Is Baltimore showing the signs of life we all want to see?

Local Baltimore tour expert – and huge Orioles fan – Chris Riehl joins Nestor at Captain Larry’s in Federal Hill on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour to discuss what makes Charm City great through his eyes and the ears of folks who are charmed by all that our place has to offer.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

baltimore, people, maryland, oyster, city, tourism, deep creek lake, love, stories, orioles, fort mchenry, baseball team, place, years, wife, captain, tour, day, talk, friends

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

What about W en st Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive. It says so right underneath me I’ve got the bowtie on. We are in a place I’ve been trying to come for a while now they’re close right now but by the end of the show they will be open. We are in a beautiful Captain Larry’s right on Fourth Avenue. I’ve driven past and I’ve been in your number of times, but driven past it probably as much as I’ve driven past anything because I live downtown or to get to the supermarket in order to get to anywhere. I had to sort of in order to get to 95 I sort of go to the tunnel go to Dundalk. I went down Ford Avenue. So my tire tracks are in front of Captain Larry’s. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. We have some incident lottery scratch offs to give away thanks to Ross John, also our friends at window Nation. I’m not going to make Chris where the window nation had a few things. We’re capillaries. I want to give a few dollars to the cap to some friends. Victoria August, who was supposed to be my first guest on the program couldn’t make it. New Orleans things are happening but this is her neighborhood bar. Also my dear friend Chris pica is also his neighborhood bar, and he lives right down the street and he’s off XF eling with the Seattle XFL team so he couldn’t be here. But at some point we’ll gather again out here on the outsides and we will be open a little later on. So we’ll have the crabcake the famous capillaries crabcake and we’re gonna have you’re almost came down on St. Patrick’s Day for the famous corned beef and cabbage and here was crowded here that day, Chris real does things in the travel space. What do I say about you? You’re like your normal guy, Raven guy. You sort of have a lot in common in regard to love in the city. Sure. And if I weren’t doing what I was doing, Fred, really good friend of mine said I said with this radio thing falls apart. Chad Steele and Steve shouty run me out of business. What am I going to do and it’s a friend of us, you’ll do a travel thing to like nobody travels more than you. Nobody goes. I was in a why yesterday, right? So the travel thing. That’s your bug, right? And more than that, your thing is really Baltimore and love of Baltimore and showing people who aren’t from Baltimore around Baltimore little Yeah, absolutely.

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02:04

I mean, for me, I don’t travel as much as I would like to because I’m always trying to get people to come here. Write my thing. I want to be here to welcome them. I want people to travel to Baltimore, and to travel to Maryland. Yeah, I have a company called Renta tour, Renta tour.com. And we do city tours all over the place for groups of all shapes and sizes. We just showcase what makes Baltimore such a special place. And there’s first stories to tell. It really depends on the group. But I’d tell you, I we’re on Fourth Avenue right now. And if we were to keep going just a few more blocks, we will eventually get out to Fort McHenry National Monument and historic Shrine, which for me is a must see in Baltimore, you’d be amazed at how many people obviously we’ve all heard the Star Spangled Banner a million times before every baseball game every time you watch the Olympics, but very few people know the story behind it and Baltimore’s connection to it. So it’s always incredibly

Nestor Aparicio  02:58

gratifying to get the Federal Hill shown the cannons right all that.

03:02

Stand on the ramparts. Look out over the Patapsco River imagine British bomb ships sitting out there just trying to brand parts are real things. thing in the song. They are a real thing. You could stand on them at Fort McHenry people always ask is this is the rampart. This is what they’re talking about in the song. Yep. Here’s here’s the twilight’s last gleaming and all that stuff. Yeah. And when they put that big flag up at Fort McHenry, it’s really something special, that 30 foot high 42 foot long flag is pretty wild. I was there with a group two weeks ago, and we were there right at the opening. And they always hoist that flag up, they can only put the big flag up in certain weather conditions. And when they have enough people to help them hoist it, it takes can’t touch the ground. Right? Right. You want to be respectful, it takes about 15 to 20 people just to get that flag up to Flagstaff. So we were lucky to be there on a beautiful day with enough people and watching that flag go up. I was filming it with my phone and it almost hit me because the wind caught it just at the right moment. It was a very cool video because it’s like this enormous flag coming right at you. And then all of a sudden it’s up there on the Flagstaff. So that’s always pretty powerful and pretty moving for people. And hopefully that’s the story. They’ll take home with them. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  04:03

