Picture from Norway

Today, I was going through my pictures of my trip to Denmark, Sweden and Norway. I decided to post one from the trip. This picture is of a town that was on the Sognefjord in Norway. It was taken while the group I was with did a 2 hour cruise on a passenger ferry. The fjord itself was stunning. There were numerous waterfalls and breathtaking mountains. Norway has to rank as one of the most beautiful countries I've ever had the pleasure of visiting.

January 2008 Baltimore, Maryland Hard Rock Cafe Visit

I finally made it to the Baltimore Hard Rock Cafe today. I drove down to the Glen Burnie Cromwell Station and caught the light rail train into Camden Yards. Parking is free at Cromwell Station so it makes sense to take the train in from there. Round trip train fare is only $3.20. One place I passed on my way back from the Inner Harbor was charging $7 an hour for parking. The light rail train is an easy way to get to either the Raven's football stadium or Orioles baseball park. It stops at both.

Once you get off the train at Camden Yards, you cross the street to the Baltimore Convention Center and keep walking that way passing the Sherator Inner Harbor Hotel and the Hyatt Inner Harbor Hotel. When you reach the Inner Harbor, to your right is the Science Center and to your left the U.S.S. Constellation which is the last wooden warship ever built for the U.S. Navy. You'll walk toward the Constellation and keep walking around the harbor. The Baltimore World Trade Center building is about 40 or 50 feet from the Constellation. It goes up 24 stories (I think). At the top, it has nice views of the harbor.

Once you pass the trade center, the Aquarium and a World War II submarine are on your left. I don't know what the admission for the Aquarium or the submarine is. When I arrived, they had a good size line for the Aquarium. The Hard Rock Cafe is part of a building that was a former electrical plant for the city. You can still see the former smoke stacks coming out of the Barnes and Noble bookstore. To the left of Barnes and Noble, they have an ESPNzone place (I don't know what ESPNzones are). Some day, I'll have to check out the ESPNzone thingy and find out what it is.

The Hard Rock Cafe itself has a nice collection of rock memorabilia. I saw a guitar played by Mark Slaughter of the group called Slaughter. Also, they had a guitar autographed by the group Poison. There was a bust of old rubber lips Mick Jagger. They had stain glass windows that showed various rock instruments. The centerpiece of the cafe was a 1960 teal Cadillac which presides over the bar. Price wise, the cafe is expensive. Starters ranged from $9.80 to $11. I tried their nachos. I got a good size plate of chips covered with 2 cheeses beans and jalapenos. If you wanted beef, chicken or guacamole, it cost extra. Entrees ran from $7 (I think) to over $22. The ribs I tried were $22.50. I got a good plate of bar-b-que ribs with a good size order of fries and small cups of beans and cole slaw. Drink wise, I ordered a very berry smoothie in a Pilsner glass you get to keep. That cost $8.99. Also, I found out they came out with a new city t-shirt. This one shows a raven and a crab. The raven I believe has to do with the football team though it could have connections to Edgar Allen Poe who I think wrote stories here. The crab is definitely a connection to the Chesapeake Bay. Eating steamed crabs is a tradition here. When they're in season, you can get all you can eat crabs (not at the Hard Rock Cafe). They're pretty good though you will work to get the meat out.

Overall, I had a nice meal at the cafe. My waitress Chrissy did a great job and was kind enough to get me a closeable tray so I could take home the half rib slab I couldn't finish. I earned $68 total my next $20 reward with the All Access club. The All Access Club gives you priority seating at all Hard Rock Cafes as well as earning $20 credit when you spend $200. You can use the $20 credits for merchandise or food. I've earned $80 in credit with them so far.

I took some pictures with my Canon Rebel XTi digital camera. I'll try to get them posted within the next couple days.

Small side note: I just discovered that the Sydney and Melbourne Hard Rock Cafes apparently closed (they're not listed on the Hard Rock Cafe list anymore). I remember visiting both during my 2004 Globus tour of Australia. I wear proudly my t-shirts from both of them. It's a bummer they closed.

Update June 28, 2014: First, the All Access club/membership is no more. They came out with a different program called Hard Rock Rewards which I don't think is as good. Second, the ESPN Zone thing closed and was replaced with a Philips Harborplace restaurant. Third, the Cadillac is gone. It was replaced during a remodeling with a light fixture.

Candy Minas Tirith

Today, I read about this initially on the Council of Elrond webpage. It seems some very creative people with time on their hands (7 days worth) created a candy Minas Tirith. I checked the pictures of it and it is very impressive. Take a look at it yourself at this link Candy Minas Tirith.

Frustration

As I've mentioned in a couple previous blog entries, I like to get together with a fellow rural mail carrier sub called Bernadette. However, things can get pretty frustrating because of her other job at the Wheaton J.C. Penneys. Today is a prime example. I found out that she doesn't have to work today at Penneys. Since its Sunday, she doesn't have to work at the Post Office either. Great day to take her to the Hard Rock Cafe in Baltimore. I've been wanting to do that for a while. It turned out Penneys struck again. It seems that Penneys wants her to work at 5 a.m. tomorrow. The only way she could do that was get a ride down to a friends house either Saturday evening or Sunday at stay there overnight which she did. If I want to take her to the Hard Rock Cafe today, I have to drive an hour down to Wheaton to pick her up, drive another 90 minutes to the Inner Harbor so we can have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, drive another 90 minutes to take her back to Wheaton so she can work at Penneys tomorrow and drive another hour so I can get home. We're talking 4 and 1/2 hours of driving just so I could have lunch and see a little of the Inner Harbor with her. Aaargh! Sadly, I had to scrub the idea. It just wasn't worth all the hassle. So, I'll have to go to the Inner Harbor by myself which will suck. :-( Very frustrating.

