The Distracted Wanderer

As part of our trip to Baltimore a couple weeks ago, Amanda, Darci, and I took the MARC train from Baltimore to Washington D.C. to spend a bit of time walking around our Nation's Capitol. I probably could have driven but I've always heard that driving in D.C. is a pain in the place you sit as well as parking being downright impossible to find so I decided that the MARC was definitely the way to go. The price is quite reasonable ($7 one way) and it's a rather relaxing ride, too, while you glide through about an hour's worth of Maryland countryside en route to the former swamp upon which our forefathers built the seat of our country's government. We started our day by taking a taxi from our hotel to Pennsylvania Station in Baltimore. Darci had asked why it was called Penn Station when we were in Maryland and not Pennsylvania and the reason is actually pretty simple - the station was previously known as Union Station when it was owned by the Northern Central Railw

If you're an Edgar Allan Poe fan - as is Amanda and her friend Darci - there are certain pilgrimages in life that you just have to make even if it requires having your mom do the driving! Our trip to Baltimore last week was to accomplish one of those pilgrimages ... to view the final resting place of one of the world's most macabre writers who also happens to be one of Baltimore's most famous former citizens. Edgar Allan Poe - author of such works as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and The Pendulum , and - my personal favorite - The Raven - was born Edgar Poe on January 19th, 1909 in Boston. Following his parents death at a young age, he was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia and, though never formally adopted, took Allan as his middle name. Following a term of enlistment in the Army, in 1829 Poe moved to Baltimore for a time to stay with his widowed aunt Maria Clemm, her daughter, Virginia Eliza Clemm (Poe's first cousin and his eventual wif