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let’s talk some more of those with you. I’m not gonna stay away from the draft because we’re here on the eve of the draft and I’ve been traveling I wanted to talk about travel, tourism, Baltimore, love Baltimore, but I just got off a plane from Hawaii landed BWI three o’clock in the morning. And I’ve spent the last 10 days in the tropics with mountains and palm trees and the things that make Maui and Hawaii special. And I’m going around if they can, this is beautiful. This is great. La High Noon and the missions and in the beach and will lay is like sort of the Beverly Hills and and Kihei is sort of the Dundalk of, you know, sort of, you know, like the regular place. So all of these places and I’m thinking to myself, I think this about Baltimore every time I come here and even just driving on Fourth Avenue you mentioned I mean I did the show at LP steamers last year. Did the crab cake tore down there, just this whole corridor and bars like capillaries that have been here? Hundreds of years in some cases structures that have been And you’re under two years, but so many places don’t have that will lay has got a lot, but it doesn’t have that kind of history right for us and for the city itself. And I’m looking at a mural here capillaries have this sort of old school, Baltimore grayish short of mural. And we look European, right? So if you go to Amsterdam, if you’ve spent time in Old Europe, Dublin, and those kinds of places, we look and feel that way. And there are not Dallas that look like this. Chicago didn’t look like places that were not around in the 16 1700s don’t have this field, the row homes we have here, people think we have row homes everywhere. They do not like we do not at all, I mean, even the ones in Philadelphia aren’t really like the ones here, you know. So the part of Baltimore that if somebody comes in to you, and says I’m here for the first time, take me to Fort McHenry, I just think to myself, when we have visitors here, I have so many places, and so many things I want to take them to do that I don’t know that a day or two or three from my wife’s family for visiting friends. It’s never enough.

06:06

Now now, there’s no shortage of stories to tell. And you always learn new things every time you go out to there’s always a new, no nugget to uncover as you just go around and kind of explore. And you talk about the European influence. You know, a lot of folks don’t realize that Baltimore was second only to Ellis Island in some years as a port of entry for European immigrants coming into the United States, coming from Germany coming from Ireland, coming from Italy, coming from Eastern Europe. And so you see a lot of that influence in our architecture. And something else that set Baltimore apart was our row homes, because in other cities, families of limited means would be forced to live in these high rise tenement apartment buildings. Here we had homes for those folks and fossils, small modest time was raised them. And you know, the amount of pride people take in homeownership and and you know, having those marble steps out in front and the leaded stained glass, above the windows and doors. So that’s why our neighborhoods look the way they do that slowly. On the it’s great. Yeah, absolutely. sitting out there and scrubbing in marble steps. I mean, that’s, that’s what makes Baltimore so special. It’s just this diversity of cultures. And it all kind of comes together here. And, you know, we more people need to know about that. And we’re out there all the time. You know, working with the state tourism bureau, the local tourism bureau trying to spread that message. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  07:21

I saw you make her last year, right. So explain to people at a higher level, maybe our hunch and come with some pointers to other people from what’s being done to bring back tourism, right. I mean, Hawaii sucked me in with a cheap flight and cheap rooms, right? So I went over and did my thing, how to handle them. And my last piece of banana bread. I had here a couple minutes ago from Lagos. And it’s fun being a tourist, it’s fun, seeking, we weren’t we did the road to Hana, you know. So you think about these things that you see in a magazine. there plenty people, my wife being one of the many, many. I mean, people all the time, say I came to your city, and I went to the aquarium, I went to an Oreo game, I went to Raven game, I went to hammer Jacks years ago, I want walked in Fells Point to stories of people having unexplained my wife at a work event here before she met me. And she still says that’s the Thai joint I went into. But when I came here, and she stayed down at the harbor did the convention, what tourists do? And what are tourists finding now? And what are we doing as a state as a city to bring people back?

