sea bugs + a wild duck chase

Baltimore kinda gets a bad rap for.... idk, lots of reasons I guess. I've lived here my whole life tho and love this city pretty well. So it's always fun for me to get to show off its charms when folks come to visit!

get it?? bc of the chesapeake?? lol...

So when Megan from A Enter Spooking let me and Austen know she was coming east for a conference, obviously we had to crowbar a visit into her schedule!

We had each all met each other separately in the past - Megan famously gave me a pony ride on the sainted Rico last year, and of course Austen did the same the year before (apparently July is my month for riding fancy dressage horses??), and Austen got to meet up with the West Coast contingent earlier this year during her own travels.

charlie: a supremely huggable horse

So naturally the first order of business was meeting all the ponies! Including our favorite be-starred bay tb Charlie! I swear, basically everyone who meets this horse ends up giving him hugs. It's like this uncontrollable force from within Sir Chuckles - those giant shoulders and that soft coat just lure everyone right on in. I'm certainly not immune myself, and neither was Megan haha.

And I promise - if you come to visit Charlie? You'll find yourself somehow going in for the pony hug too haha. He's a magnet for snuggles lol.

"'scuse me, megan? uh, my other ear - plz to scratch it like austen??" - charlie, probably

Charlie, for his part, soaks up every little drop of attention and affection thrown his way (even if he was moderately grumped and exhausted from a 16 hour day at Loch Moy the day before.... I feel ya there buddy!).

"mmmmm apppples"

It didn't end up being the day for playing musical ponies with everyone taking a turn - between tired ponies and tired travelers and general humidity and hunger haha. Next time tho for sure!

fells point

Bc for this particular day, we had an agenda. Gotta get downtown to see some water and drink some beers and sample the local seafood, amirite?

there is absolutely a method to this madness, i promise haha

Idk if you've ever had the opportunity to pick and eat steamed crabs - esp in the Maryland style, covered in Old Bay.... But damn, it's tasty. I will basically never ever turn down an opportunity to split a dozen with anybody - even if that somebody is not particularly convinced that dinner should be dismembered at the table lol.

"What's that yellow stuff under the shell?"

"Mustard. Definitely mustard. Yup."

"Uh......"

beers, bugs, and buddies. what more could you want?

Such good times tho, all around. There's something really cool, imo, about getting to know folks through this wonderful blogging community and finding out about all the other commonalities in our lives.

Like obviously there's always tons to talk about when there's a shared love of horses (infinite conversation there is guaranteed) - but I've also just been really impressed by how wonderful every blogger is that I've had the opportunity to meet in real life, or even just gotten to know through text, chat or email. Y'all. You're cool ppl! A good crowd!

wild duck chase!

Later in the week we got to do a little repeat adventure, just this time in downtown DC for happy hour and dinner. This time with the opportunity to find out that Megan and I actually have fairly similar areas of work professionally, which is always cool to learn. Data and stuff. It's apparently a pretty big field!

And naturally there was more wine and food and wandering of the streets haha (muggy and rainy tho it will always be here in May, bleh). And tacos. So many tacos. Mmm....

oh yea, tacos. needs tacos too!

Kinda made it a bummer to actually go do work stuff the rest of the week, to be honest lol. Would have rather gone sightseeing and food tasting and beer sampling all through the region with fun blogger friends instead.

Maybe next time :) At least for now tho, it's Friday and the longest-short-week-ever is finally coming to a close. Here's to another great weekend for everyone! Blessedly a quiet one on our end (no more shows for a month!). What about you? Any big plans? Horsey or foodie or blogger-meet-up-y? Or maybe you have some ducks of your own to chase? lol...