Scouting around Baltimore

After the rehabilitation center, we decided to continue scouting around the Baltimore area looking for more photo opportunities.

This Goetze's Meats sign is rusting away and much of the plant's buildings have been demolished.

I managed to grab this quick photo of a yard filled with old cars and guard dogs before the owner shooed us on, suspicious of our cameras.

We came across this building which was probably once a gas station and I liked the mural on the wall. It reminded me of a Banksy art piece.

Just up the road was an abandoned building by the railway so I snapped a quick photo there.

This barber's shop was actually open but although I admired the art in the window, I don't think it particularly enticed customers inside for a haircut!

Our last stop was at a car crushing plant where we roamed around the piles of scrap metal. There weren't any old cars to be seen but we still managed to find plenty of photo opportunities.






And so we closed our shutters on a super day of scrap and urban decay.

Rehabilitation Center, MD

An exploring trip has been long overdue so our little group was more than happy to discover access to an abandoned rehabilitation center in Maryland. There is little information available on the internet about this place and it had obviously been closed a long time although it was slap bang in the middle of an active university ground with operational buildings attached to one side.

The place was more or less empty but a lot of beds had been left around the stairwell area and even shoved into the elevator.


I wondered how long this golf ball had been here just sitting in the middle of the hallway.

Many windows were broken inside and out with shards of glass covering the floors and crunching underfoot.

Most of the hallways led to patients' rooms with kitchen areas by the stairwells.

You don't say!

I was amazed that this lightbulb had survived the years without being smashed.

Another scene of the stairwell with more beds.


Down in the basement we found the morgue which was was fortunately unscathed by graffiti.

We also found this room filled with plaster moulds but had no idea why they were here or what they were used for, possibly for patients' therapy. There were religious figurines, cutlery, animals and patterned moulds, hundreds of different shapes.
It was great to be exploring again and as we emerged into the bright sunshine, we discussed some more possible locations for the near future.

'Odds 'n' Sods' in Chicago

Outside our hotel was this brilliant moped which reminded me of the Who movie, Quadrophenia, and also of my past biker days when I used to wear a pin on my leather bike jacket which said, 'Violate A Vespa'.

This weird building is the Thompson Center but is also known as the Birthday Cake Building. It houses offices and retail space and is supposed to be a futuristic reinterpretation of the state capitol form. Our tour guide described the ugly white 'art' piece at the front as "Snoopy in a blender" which was hilarious.

We had a lot of laughs in front of these wacky mirrors on the Navy Pier.

I couldn't take my eyes off of this John Lee Hooker wannabee. He really looked the part and I had to admire his confidence.

The best popcorn ever is Garrett popcorn. In our tour guide brochure, we were given a wealth of freebie coupons and our gratis gift from Garretts was a bag of caramel popcorn and cheese popcorn. It was a good sized bag and absolutely delicious, an opinion shared by the locals as the queue went out the door. Incidentally, we had quite a few freebies which we claimed throughout our visit but the meanest one of all came from Oprah. All the coupons gave free gifts except for her. She gave a free plastic ballpoint pen, but only when you made a purchase from her shop, which also we weren't allowed to take photos of inside. I didn't claim my pen but I did take an indignant photo.

This is a view from the Sears Tower which had very dirty windows.

This beautiful art nuveau subway entrance is a replica of a Paris subway entrance designed by Hector Guimard and given to Chicago by the city of Paris in 2001.
In Chicago's China Town, is the Nine Dragon Wall. Our tour guide informed us that there are four of these walls and the other three are in China.

As we were driven around the city by bus, I noticed this scene of newly weds posing in the middle of the street. I grabbed a quick shot as the bus passed and was really pleased with the result.

On our last morning, we spent a couple of hours shopping and I fell in love with these beautiful pink shoes with silver heels. Sadly I couldn't afford to spend $60 on a pair of shoes that would rarely fit into my lifestyle so I took a photo then slowly placed them back on the shelf with a wistful last look over my shoulder as I left...

I spotted this sign declaring that Led Zep would be playing on June 12. I'd love to know how they got the booking since the band still haven't decided to perform a comeback tour.

I loved the derelict feel of this subway station and felt this image would have been at home amongst my 'abandoned building' photos if there hadn't been people standing on the platform.
I feel an urban exploration coming on!