08:24

Well, I think something that is really popular these days among people that are looking for a place to visit is authenticity. And Baltimore’s got that in spades photo more is an authentic place. Absolutely. The food, the crab cakes, but it’s all authentic, right? I mean, it’s it’s not manufactured on the captain Larry, of course, and you know, you’ve got these, you’ve got places like this, and neighborhoods all over the city. So that’s what I think people are really hungry for, you know, literally and figuratively. And and, you know, we’ve got that here. So that’s the story that we’re trying to tell. We’re trying to make sure that when we are telling our tourism story, we are also remembering the people who live here because it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Right? You know, you can have a great tourist district that benefits everybody become residents. Exactly. They want to buy in. Yeah, I mean, people come here, and they fall in love with it. And people work in these hotels and these restaurants in these attractions that really supports the economy of the city. So it can really benefit everybody. And that’s the story that we’re trying to tell, you know, in the private sector, with groups like visit Baltimore, and the Maryland office of tourism development. We’re trying to tell our stories more effectively and more inclusively and make sure that everybody feels welcome here. There’s a lot of really exciting things happening. And I just want to invite everybody not just to visit from other parts of the country or other parts of the world, but from other parts of Maryland, you know, down here from Bel Air into the city, I’m telling you, you’re going to have a great time there is so much to see and do you won’t regret it. You’re gonna have a blast.

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Nestor Aparicio  09:51

Well, I love the city. I’m still here three days a week I’m here today I’ll be at fadeless tomorrow. By the way a shout out we’re gonna be Middle River next week. We’re going to be an MC falls in that Thursday through in the Maryland crab cake torts presented by our friends at window nation I’m not going to make a Chris wear the hat 866 90 nation buy to get two free five years 0% financing and our friends at the Maryland lottery I have a brand new incident from scratch. I’ll be giving these away here today capillaries and then failures and then next week at MC falls and we have a whole lineup of crabcake doorstops we’re gonna be making all around winning ticket right there is that the one I had a $50 winner at Pappas in Bel Air two weeks ago and people screaming I had a lot of winners at at fade these on opening day. Oh yeah, we were gonna do opening we did the show that day. This brings me the baseball and Omega grants a great segue for you because because you’re Mr. oriels you and your wife go to the games and the missing ingredient for me. I bought a home downtown in 2003. I ran the Peter principles here while I was gone for a couple days talking about what happened to the franchise in the fall of franchise. I think it’s important Miss 21 years 22 years ago that Mike Mussina left, right. And that’s pretty momentous part of the fall in the collapse of the Orioles and the fan base. And what happened. The plane winning baseball, people that are going to the game are having a great time because I see I’ve been following it from why every day. I mean, they were getting no hit then they come back and win. And, and I know it’s meager competition in April and it’ll get tougher next month. And that’s all good. But the notion that things that bring people together to massive things have happened in the last four weeks here. We’ve opened an arena that is already last Friday night. I’m in Hawaii, everybody’s at I was 40 in the afternoon in Hawaii. Right, right. Everybody’s at Adam Sandler. And if they weren’t Adam Sandler, they were Chicago. And if they weren’t in Chicago, they were at the ballpark. And I’m thinking to myself, This is why I bought into the city in 2003. Because that’s a tough night for me. But my wife went to high school with Adam Sandler. We love Chicago. We love the pier. The Orioles are up the street. That that’s that’s a big city problem. Yeah. Those are the kinds of problems to have. Those are the decisions you want to have to make, as to say, Our City so awesome. There’s a bunch of different things I could do tonight. Which one do I want? In which restaurant do I want to eat? Or which neighborhood do I want to hang out in? And the plague sort of cleared the slate for everybody everywhere? I mean, I was talking to people and why about tourism? What do you what do you think the lady that is known to shave ice Stan said about the plague? Who was buying Shea voice from her and no one went buys it or tourists. Yeah, right. And they weren’t letting anybody on the island. Right? So she said I went through all my savings. I mean, I’m hearing horror stories, right and why right? So for us this piece of CFG Bank Arena I’m gonna have built with L on on the 12th of may still working that out. The piece when the arena brings 810 1000 people down to Adam Sandler where pier six brings five 6000 people down to Chicago, where the Orioles used to bring 48 I don’t know how many were there weren’t many there Friday from what I understand. But this part, we’re baseball and the arena and we talk about the harborplace and whatever’s going to happen there. These are reasons that are going to bring that guy from Bel Air that couple from Carroll County, those folks in Columbia rockville into the city, and they’re gonna find Captain Larry’s crabcakes GM will tell him about it or they’re gonna find an LP steamers and they’re gonna find a place down here. And they’re gonna order some shrimp, get a crab shake, get it get a pit of bread with the delicious. You have. And the baseball team is such. It’s how it got Bill. Yeah, it was. I’m not making this up because I’m at the aquarium or the Science Center, or even the harbor itself. But the baseball team changed everything here in 1992, when that stadium came on three and a half million people were coming into the city and leaving money and Phillips, and Hooters and all of these places that will never be again in that way at the harbor. But we have a really great chance over the next five years with a baseball team with the arena with the kind of x we’re getting to have a renaissance have another it’s time. It’s exciting.

