My husband and I are going to Washington DC/Baltimore this weekend (visiting friends in DC and relatives in Baltimore). We have DC covered, but need ideas for winter activities in Baltimore. (Previous postings seem to mention all kinds of fun summer activities) We probably want to stay away from museums (we'll do some of that in DC).

Anyone have any suggestions??

Baltimore has been hit with the biggest snowfall in history. 26 inches! The only thing people will be doing for awhile is shoveling. Things should be better by the weekend.

From February 13 to March 2, 2003, Baltimore will celebrate the 300th Anniversary of St. Peterburg's founding with Vivat! St. Petersburg. The citywide arts festival involves cultural treasures of St. Petersburg displayed in the well-known and undiscovered venues of Baltimore. Highlights include: the Art of the Ballets Russes, with colorful set designs and costumes by modern artists Matisse, Picasso; animal creations by Fabergé and paintings from the Russian avant-garde; Masterworks by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev, conducted by Yuri Temirkanov; Dmitri Shostakovich's controversial satire of provincial life, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk; and diverse programming in theaters, galleries, music halls, and movie houses throughout Baltimore.

I went to several of the openings this weekend and really appreciated both the quality of the works displayed as well as the civic spirit that brought about cooperation among so many cultural and business institutions in Baltimore.

Most of the city was closed on Sunday and Monday but should be dug out by the weekend.

www.VivatFest.com/


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Saturday make time for Lexington Market- nothing fancy but great people watching, lunch at any one of the stands won't disappoint and it's an interesting part of a great city that too often gets overlooked.

Thank you for those tips for Baltimore. Hopefully, the city will be dug out by the weekend (or even some of the snow melted). Coming from Chicago, we are no strangers to snow storms, but would prefer to avoid snow if possible.

Try Cross St Market in Federal Hill for a more yuppified experience on Sat am than at Lexington Market. Quite simply, Cross St is in a better neighborhood.
Unfortunately the forecast for this coming weekend involves 1-2" of rain on top of the 28" of snow in the suburbs. So you may want to concentrate on Vivat festivities or other indoor activities. The Visionary Arts Museum near Federal Hill is a very fun and off the wall museum with a great rooftop retsurant, and would be a good place to spend some time in the rain (or otherwise).

I know you wanted to skip museums, but there are two you would not find anywhere else and worth a visit.

B&O Railroad Museum is pretty cool.
http://www.borail.org/

Check out the Visionary Arts Museum, interesting, not your typical arts museum, not stuff you'll find in to many places. The artist bio's are fascinating.
http://www.avam.org/

Cross Street Market is one of my favorites.

Alicia probably hasn't heard that the roof fell in at the B&O Railroad Museum yesterday due to the weight of more than 2' of snow. It is closed indefintely!!

if u reconsider your decision to avoid museums, u will find that the balt museum of art is a gem...even if u don't know much about such stuff. aside from the russian things for the special event, the cone collection is interesting and the restaurant is quite good. a fine destination if bad weather keeps u indoors. if u do like art, the walters museum is quite interesting as well [but the snack bar can be ignored].