21 April 2026 Baltimore: More New Beginnings

 

We tried to sleep in but the first night in a new place is always hard to get settled into so we woke up early.  We met Devin for lunch and were planning on going to an art museum in Baltimore, unfortunately the museum was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  We had another non-stop gab-fest until the restaurant had to close.  Devin is a delight and her artistic endeavors are quite extraordinary.  After the restaurant closed and we were asked to leave, we walked back to our hotel and marveled at all the Baltimore sights.  We had a zoom call with our Spanish lawyers and had made an early night of it.  Off to the "Lou" in the morning

Our lunch spot

A funky coffee, sandwich and record shop

Back out in the sun!  We say our good byes for now....

Churches

Old folks crossing

Flowers

Statues

Kids will splash

In the mount Vernon neighborhood we found a Washington monument

Quite patriotic

Gate Appreciation worthy

Rowwwwrrr!

Lions in the park

Big bulls

Another church

An odd wrapping on this statue

The Engineers club

Back to the very elaborate lighting fixtures

Hi!  Pleased to meet you!

 It has been 3 years and 316 days since we began our Migration

20 April 2026 Baltimore: My Daughter Devon

 

Almost five years ago, on Fathers Day, my daughter bought an Ancestry DNA kit and took tha leap into the unknown.  Being donor conceived, she had always wondered who her biological father was.  A DNA kit was the only real way of finding out, so she went for it.   My sperm donations were strictly confidential and all she had was a short blurb that I had written down at the clinic in 1989 in Rochester NY.  Meanwhile Leslie, her mom Vera and I took Ancestry DNA tests at around the same time but had marked our results private.  My niece Roxanne also took the tests but marked her results public.  As such Devin got a 25% match with Roxanne and began some expert sleuthing.  She was able to look on the family tree that Roxanne had built where she noticed that the next level up from Roxanne had Lisa, Kris and John Olson listed.  Devin reached out to Roxanne but she did not know how to respond while keeping my privacy intact.  Further exploration on facebook identified that Kristine Olson was now  Kristine Ousley and she had a brother, Fritz Leip. So Devin continued to research and found Fritz Leip in a few places.  First Fritz Leip on Facebook where she sent a Facebook message that I did not see for a year or so later where I finally found it.  Then she found the Fritz the Artist website and the Fritz Leip the Artist instagram page.  Eventually she found my aol email and the rest is history.  We communicated back and forth and finally met each other in Baltimore MD!

Two different stadiums

Right on the highway

With dive bars at the ready

Golden glove on the Brooks Robinson statue

Very Victorian

Staying at the Indigo

A very busy frame

Of all the gin joints in Baltimore we meet Devon here

A flight of gin!

A most fancy drink!

Fly like a gin flight

Tasty items

Some hot stuff

Some toasty stuff

Another flight!

The proprietor is very persuasive

We sat and talked for three hours

At 8 we had to move to the bar

What a bar it was

Much too much

Time too call it a nigh

A most delightful evening and the first of many meetings to come

 It has been 3 years and 315 days since we began our Migration

20 April 2026 Baltimore: Another Day Another City

 

We had a quick breakfast and when Dave came home from shuttling Fin we took a walk down by the water.  

Bluebird peeking out

Siom snake art from Fritz the Artist

Oh no the turtle is upside down, may day may day!

Bever mitigation

Cormorant

Nice woods populated with nice homes

Up on the pole a new home

For an osprey

Some of them have winches to bring stuff up from water level

A nice walk indeed

This old town, he be green...

This old bird, he be red

Monkey face chewed out by the bever

Timber!

Blooms everywhere

Back at the house

On the road

 It has been 3 years and 315 days since we began our Migration