Spin and Win

This past Sunday, I drove out to Dave & Busters so I could add to my ticket total. I played the Spin and Win game again. I made a couple surprise discoveries this time. First, I found out the game will start even if you don't pull the lever to start the light going around. I don't know how long the game will wait but it will eventually start on its own. Second, I found out that you have a limited time to hit the stop button. I was waiting to try to get a good idea when to hit the stop button so I could hopefully hit the 1,000 ticket marker. I guess I exceeded the wait time on the game because to my total astonishment, it stopped and gave me 10 tickets. For those of you who don't know, 10 tickets is worse than any marker on the game (the lowest markers are 20 tickets). I don't know how long you have before the game will stop on its own and I don't care to research that considering what it costs to play it. I'm just giving you my readers a heads-up that you have a limited amount of time to hit the stop button.

Luck wasn't really with me this last trip to Dave & Busters. I only hit the 1,000 marker 3 times. I managed to increase my ticket total over 4,000 tickets. I now have 45,869 tickets. The irony of the situation is that Dave & Busters doesn't have anything in the prize shop that I really want. Oh well. I plan to keep playing and I hope they'll get some nice new prizes in. We'll see.

Laurel Tavern Update

I managed to finish Montpelier Rural Route 2 before 5 p.m. When I drove up Fetty's Alley, I passed the Laurel Tavern. I saw they were still open. After I turned in all my accountables, the outgoing mail I collected, my scanner, cleaned my mail case and clocked out, I decided to see if the tavern will still open. To my surprise, they've changed their hours. They are now open Monday to Saturday till 7 p.m. I suspect someone there figured out that they weren't going to sell a lot of burgers if they closed at 5 p.m. Anyway, I bought their sack of 9 burgers this time. This is the best deal they offer on their mini-burgers. You get 9 of them for $7.99. That breaks out to almost 89 cents (88.7 cents if you want to get technical about it) a burger. That isn't a great deal considering you can get a double cheeseburger at McDonald's for just 11 cents more. Still, the place is convenient for me as it's just down the alley from the Post Office. Plus, they do have nice people. I suspect they're feeling their way as far as business. I hope things work out for them. Cheers all!

Correction

In my review of the Laurel Tavern, I stated that it opened from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Saturday. It turned out I was wrong about their Saturday hours. On Saturdays, they open 1 hour later i.e. 6 a.m. Sorry about the wrong information.

Trader Joe's Almond Bark Review

Recently, I decided to try Trader Joe's Almond Bark. Almond bark is almonds covered in dark chocolate and cut into slabs. Trader Joe's cuts their slabs into 5" by 9 and 3/4" blocks. They sell the bark in 1 pound boxes (2 slabs) for $9.99. I found their almond bark really good. The dark chocolate is slightly bitter but then, all dark chocolate normally is. Their bark is packed with almonds. Each almond bark slab is sealed in a clear plastic wrapper and then packaged in a nice box.

Overall, I was very pleased with their almond bark and I'd definitely recommend it. It would also make a nice inexpensive present for a chocolate lover. Cheers all!

Laurel Tavern

I visited the Laurel Tavern today. It's name is a bit of a misnomer as it's actually a very small shop that sells primarily donuts and other breakfast pastries. The tavern closed over 6 months ago and underwent a slow refurbishment. Finally, it reopened on January 2nd. I visited it today to see how it was. I found out that they've changed the focus of the restaurant/shop. Before, it was more small burgers and coffee. Now, it's primarily donuts and pastries though they still offer their mini-burgers.

I decided to try their mini-burgers. I bought six of them for $5.49. The tavern does give you a slight discount if you buy more than one. A single burger would cost you $1.29. Taste wise, the burgers were good but not very filling. I ate all six that I bought and I still wasn't filled up. Compared to McDonald's, I think they're a little expensive.

As far as pastries go, they had an all right selection. It isn't as impressive as Dunkin Donuts. One note I must make. I arrived at the tavern at 4:00 p.m. and what I saw as far as pastry wise may have been the dregs. They may offer a better selection when they open. I haven't seen what they offer when they open at 5 a.m.

Hours wise, they are open Monday to Saturday, 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Those hours are definitely handy if you want to buy something for breakfast but not if you want a burger later in the day.

Parking is the same as it was: limited. This is a place where you run in, order what you want, get it and eat it some where else. There aren't any seats in the tavern and there is a limited area where you can stand.

Overall, the tavern is better than what it was before but, it still isn't very impressive. As it is down the street from the Post Office, it would be a handy place to grab a donut on my way in to work in the morning. But, it isn't a place I would go out of my way for. If you happen to be on Maryland Route 1 in Laurel around breakfast time and you're hunkering for a donut, you might give them a try but, I wouldn't recommend you go out of your way to find the Laurel Tavern. Bon Appetit!

Dave & Busters

Yesterday, I took my Post Office friend Bernadette to Dave & Busters at Arundel Mills Mall. Both of us enjoy playing their games. Bernadette has her sights on a Sony entertainment system they have though she'll have to play a lot of games and win a lot of tickets to get it. It costs 48,000 tickets. For me, I played Spin and Win again. No other game there offers the payout it does. To my delight, I hit the 1,000 ticket reward 5 times! That said, I missed it by one or two lights something like 25 times. It can be a very frustrating game in that way. People saw how many tickets I was winning and asked me to play for them but, I declined. I didn't want them to pay out their tickets only to have me miss the 1,000 ticket marker.

I managed to get my ticket total up to 41,669 tickets. I still don't know what I want to get there prize wise. For now, I just want to run my ticket score up. In time, I'll figure out what I want. The fun right now is just winning tickets and managing to hit the 1,000 marker. Cheers all!