Hop’in Around Baltimore: JHU Family Weekend
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Posted by: Hopkins Insider | 
December 1 2011 | 
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Name: Jake Golman
Year: Class of 2014
Hometown: Dallas, TX
Major: Economics
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The weekend of October 14, 2011 was family weekend at Hopkins. This year, my youngest brother Hank (15) and uncle Greg came to visit. My brother had never spent significant time on a college campus and my uncle had not spent much time on one in over 30 years! They both were excited (or so they said) to see Hopkins and me. Since we planned to drive a lot and parking can be a bit of a hassle, I reserved a Zipcar for the weekend. They came straight to campus from the airport. Right off the bat we went shopping to restock on supplies – Giant, Target and Staples. We bought so much that it took the three of us two trips to get everything to my room. THANK YOU UNCLE GREG!! We then went to the famous Woodberry Kitchen for dinner. Have you heard of it?? Woodberry was featured on Food Network. Although all of its dishes are spectacular, Woodberry is best known for their C.M.P. dessert, described on the menu as “Malt ice cream, chocolate sauce, marshmallow fluff, wet peanuts.” I think a better description would be “heaven in a cup!” My uncle was amazed. Sometimes I go to Woodberry Kitchen just for the dessert! I highly recommend this restaurant – it’s only 10 minutes from campus – but you need to make reservations weeks in advance.
Eating the CMP!
We started the next morning at another Food Network dive, Blue Moon Café, located in Fells Point. Words of advice from a Blue Moon regular – go early to avoid a VERY long wait. We ordered the famous Cap’n Crunch French Toast and some pumpkin pancakes. Huge portions, great food. After breakfast, the real touring commenced! We first stopped on the Homewood campus. Our tour of Homewood included a guided tour of the Baltimore Museum of Art which has on permanent exhibit one of the largest Matisse collections in the world as well as several Picassos, Degas, and Monets among others. During the summer before I started at Hopkins, I went with my uncle to Europe and visited many well-known art museums. He has seen his fair share of art over the years and even collects it. His was quite impressed by the depth and variety of the BMA’s collection, especially for a museum on a college campus. I am a Hopkins tour guide and gave them an unofficial tour of the Homewood campus after visiting the museum.
The Blue Moon Cafe
My brother absolutely loved the Da Vinci machine in Hackerman Hall and enjoyed reliving parts of the “Social Network” which was partially filmed on campus. My brother and uncle both thought the school would be “older looking” but quickly concluded that most of the buildings are pretty new. The campus buildings really flow together, one of the reasons that I loved Homewood from the beginning! We concluded the tour by walking around Charles Village. I showed them my places- Charles Street Market, University Market, Eddies Grocery Store, Maxies Pizza and my fraternity house.
The Breezeway
We grabbed a quick bite to eat in Hampden, a kooky neighborhood a few blocks from campus that not many people seem to know about, and then headed over to the Peabody Campus. Although I know several people who attend Peabody, I had never been on the campus so I thought this would be a perfect time to check it out. The Mount Vernon area has a very different feel than Charles Village. Although our stay was short, I saw one thing I wanted to see, the George Peabody Library. The Peabody Library, which has mostly old books, gets rave reviews and is regularly written up as one of the most impressive college libraries in the country. We then zipped through Little Italy and, after grabbing a cannoli as a snack, headed to the Inner Harbor and the Babe Ruth Museum near Camden yards. The Inner Harbor was packed! Many people had ran in the Baltimore marathon earlier in the day while others were simply enjoying the beautiful afternoon.
Peabody Library
Our last stop before dinner was the Hopkins Hospital. My uncle has been a doctor in a major city for 30 years but was astonished by the sheer size of the hospital. Being from Texas where almost everything is bigger, my brother said, “This place is bigger than Jerry World (the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium).” After a long day of touring, we had dinner at a little joint in Canton and called it a night. On Sunday morning, the only thing on our schedule was breakfast at Paper Moon Café (5 minutes from campus). My uncle could not stop talking about the restaurant’s décor! It was finally time for them to go back home.
During their two short days with me, we visited at least 9 different Baltimore neighborhoods! They had an awesome trip (although too short L), and I really enjoyed showing off Hopkins and the city of Baltimore to my family!