14:04

It’s very exciting, especially at harborplace. Now that we have local developer David Bramble involved with that project, it’s going to be by Baltimore and for Baltimore. It’s going to be a welcoming place for those visitors that are coming into the city but it’s also going to be a place that people who live in the city can appreciate and enjoy to which is going to be great. And you know talking about the Orioles I’ve I’ve been an Orioles fan my entire life. I have been in tourism now for more than 15 years and I have always felt those two things go hand in hand. And I want the Orioles to win because I’m an Orioles fan. But I also want the Orioles to win because tourism helps Baltimore and when those people are coming into the city and enjoying those baseball games, like you said they’re also eating in restaurants and they’re spending the night in hotels and they’re visiting all of our great attractions and you know cultural sites and everything else. So yeah, when the Orioles are doing well it’s good for everybody. And this is about as excited as I think I can remember seeing the fan base and in quite some time now. There’s

Nestor Aparicio  14:58

something to be excited about. Absolutely, absolutely they call me the Debbie Downer. Nasty, you know, like all that. This has been, you know, call it dogshit baseball for, you know, 30 years. I mean, it has been we did

15:10

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a little respite there when when we had our winning season I’m not doubting

Nestor Aparicio  15:13

but but that that if that’s all you’re talking about over 30 years, you know how much you talk. It’s a

15:18

blip on the radar, but But you remember how the energy felt at that time? I mean, I’m ready for new

Nestor Aparicio  15:22

energy in a way that doesn’t involve Peter angelos, or or John at some point. But whatever the next thing is, we’re getting real close. Yeah. Oh, yeah, unreal. Whatever this is going to be and whatever. Adley rutschman. Gunnar Henderson, these young players, Grayson Rodriguez, do all whatever this crop of players brings to the city. But then there’s the part of all right, the stadiums there. It’s beautiful. We’ve made improvements, the city’s getting better. The baseball team is getting better. Hopefully, they’re making it attractive for you to want to come down the you have a good experience getting a hot dog park, in the car, whatever you need to do. But I, I fully agree with you that this, this is the real goal moment for us to say that’s the difference between a million more people coming into the city next summer, in the next summer in the next summer, then came in last summer or the summer before that. And that’s a million more people that can come in and say this is a great place, I want to come back. I want to live here. I want to have a convention here. I want to tell other people, I want to share selfies of me with the Jim Palmer statue, whatever or go out on a tour with Chris, that they’re going to have that positive experience. But the baseball thing more. Maybe Janet Jackson, Chicago, the concerts on a continual basis, we’ll have a reason to bring people into that corridor. But if you’re not coming down for a purpose, other than just saying destination dinner, or I’m just going to walk around because it’s a nice day shows reasons to come the Orioles again, are finally a reason. Yeah. And I really I’m gonna write a lot about this in my columns. It’s just such an important that that they don’t get this wrong.

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17:00

Yeah, that they get it right. Yeah. Yeah, I think we are on the cusp of something really special here. And I just want to enjoy the ride. You know, see how this season plays out? I think this is a franchise record for wins in April. Did I hear that? You know, 18 wins in April. That’s crazy. playing professional baseball players. Yes. And

Nestor Aparicio  17:20

that’s what makes somebody look down and say when’s ball ball cap night in June? Yeah. Right. When’s tankard and you start down under? Right Start? I want to go down there. Maybe not today. Maybe when the weather maybe when kids going to school, but making a plan to do it. And that hadn’t happened. Law and law