Blue Brothers' Chicago

Seeing all the new sights that Chicago offered was fabulous but my trip would have been incomplete if I'd not seen some Blues Brothers locations. I have seen the movie 43 times and have got to the stage where I can now only watch it by myself as I find I'm reciting lines all through the film which drives people mad! Daley Plaza was my mecca and had to be seen with my own eyes.

On the tour buses, we often drove down Wacker Drive where Jake and Elwood led hundreds of police cars on an amazingly long chase but we never clocked 130 mph like they did.


I had the chance to visit Daley Plaza on my own and was happy to just stand and drink in the atmosphere of the location that marked my heroes' destination and where the car chase ended. It looked exactly like it did on the movie but minus the thousands of military and police officers and their vehicles. I was very excited to be here and didn't know where to walk first.

The building on the left was where Jake & Elwood's car crashed through the glass windows, drove through the foyer as marked by the red arrow and then crashed out of the other side of the building to stop outside the Cook County Assessor's Office.

The two concerned faces above are on the side of the CC building and featured in the movie immediately after the Blues Mobile sadly fell apart on the pavement.


A security guard noticed me with my nose pressed to the glass and very kindly came out and took my photo outside the building as well as explaining that the interior of this actual Cook County building wasn't the interior used on the film. I took many more photos of Daley Plaza and walked around some more, reluctant to leave such a famous place and anxious in case I'd missed anything.

We also stopped at Wrigley Fields which was shown in the movie because Elwood gave the actual street address of the stadium as his home address angering the police when they turned up to arrest him and furious at having been duped.

And the icing on the cake was at the airport as we left, Jake and Elwood were sitting along one of the walkways providing an opportune photo.

Aston's Graduation

June 22nd was a very special day in my friend, Debbie's house, as her son Aston was graduating from high school. To mark the occasion meant a mini Brit Invasion as family flocked across the pond to Sterling, and a very special Scottish friend came down from Canada and also an Uncle from Germany. We met her brother at the airport where we all greeted him wearing 'Deanie Weanie, where are you?' shirts, which requires an explanation.
Lat year I sent Dean a birthday card with Deanie Weanie on the envelope, and when it was delivered by the mail lady, she hailed him thus. He fumed at her familiarity and chosen greeting, and without looking at the mail in his hand, flung it in the kitchen on his way to work where he continued to fester for the rest of the day. Once back at home, he saw the envelope I'd written and vowed revenge. Too late!

I printed a bunch of shirts at work and everyone readily agreed to wear them to the airport, where after lots of hellos and hugs, I casually walked in front of him so he could see the 2-0 printed on my back! He took it like a gentleman and again vowed revenge. I'm still waiting...
He was a complete star, though, and brought everyone prezzies, including my favorite Maltesers.

There was an additional member of the family this year as Astrid and (Young) Dean had brought their 10 month old baby, Amelia. She is the best behaved baby I've ever come across and during the times I saw them, which was often, I never heard her cry. Her cute expression above is called her' troll face' which she has inherited from her grandfather!

Mom, Astrid, on the left and her sister Calella on the right, named after a town in Spain, to which she now holds the key.

The boys are back in town! (Young) Dean, left, Scott, family friend on the right, and Debbie's brother and Amelia's grandfather, Dean ( no more Deanie Weanies, it's not fair!), in the middle. I was pleased my camera lens survived this shot, especially with the offensive Chelsea shirt in the foreground!

Debbie had put out loads of Aston photos and trophies on the deck along with a metal panel which he had rubbed down and spray painted. He's getting very good at car body repair.

Some of the party crowd on the deck with Astrid, left, and cousin Justine on the right, who lives in England but flew in from California where she was working for a few days editing movies for DVDs.

This was the cap throwing part of the graduation. The main speaker was a neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins University, who I realized I had read about in the Readers' Digest magazine.
Park View School have also got a page on his speech to the graduates.

Here's Aston with his proud Mom.

Kim, Aston, Trina & Uncle Pete.

Aston and his girlfriend, Brianna.

Dean's son, Nelson, wearing Aston's cap. This little guy has got the most wonderful manners, he's a gem.

Here are Debbie's Mom, Joyce on the right, Auntie Val, left, and family friend, Myra, in the middle, who makes the most wonderful marmalade and jam which I have been eating almost every day since she gave me some large jars. I have no idea what they were all looking at here, but I imagine it was something that warranted a comment like, "Is that a skirt or a belt?" Even Debbie's other half, Jim, in the background is having a look!
I wish Aston could have a graduation every year so we could have more wonderful moments of family, friends, heckling and good old British humor. It was fun!