When I finally reached Atlanta from San Francisco after a long-ass redeye, I saw that I had received a message from those bitches. They wanted my tires ass to go on a [art two trip- Baltimore and Washington. I got a little more sleep on the plane as we flew up the east coast, arriving early into the city as their day was just beginning.

Having been there before, I knew just where the Maryland Transportation Authority (MTA) Light Rail Station was. It’s located on the bottom level at the far end of the International Terminal. I saw that a train was waiting for me, so I purchased an MTA Day Pass (only $3.50, an absolute steal. And you get unlimited rides on all buses, trains and subways.) I relaxed in a cozy seat with a handful of others and waited to go.

About halfway to downtown, we were told that everyone would have to get off at the Patapsco Station. Something I had failed to notice on my recent visits to the MTA website was that there was going to be construction on the tracks between the Patapsco Station and the Camden Station for the next couple of weeks and that we would have to ride a twenty minute shuttle bus. Yee, haw.

I followed the locals to the shuttle bus stop and boarded. Fortunately, the buses ran very frequently. Unfortunately, we hit a train crossing about halfway to downtown. It was a very long and slow moving train. We were stopped for nearly twenty minutes. My time permitting trips were just about out of the question.

Finally, we moved. The driver skipped all of the subsequent stops and went straight to the Camden Station where I and everyone else disembarked. I walked around Oriole Park at Camden Yards, impressed at what has to be one of the most beautiful baseball stadiums that I had ever seen. With its landscaping and the large warehouse at its flank, it really doesn’t seem like a stadium at all.

Next, I walked east on Conway then south on Sharp towards the Federal Hill area. Luckily I had a really good MTA map of downtown, so getting around was pretty easy. Holding the map wasn’t, however. Although it was sunny and bright, it was rather chilly (in the low sixties) with winds gusting to a good forty miles an hour or so. But, I walked on.

Finally, with a turn onto Montgomery, I found myself in the historic Federal Hill neighborhood, located just to the south of the Inner Harbor. I strolled along the cobblestone paths taking in the classic federalist architecture and the colorful fall trees lining the streets all around me. Then, at the far eastern end on the neighborhood, was Federal Hill itself. It was the tallest terrain in the area, one that had to have awesome views from the top, so I climbed the steps to see.

Boy, it was windy up there. The gusts came right off of the harbor. I was worried that I would be blown down the steep slopes if I wasn’t careful. There, I got some awesome views of downtown Baltimore , the Inner Harbor and the Federal Hill neighborhood. The view down Montgomery Street was truly magnificent.

I descended the hill and made my way north toward downtown and HarborPlace, right along the blue and choppy waters of the harbor. The Inner Harbor is quite a colorful and festive area, and even on this cold and windy day in October it was full of people. I visited the HarborPlace Festival Marketplace, a stop for good food and shopping, and got great views of the National Aquarium just to the east across the waters. I stopped to relax on one of HarborPlace’s balconies overlooking the piers and marinas just below and took in another of my favorite activities- people watching.

I decided to walk north and take in some of the sights of downtown on my way to the Mount Vernon neighborhood. But, it was dark, cold and windy as I stepped into the canyons of downtown on Calvert, so I waited at an MTA bus stop for the next one to arrive.

Although my map did outline the routes of the buses pretty well, the stops also have maps and schedules of the buses that stop there. Kudos to the MTA for that. I hopped on the No. 64/North Avenue bus as I relaxed and watched the city of Baltimore revolve around me.

It was a ten or twelve block ride to the north, with the next stop displayed clearly on a marquee on the bus, always quite helpful, before I got off at Chase Street in the Mount Vernon neighborhood.

Mount Vernon was a little less quaint than Federal Hill, but much taller and bigger. I walked west along Chase toward the retail hub at the west end. At the western fringes, the streets became much more confusing as the block system seemed to be abandoned all of a sudden. With my map, I finally made my way to the Chase Street strip.

I stopped at the Lambda Rising bookstore where a helpful employee told me that the neighborhood’s real strip was located just around the corner on Read and that Mount Vernon was indeed Baltimore’s gay neighborhood. I made my purchase, thanked him, then went around the corner (headed southeast) onto Read, and there it was.

Mount Vernon’s strip was much less colorful and much smaller than what I would expect from a city Baltimore’s size. There were a few small shops and restaurants, although the strip retained the charm of the colonial neighborhood all around it. Then, on top of one of the businesses, there was a small rainbow flag. There was Baltimore’s gay neighborhood for you. Small, subtle, but still there and not afraid to show off its colors.

I made the short walk north to the Cultural Center Station on the light rail and took it to Baltimore’s Penn Station stop. I noticed that their train depot was old and crowded as I made my way to purchase a ticket on MARC to Washington D.C.’s Union Station. I also noticed that all trains were delayed due to "signal problems" (I found out later that high winds had knocked a few trees onto the tracks and had caused havoc with the wiring systems controlling the signals.)

I purchased a one-way ticket to D.C. at the Amtrak ticket desk and soon boarded a very comfortable train after a twenty minute delay. (Actually, I had planned on taking a 12:40 train, but got to the station at noon to see that the 11:40 train was delayed. As soon as I purchased my ticket, the 11:40 train began boarding and I was on my way. So the delays actually worked out for the better.)

It was a smooth ride out of Baltimore to Washington, although a few lingering problems did require us to stop a few times. But I was falling in and out of sleep and before I knew it, we were pulling into the capital’s Union Station.

Washington’s Union Station, unlike Baltimore’s Penn, is much bigger, much more updated, and has a lot more shopping and eating diversions. I skipped these treats and made my way to the Metro station in the facility (the Red Line), purchased a day pass and headed north toward Dupont Circle.

I ascended at Dupont Circle and, once again, lost all sense of direction. My maps were no help, so I asked a Metro attendant which way would put me northwest on Connecticut and he pointed the way.

The circle had changed little since my last visit two weeks earlier as I headed toward Connecticut Avenue’s commercial strip. Already, there were the colors all around me. There were gay bookstores, clothing shops, antique stores and even the locally popular Tomate Italian restaurant.

I turned to the east at S Street, surrounded by a gorgeous and eclectic mix of architectural styles, ranging from Victorian (a gay favorite) to federalist (a government favorite) to a touch of gothic. Each building seemed to have so much character and history. And everything was framed by the red and gold colored leaves on the changing trees. I walked slowly along S Street just to take it all in.

I finally arrived at 17th Street and turned south. I found myself in the gay commercial hub of Dupont Circle. There were stores, hotels and eateries all adorned with the colors. I had found what I had missed on my earlier trip. Again, I walked slowly to take it all in.

At the P Street intersection I headed back west toward the circle. There, I stopped to relax for a few minutes in the inner circle, watching people playing instruments, conversing or just reading a book as if tropical storm winds weren’t blowing everything away, but that’s the way this city is. Very little can keep these people from going about their business.

I caught the Red Line again at the Dupont Station and headed back the way I came. I stopped at the Metro Center Station where I transferred to a Blue Line train that would take me back to Washington National Airport. I relaxed on the (surprisingly) sparsely filled train, but decided that, since I still had so much time before my flight, I would ride the train to its final stop in Springfield, Virginia.

There was really nothing there but cookie-cutter suburbs, so I took the next train out and back to National Airport. The ride was uneventful and I made it back to the airport with enough time to relax outside, view the old DCA terminal and catch my flight home after a long, two day trip.