17:36

they really had right, I think you’re right. And Oriole Park is still an amazing place to enjoy a baseball game. You probably heard about some of the improvements that are going to be coming to the whole stadium complex, the General Assembly allocated some money for that. So we’re paying

Nestor Aparicio  17:48

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for by the way, I want you to know that I’m just letting you know, it’s I’ll be asking Steve about that. It’s only $600 million, you know, hey, so hey, I’m just saying you know,

17:58

but not with us. And kind of they have to get it right. And also that area around the stadiums are going to be building up as well. So it becomes a year round destination, too. So that’s something that I think we have to look forward to you know, you see that rising out of the sky was just over there. It’s fantastic. What they’re doing over there, the walk on Warner, they’ve got the new Paramount venue that should be opening their doors soon. And then over at the Baltimore Peninsula. I still call it port Covington. But the Baltimore Peninsula is where you’ve got I never

Nestor Aparicio  18:23

gonna call it. Where’s the Baltimore Peninsula? I never heard of a Baltimore Peninsula

18:28

out that way someplace. You mean poor data poor? Yeah. I mean, but that’s coming up real quick, too. They got a whole stadium over there that they’ve built Under Armour is built. So I mean, there are tons of reasons to be bullish on Baltimore right now. We are on the rise.

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Nestor Aparicio  18:42

Well, this guy does things. And this is special because May has some significance for tourism, does it not?

18:48

Yeah. The second week of May is National tour and Travel Week, the National Tourism Association,

Nestor Aparicio  18:53

potentially may that used to be Preakness around here. Sort of Right, right. Yeah.

18:57

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Well, what is it this year, May 20, I think is brochures coming

Nestor Aparicio  19:00

a little later, Todd Schuler from Blondo Miller is going to be my my last guest here today paddlers. And he has promised me a full preview of the Kentucky Derby. All right. So like he he’s the horse guy. So

19:11

how many horses on the derby this year? 3040. At least 18. I know. They’re all tripping over each other. Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  19:16

that’s right. I love I’ve been the eight or nine derbies I would love for the Preakness is the next opportunity. And I don’t want to dog the Preakness. But it is one day one weekend a year. It’s the industry of horse racing. Sure. And and that’s important, but the baseball team that’s always been front and center. That could be what saves the snaps and makes the city better. Yeah, no,

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19:37

I agree. And, but but national tour and Travel Week is the second week in May. And we at the Maryland tourism Coalition have put together this project where we’re going to try to see as much of Maryland as we can in one day. So I’m going to be driving my 24th this last year I did this last year, this was my idea. And it was kind of a crazy idea and I was just gonna kind of do it on my own and then I brought it to the

Nestor Aparicio  19:59

cabin three Eddie crabcakes in 30 days all of us a crazy dollar symbol. Yeah,

20:02

do we have a lot in common? Yeah, just wacky ideas. No, I thought you know, listen, I bet I could get up early in the morning in Ocean City when the sun’s coming up over the Atlantic Ocean and then get in my car and drive all the way across the state of Maryland stopping along the way of various places until I got out to Deep Creek Lake as the sun is setting over the mountains. And so that’s what I did. I set it up with a couple of different destination marketing organizations across the state. We started in Ocean City went to Annapolis Baltimore National Harbor outside of DC up to hammer to grace and then turned West stopped and Frederick

Nestor Aparicio  20:34

8

took me a month to do this. How would you do this in 24 hours?

20:36

I don’t know it was it was less than 24 hours because it was sunrise to sunset. So again, decree Deep Creek Lake and it was it was awesome. It was I was super exhausted. You can find the video on youtube I made a quick little montage of all the places where I stopped so I said this is Maryland in a day in less than eight minutes. But it was great and it got a little bit of attention. So this year we’re doing a different route instead of going east to west we’re gonna go north to south and I’m going to start and have it a grace and make my way down Elkton not out to not gonna be pissed at you. I don’t get that but I am stopping in Cecil County Don’t worry, I’m gonna

Nestor Aparicio  21:08

be northeast you can’t get more northeast the Northeast. Yeah, right.

