyme nor reason to the art displayed.
The rule seems to be: If there's space on the wall, hang it! Ornate gilt
frames dominate. Hausner's menu is equally unbelievable with over 90
entrees, predominantly German. The food is good and relatively
inexpensive. One other feature of Hausner's epitomizes Baltimore and that
is its waitresses. Most are of the grandmotherly type and are sure to call
you "hon" somewhere during the course of your meal. Once, dining with my
then five year old daughter, the waitress after serving my daughter a plate of knockwurst said "Wait a minute, 'hon', let me fix that hot dog for you"
and proceded to cut the wurst into a five year old's bite sized pieces.
Check out the pastry counter at the entrance - a glance will fill you with
hundreds of calories. Check out the former "Gentlemen's bar" with walls
plastered with paintings of pneumatic odalisques and nymphs. Hausner's is
open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday. It's located at 3242
Eastern Avenue, telephone 327-8365.l

I'm sending you some information on Annapolis and really suggest you visit
it, as well. It's a small city, population 28,000 or so, and its most historic and interesting areas encompass about six square blocks. It's eminently
walkable! The drive from Baltimore to Annapolis should only take 30 to 40
minutes.

First things first! How do you get to Annapolis from Baltimore? Take
Interstate 395 to I95 south to the Beltway eastbound, I 695. Take I 695
east to Route I 97 south to Annapolis. I 97 runs into I 50. Roads have
excellent signage. Continue eastbound on Route 50 to Admiral Rowe Boulevard, a well-marked exit. Continue to the end of the boulevard. The building directly in front of you is the state capitol. Turn left at the end onto College Avenue and continue to King George Street.

The campus on your left is St. John's College, which was established in
1696. The college is a liberal arts school with no fixed curriculum.
Students read assigned classics and submit to oral exams to become degreed.
About ten years ago the students of St. John's decided to challenge the
Naval Academy's midshipmen to an athletic contest. All of the midshipmen
are jocks by nature and supremely physically fit. The Johnnies assuredly
are not! A competition was set up and is now an annual event. St. John's
invariably wins. The game? Croquet!

At King George Street turn right and continue to the main gate of the Naval
Academy (you can't miss it!). The large dome behind the high wall to your
left is the Academy's chapel.

THE NAVAL ACADEMY

Enter the Academy; you'll have to stop at a gate with a Marine guard. If
he asks, tell him you're going to the visitor's center. Once past the gate
there's a large building immediately to your right and an entrance to a
parking lot. Enter and park. Parking in Annapolis is metered; within the
Academy it's free. Walk back to the street, turn right, walk past the
building (it's the Admiral Halsey Field House). At its far end is the
entrance to the Visitor's Center. As you enter the Center, Annapolis
Harbor is to your left. By all means visit the Center, pick up a map of the
Academy grounds and check out the exhibits.

Upon exiting the Visitor's Center, note the building on the opposite side
of the street. It's an athletic complex with an Olympic sized swimming
pool, work out rooms and on its second floor a gallery of photographs of
the Academy's past and present varsity athletes. Walk back to the Main
Gate and turn right at the first street before the gate. Continue to the
next corner and turn left. The houses on the left are the homes of senior
faculty. The building to the right houses the Academy's electronics center
with closed circuit TV for classrooms. At the next corner turn right. The
huge building to the left is the home of the Superintendent of the Academy;
The second building on the right is Dahlgren Hall, the student lounge which
has a hockey rink in winter, dance floor the rest of the year. It has a
cafeteria style restaurant and pizza joint inside. Go inside and walk up
the staircase; a pre-war World War II seaplane in which midshipmen trained
hangs from the ceiling. Flags of all the states are mounted on the wall
behind the balcony overlooking the hockey rink.

Exit the building and turn right. Continue walking to the large statue of
the Indian chieftan Tecumseh. The building in front of the statue is
Bancroft Hall, the Academy's dormitory. You can enter, turn left down the
corridor before the staircase and visit a typical midshipman's room. Come
back to the staircase, go up and enter a formal ballroom bedecked with
battle flags from sea battles dating back to the war of 1812. Exit
Bancroft Hall.

The plaza in front of Bancroft is where the midshipmen assemble. Note the
two cannons facing one another at the entrance to the plaza. One warm
spring day, when the midshipmen were still wearing their winter weight navy
blue uniforms, a couple of middies wired the cannons, placed a small
explosive charge and filled the barrels with Ajax cleanser. The ensuing
snowy blast on 4000 navy blue outfits let the administration know it was
time to switch to summer whites!

Tecumseh is decked out in war paint during football season and on special
occasions. Midshipmen march from the plaza to the football stadium and
past Tecumseh. Tradition says that if a marching midshipman with failing
grades can pitch a penny into Tecumseh's quiver, he'll get a passing "C".
Continue past Tecumseh into the yard and enter the Academy chapel to your
left. Note the huge bronze doors. A young girl created their design!
Louis Comfort Tiffany created the stained glass windows around the altar.
Exit one of the doors nearest the altar and descend the staircase to the
crypt of John Paul Jones, an impressive site. Exit the chapel. In front
of the chapel is an obelisk, the Herndon Monument. It's greased by upper
classmen at the end of the spring term, a muddy pit dug around it. Plebes
(freshmen) attempt to shinny up the monument to exchange their freshman cap
(called a Dixie cup) for an upper classman's hat perched atop the monument.
The plebe who does so presents his prize to the Academy superintendent on
the steps of the chapel. Tradition says the prizewinner will become the
first admiral of his graduating class.

