Baltimore! Part 2 - New Years Eve

New Year's Eve day was rainy but was extra special and warm in a way that had nothing to do with weather.  I have been friends with a group of women for over 12 years that were all joined through our love of horses.  One of our group passed away just before Thanksgiving leaving us all a little sad.  So it made it that much more special that it would work out that Tree (Teresa) would be able to pick us up in Baltimore and take us out to her farm.

Tree and I are soul sisters.  But we had never met in person. From the minute we hugged and I got in her car, we were finishing one another sentences. She is an amazing person who has left the corporate world to run her own therapy riding business.  Mostly she has autistic kids and adults and they have been able to accomplish amazing things with her!

Madison enjoyed Tree's company but mostly she loved the "hot rocks" that they keep sitting on the wood burner to warm cold hands and feet.  And cheeks.

 Tree's cats loved me. One behind my head, one under my hand..

I hope the joy in our faces expresses how much we enjoyed one another's company.  We got to tour her farm and help fix a fence that a boarder horse had knocked over.  Later we went out for lunch that was FANTASTIC with real Maryland Crab Cakes and tricked Madison into telling a young waiter that he was very handsome, totally making his day.  Later, we spent some time with Mark, Tree's significant man, where we learned that he had told Tree's mom that she was marrying the wrong man, marrying the "safe one" at her first wedding! Luckily she ended up with the right one.

Back at the ranch, I mean apartment, I found myself drinking coffee and putting on makeup at 9:00PM.  Yes, PM.  I haven't done that since I was in my 20's! But it was New Years Eve and we were going to spend our last night in Baltimore doing it up right.

Our destination was decided by the simple fact that Madison had lost an earring on our pub crawl 2 nights before and wanted to go back to the bar where she thought it had fallen out.  When we got there, we saw the bartender who remembered us. But he didn't have it.  Next we saw the owner who said he would look for it and sent us to his other bar next door where the band was playing.

Within minutes, he was back at our sides with the earring!  Unbelievable luck!  While Madison had a rather brave little guy hitting on her, we had a lovely time and rang in the new year with smiles.

Our intention had been to take a Lyft back to the apartment but it was about 5 times as much as it had been to get downtown.  We decided to walk a ways and then try again.  The rain had stopped and it wasn't very cold.  And we passed some pretty spots!

In the end, we ended up walking the entire way back, joined half way by two rather drunk 20-something boys.  But it had been a light day with only 3.21 miles of walking...before midnight.  Since we didn't get back until after 2:00AM, we logged another 2 miles before bed.