21:12

Yeah, well, this is this is the way we’ve worked it out because the Harford County and have a degree celebrating their 250th anniversary this year so they’ve got a lot to celebrate they got a lot to be proud of. We’re gonna start they’re gonna show last week Concord port lighthouse, okay with their love it and then just make the way down the contours of the Chesapeake Bay, those through Cecil County. Kent narrows, Queen Anne’s County, Dorchester County, until we get all the way up to Crisfield and down they’re going to have some Smith Island cake for dessert. That’s going to be my reward. You’re going out to the island. I’m not going to go to the island till the next more I’ve been in her kitchen. I am going out to the island I went

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Nestor Aparicio  21:50

out to they took us down there. Tim we had some we had great people on the Eastern Shore two summers ago. We went to her her kitchen and she made the cakes with us in her kitchen. I’m just telling you get on the boat from Crisfield and I was told this one of my dearest friends Nina McCool I grew up with Dawn dog has spent her whole life in Crisfield sent standoff and she told me that the mosquitoes look for the tourists. Oh they know and and I got on the boat. And we took the boat the tender out to Smith island there Smith islands tangent little islands out there. And when I got back the bugs had bitten under my neck under my hairline back here and I had they weren’t mosquitoes I don’t know what the hell they were. They watch yourself and Crisfield there’s

22:34

bugs and crispy I will keep that in mind. Maybe I’ll wear a turtleneck.

Nestor Aparicio  22:37

Chris real is here he’ll be wearing something and then what do you do in the Maryland on May the ninth may 9 Okay. I love when people call Marilyn the United States in miniature got it all because we have the ocean we have the mountains we have the water. We have a great city here

22:52

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and the day before by the way the day before May 8 To kick off national tour and travel we were going to be in Annapolis right there the city dock. Okay. And we’re going to have a proclamation from the governor designating this week as Maryland tour and Travel Week and we’re gonna be talking about all the other events that you can check out during the week on social media we’re having a statewide scavenger hunt we got prizes to give away so just a lot to celebrate is

Nestor Aparicio  23:14

a reason for me to call Wes Governor more FEMA but I used to call them west now I gotta call them Governor more Chris rails here. Tell me how to find you other than ad on Facebook with you and your wife where Oriole stuff and smiling Yeah, yeah, well,

23:25

you can always by the way, my wife would, I would be remiss if I didn’t say hashtag Oriole sign girl because every time we go to an order, she’s a new sign and she wants that to get out there. So, but she just did. It’s awesome. I am on Twitter and Instagram at real deal. 125 It’s RIEHLD Al 125 and also youtube.com/chris Real when the pandemic started and I couldn’t do live tours anymore. I set up a little studio in my basement, and I think you saw it with the Skipjacks pennants on the wall and the knotty pine it’s it looks like a basement of a Baltimore row house.

Nestor Aparicio  24:00

I scored Springsteen tickets upstate college a couple of weeks ago and on the way up, there’s an antique place in Shrewsbury and I’m gonna bring Shannon on this because I wore my queen belt buckle because she’s the queen. So So I have my my rock and roll belt buckles here that I wear this is the queen one. There it is right there. So So I sort of looked for them. They’re my little thing, but they all always wind Oh, I see an old Narragansett sign or something that’s in these antique shops. I’m in Shrewsbury I got 1966 newspaper preview for the Baltimore Sun and news American evening sun of the 66 World Series. Oh wow. I paid five bucks. But the thing that led me to it was this beautiful Baltimore clippers pennant it was the orange and black with with you know the the angry a guy with the the the the angry ship captain the angry clipper captain with with the goalie stick fight, fight fight. And I looked at it I thought man, I don’t collect that kind of stuff anymore like pennants and autographs. I click things like where, right? And I looked at I thought, man, what’s that worth to me? What would I pay for that? You know, I pay 40 bucks for that. He wanted 75 And it’s cool and it’s somebody else it’ll be there. But then he showed me the greatest thing that would go great a captain layers. It might even been a captain layers. Back in the 60s. He had this giant hockey skate that was designed to be a beer. Oh opener, and it had the Clippers logo on one side. And strangely enough, it had the American Hockey League logo on the other side. And it had some beer. I mean, what beer it was, but whatever was it was clearly the league had a night where they gave away beer bottle openers that were hockey skates. There. It’s a little hockey skate that opens beer from 1968 Love it. $225 I didn’t want to 25 You know, it’s it’s vintage. Yeah, well, like me in this show. I show you where to tweet go vintage August 3 25th anniversary, which is why we’re doing the Maryland crab cakes where I’m doing. I need you to help me. You’d be part of this. And in September for our 25th anniversary. I’m doing 25 consecutive days with oysters go in September. It’s got an R It’s football season, right. The Orioles will be 10 games ahead at that point. Maybe or at least in the playoffs, hopefully clinch they’ll have magic wild magic numbers. I love it during the worst I’m doing the oyster tour. So if you waste your stew, it’s kind of like the the Forrest Gump, oyster stew, fried oysters, raw oysters, oysters, whatever the oyster dishes I want to try as many interesting oyster dishes as I can