The building to your immediate right is the Superintendent's home. He is
an admiral who will serve a two-year term as academy Superintendent. The
buildings directly across the yard are classrooms. Turn left and walk to
the corner. The building across the street and to your right is Preble
Hall, the Academy's museum. By all means, visit it, particularly to see
the astounding collection of magnificent ship models, some of which were
carved from beef bones by French prisoners.

Return to your car, exit the lot and turn right. Drive past Halsey Field
House then left along the sea wall. To your left is Bancroft Hall and
athletic practice fields. To your right is Annapolis Harbor. The radio
towers across the way form the communications network for the Navy's
Atlantic fleet. At the far end of the sea wall to your right is a ship's
mast. It's one of the two masts from the battleship Maine, sunken in
Havana's harbor in 1898. The other is in Arlington cemetery. At the point
is a beacon with a glass globe that contains waters from the seven oceans
of the world.

Turn left. Across the river is the Navy's Research and Development Lab.
You may see some small patrol boats moored there. These are the boats in
which the midshipmen learn navigation and command. The building at the far
end of the road is the Academy's yachting center. Turn left then right.
The sailboats moored in the anchorage coupled with the yard boats from
across the river constitute the world's eleventh largest Navy! The larger
ocean-going sailboats have either been donated to the Academy or
confiscated by one of the governmental agencies, DEA, FBI, IRS, etc.

Continue to the end of the drive and turn left. The building to your
immediate left is Rickover Hall, the Academy's library. To the right,
across College Creek, the Academy has a hospital and cemetery. Just past
Rickover Hall the next building is a 5,000-seat theatre and auditorium.
Just to your right and across the street is Worden Field, the Academy's
parade ground.

Turn left to the end of the street, and then take a short right then left
past the chapel. Turn right and return to the parking lot.

ANNAPOLIS

Walk to the main gate, exit and turn left onto Randall Street. A short
two-block walk will take you to the City Dock. Note the Flag House on your
right as you commence your walk. It's a B&B that posts the state or
country flags of its guests. When you come to the open area at the end of
the two blocks, note the building on the corner to your right. It's the
Middleton Tavern and dates to the mid-1700's. Colonial patriots used to
meet there on Thursday evenings to discuss current political affairs.
Present day politicians still do, a tradition that's held for over 200
years. Right next to the Tavern is McGarvey's Saloon, a good spot for
lunch. If you go there, keep an eye out for Walter Cronkite. When sailing
Chesapeake Bay, he frequents McGarvey's. Just past McGarvey's is the
tobacco prise building, where in colonial days, tobacco leaf was tamped
into 400 pound hogsheads to be loaded onto ships sailing to England. Just
past it is the Shiplap House, so named for its unique siding. If you
continue to the end of the street you'll end up at state circle and the
State House. For now, back up to the corner. The long single story
building just to your right across the street is the Market House. It's
been a farmer's market, waterman's market and at one time a slave market.
Just past it you'll see a plaque in the sidewalk commemmorating the arrival
and sale of Kunte Kinte of Roots fame.

To your immediate right are a row of stores and restaurants; Riordan's is
the least formal restaurant and like McGarvey's, another good spot for
lunch.

At the corner, there's a traffic circle. Opposite and all the way to your
left, the brick building on the far corner is the Maritime Museum and worth
a visit. At one time, when tobacco was being shipped to England, the
building served as a warehouse where foodstuffs for crews were stored
before being loaded onto sailing ships in the harbor. The museum has a
diorama of the city in the mid-1700s. Interestingly, many of the buildings
in the diorama still exist and can be seen from the front steps of the
museum.

Across from the Market House is the City Dock (known to residents as Ego
Alley because of the yachts that are moored there on weekends). If you
walk towards the harbor alongside Ego Alley you'll note a kiosk on your
left. It can provide you with a map and tourist information. At the end
of the dock, you'll either see the boat "Harbor Queen" or signs for it. I
wouldn't bother taking a cruise on it; it's costly and doesn't go anywhere
you haven't been! It leaves the harbor, sails along the Academy seawall,
turns up the river by the Academy Yachting Center then turns around and
returns to the City Dock. You've been that route by car.

Backtrack on Randall Street towards the Academy. At the first street,
Prince George Street, turn left. At 186 Prince George, you'll find the
William Paca House which dates from 1763 and has a beautiful formal garden.
Gardens and house are open to the public. There is an admission fee.
Paca was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the early
governors of Maryland.

Continue on Prince George Street to Maryland Avenue and turn right. There
are two magnificent homes, the Hammond-Harwood House at 19 Maryland Avenue
and the Chase Lloyd House across the street at 22 Maryland.
Hammond-Harwood reportedly has the most beautiful entrance of any colonial
home in America. It is open as a fee based museum. Interestingly it was
built by a prospective bridegroom for his intended wife. He got so wrapped
up in its construction that she got fed up and broke off the engagement.
Hammond never lived in the house he built for her. The Chase Lloyd is not
a musuem. Turn around and walk back on Maryland Avenue to State Circle.
You'll pass antique shops, crafts shops and art galleries on the way.

At State Circle you'll find the state capitol. Enter and you'll find the
room where George Washington resigned his commission as Commander in Chief
of the Revolutionary forces. Check out the dome, it's wooden and the
largest one in the states and was constructed by a cabinetmaker rather than
an architect. The legislative rooms are open to the public.

Exit the capitol and take any of the streets immediately in front of you
back to the City Dock and the Academy parking lot.

You can take a virtual tour of Annapolis at www.capitalonline.com. You
can follow this itinerary, excluding the Naval Academy, on a map online and
click on most of the sites I've mentioned.

Incoming midshipmen (plebes) undergo 8 weeks of basic military training
during the summer. You should see them on the academy grounds. You may
also see a formation in front of Bancroft hall at noon time and possibly a
parade at Worden field. You might check at the visitor's center for
details.