Highlights from Month One of the Nomad Adventure: Baltimore, MD
You may ask, why Baltimore for our first stop on a 12-month digital nomad adventure across the US. You guessed it, family! My partner, Michael Hoffman is from Baltimore and his recently widowed dad, brother and sister live there with their families. My mother-in-law recently passed and our plan was always to either be there by her side for what we knew was a limited amount of time she had left due to cancer or be there to support her husband during his mourning. Unfortunately, it was the later.
Having spent the last 5 years together based in Chicago where all of my family is, we spend a lot of time with my family. Family celebrations, holidays and social excuses means we see each other 2–3x’s/month.
Highlight 1: Being able to spend a month in my partner’s “old” turf with his family. We spent quality time with my father-in-law who turned 87 on our last night there (we actually lived with him for the month which is a rare treat). Between dinners together and getting into his favorite shows (Judge Judy and Shark Tank) almost as much as he does, it felt very special to just be in the same space together.
Other family highlights were seeing Michael’s niece who is the drum major at her high school at a football game which was incredible to watch and get a tiny glimpse into her life. Another was participating in a local flea market in Patterson Park with my sister-in-law as we cleaned out the basement of my in-laws (part of the fun was going through all the old memories & the stories that went along with them).
Highlight 2: Discovering Baltimore. The diversity, the food, the down-to-earth and non-pretentiousness of the city was very cool. We worked in Charles Village in a row house that due to COVID has lost many of their tenants in the short-term office space. This was the first time since COVID (and since I’ve been working remotely for many years) that I had a rented office space and I loved the separation between work and home that it created.
Some of my favorite restaurant spots were: Paper Moon Diner , Dutch Courage for obscure Gin’s and delicious food, The Blue Bird Cocktail Bar in Hampden, R. House in Remington (modern food court) and finally, foraged.
Highlight 3: Getting in a new local routine that started out with finding a local gym (Training House), yoga studio (Bikram Yoga Works), grocery store and evening walks.
Highlight 4: Organizing a work meeting & off-site in Washington, DC with my team.
Day 1 — First time meeting in-person, we planned a paddling boat trip on the Potomac River (Potomac Paddle Club) which was a blast (we started with drinks at the Moxy Hotel) and ended at the Farmer Fishers Bakers.
Day 2 — We did a workshop on The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni which served as a great discussion starter and a way to get to know each other on a deeper level as well as develop a plan and focus areas for Q4.
A nice coincidence that Michael had a speaking gig in DC so we got to spend an evening in DC together.