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26:34

love that love that. You know, I learned a lot about oysters this past week, where there’s a program that the Marilyn Office of Tourism puts together called the Chesapeake storytellers. And they bring together all these people from all around the state who all have stories to tell. And did you know there were oyster wars in the Chesapeake Bay really in the 1800s Virginians and Marylanders literally killing each other because the oysters are so valuable. It’s like the gold rush in California.

Nestor Aparicio  26:56

It has it’s one on the trail on the little skinny part below. Ocean City. The road that goes to the Bay Bridge Tunnel. Okay, you don’t talk about dawn in Virginia. Yeah, that area. It’s nothing but oysters, that whole area, and then the road that leads down that strip. I think it’s 13, I believe, or 113, whatever that that is, that road has a train track. And I’ve only been on it once and my wife and I came back from Nags Head during the plague that way. And I saw it and it’s so unbelievably historic, that nobody ever drives up and down there. But oysters and the trains and how things worked on the coast in the 1800s. Yeah, it’s all still sitting there. Yeah, it’s It’s

27:39

wild. That history is amazing. And you know, right across the street over here at the Baltimore Museum of industry. That’s an oyster Canary saw Connect. I didn’t know that’s all connected. Yep. The old oyster cannery that’s now the home of the Baltimore Museum. It’s

Nestor Aparicio  27:48

8

real nice things about Baltimore and about Maryland about tourism. He’ll be doing his tour on May 9 from habita grace to Crisfield and I got some crab cakes on Eastern Shore I can send you to I’ll tell you, we’re Captain Larry’s rabid crabcakes I want to thank Len Raskin for giving me the rascals This is a great Baltimore piece. This is this is a crab claw. I have not used it yet because but it has a beer bottle opener so this is sort of like the the right thing it opens beers or bottle opener on anything big appreciation around the globe in the American Dream keeping our money together. Our friends at the Maryland lottery it’s a lottery scratch offs by the way. If that’s the winner, that’s yours crispy. Wow. Absolutely. When donation 866 90. Nation you buy two you get two free. Shana tobac is going to be our next guest. Todd Shula is going to be here. Maura and her crew are here we’re Captain Larry’s encourage everybody to come by they have the windows open here. crabcakes beer it says Narragansett outside but you can drink whatever you want. I’m going to drink something here pretty soon as well. Sort of a legendary space here and some great stories here as well for sure we are in. Is this still Federal Hill? At what point do we change the name

28:56

or Riverside locus point?

Nestor Aparicio  28:58

Are we near Baltimore Peninsula?

29:00

Are we over there someplace? Yeah, this is the South Baltimore Peninsula though.

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Nestor Aparicio  29:05

We’re downtown Huntsville. Balmer is what I would call it. South Baltimore. We’re 44th Avenue in Federal Hill. It’s all brought to you by window nation the Maryland lottery and friends of wise markets as well. I am Nestor. Big appreciation to Chris for coming out. Go tour up with him go learn some things. Go take a bow. Nighttime crawl with him. By the way. Last thing for you on the tourism thing. I’m in Hawaii the other night where the Northern Lights really visible of Deep Creek Lake.

29:32

I read about that. That is that but I saw some photos of it. I think even closer than Deep Creek Lake. Where did I just see something? Yeah, but they were visible as far south as Maryland. And it was pretty. Oh, I know. I was

Nestor Aparicio  29:47

missing them. Yeah, absolutely. Maybe we will get one this summer. I am Nestor we are wn st we’re broadcasting from Captain Larry’s. We’re down in Federal Hill back from the Maryland crab cake tour. Stay with us.