Baltimore Skyline

It's late November, yet it feels as if it could be springtime in Baltimore. The added rain today makes it more like April than almost December. In any event, it is after Thanksgiving, so now all Christmas and winter season decorations are popping up across the city. Federal Hill looks now like a winter village (albeit sans snow), and lights are up along Pratt and Charles. The main decorating event kicks off Thursday with the 40th annual lighting of the Washington Monument! Last year debuted new lights for the monument, which are brighter and can be seen more clearly from farther away. This year hopes to be as big an event as ever, so make sure you get out there for this unique Baltimore tradition. Also an update for this year are the lights in Preston Gardens, our other downtown park. Sponsored by Mercy Medical Center, new LED lights hope to make the Christmas scenes in the gardens brighter. Unless cancelled by the rain the new lights get plugged in tonight. Need we even mention th...

Once again we've found ourselves doing a food review here on Baltimore Skyline. Grilled Cheese & Co. just opened their new location on Light Street in Federal Hill on Friday afternoon. You might remember it as the old location of Dangeriously Delicious Pies, right around the corner from Cross Street, and along a prime walking route (especially for the late night post-bar crowd). Walking in there is a small counter where orders can be taken or picked up. While you cannot order off their website, you can call in take out orders. The back of the place has about a dozen tables with plenty of room to snack out on grilled cheese, soup, and shoe string fries. I tried GC&C on Sunday afternoon right right before the Ravens game. For this first time I ordered the BCT: bacon, cheese, and tomato. My wife decided on the same, but added a cup of the cream of tomato basil as an extra. Wait time was about 10 minutes, which was sufficient time to drive down from Federal Hill. Seeing...

The cartoon bird returns for the 2012 Orioles! In a move that harkens back to the glory days of the orioles, the new uniform sports a remake of the cartoon bird that featured on the orioles hat from the 1960s to the 1980s. Along with the new cap logo, the O's home hat will now have a white face, in a new version of the hat that was made famous by Cal Ripken and others. The road hat will remain black and orange, but with the smilin' bird on the front. The road uniform has been tweaked to improve the "Baltimore" script, and the team introduced a new Orangle jersey for select home games to go along with the black jersey. All the uniforms will sport a commemorative patch to celebrate the 20th anniversary of OPACY. As a huge uni-fan, I'm excited for the retro look. The best uniform move the Orioles made was returning "Baltimore" on the front of the away uniform where it belongs, just like Brooks Robinson wore it (except not in wool kersey). This is just t...

We hope you did! In light of the dismal voter turnout for the primary election, it should be a shock to the system. Baltimoreans needs to realize they need to do their civic duty. So let's hope you exercised your civic muscles and went to the polling places today!