I am scared of heights. Its bad enough where I sometimes feel my stomach jump when watching videos of people doing stunts on high rises, or bungee jumping. My wife would love to do bungee jumping, but I can’t even mentally imagine myself deciding to jump off. I know that people do it all the time, and that its safe, but there is no way that I could convince myself to jump.

But I decided to go skydiving about five years ago. While I am not sure I could do a solo jump, the idea of having an expert strapped to my back seemed palatable enough for me to give it a shot. I booked the jump about two weeks in advance, and then had all of that time to really think about what I was getting myself into. Going in a plane to 14,000 feet, and then rushing toward the earth at terminal velocity. I made the mistake of watching videos where things went wrong, or reading stories of backup parachutes that failed.

The day arrived, and it was perfect weather. I had tried to jump a couple years earlier, and it was pushed off because the weather didn’t cooperate. This time it was going to happen. I had a mix of excitement and dread as we watched the instruction videos, put on all of the equipment, and loaded in the plane. It probably only took 10 minutes from takeoff until we were at altitude, but I was just staring out the window watching the ground get further and further away.

Finally, they opened the door and it was time to go. My wife went first, and I watched as she got in position, and then pushed out. Then it was my turn. The feeling as I sat on the edge of the plane, with my feet hanging out, and knowing that I was about to get pushed out was 80% scary and 20% exhilarating.

Then I was falling and it was 100% exhilarating. But this isn’t a story about how I conquered my fears and how I am not scared of heights anymore, or how I started skydiving frequently after that. I am still scared of heights, and haven’t been skydiving since then. This is a story about facing the unknown and scary.

Baltimore has Light City going on right now mainly in the Inner Harbor, but also has smaller neighborhood installations in Hamilton-Lauraville, Waverly, Sandtown-Winchester, Station North, Coldstream Homestead Montebello, Little Italy, Hampden and Greater Mondawmin. Station North, Montebello, Little Italy, and Hampden are all places that I have been before, and were places that I looked forward to checking out.

But some of the others have negative connections in my mind. I remember reading about the cyclist that was stabbed to death in a robbery in Janurary 2016. Sandtown was the location where Freddie Gray was arrested, and Mondawmin Mall was where the 2015 riots started. Not only that, but Mondawmin has had two murders in the last week. I have never heard of Hamilton-Lauraville, but have heard about Northeast Baltimore being dangerous like West Baltimore.

Either way, I was thinking that I might skip those areas.

But Baltimore Around the World is about experiencing all of Baltimore. Its about getting out of my bubble in Fells, and seeing Baltimore. That is going to mean getting out of my comfort zone a few times. Last week that involved riding the subway, but this week it was time to get a bit more real.

This week was going to be a bike ride after dark to all eight neighborhood light setups. All of them. I tried to make excuses about why I shouldn’t do it, but then I realized that I had a free evening on Sunday and that it was time to swing my feet out of the plane and jump.

So I did:

And it wasn’t bad. Scratch that… it was a lot of fun and really enlightening. Sure, there are some pretty depressed areas of West Baltimore, but a lot of it is clean, well maintained, and has some beautiful architecture.

The Lights

Unfortunately, the bike ride was much better than the lights. Most of them seemed to be tied heavily to events that happened on April 1 (Little Italy, Hamilton-Lauraville, Montebello), two of them were art displays that seemed only tangentially related to Light City (Station North and Hampden), and two were parades that were happening next weekend (Greater Mondawmin and Sandtown). The one impressive one was in Waverly, where the artist was still putting together a shipping container full of light displays. He said its going to be done around Wednesday, and that one is going to be worth visiting. But the other ones are not worth visiting unless you are there for the event.

But the two that I couldn’t see via bike was the Station North and Hampden displays, which were inside buildings.

The Food

As an excuse to see the display in Station North, we went to Colette for French food. We had amazing French a few years ago when we visited my brother in law in New York City, and had some of the best beef tartare I have ever had. Maureen found Colette had tartare, so we made it a date.

Finding great French in NYC is no surprise, but finding it in Baltimore is more of a treat. Sure, we have the Charleston in Harbor East if you are looking for a four dollar sign meal, but Colette is a great meal at a three dollar sign level!

We started with a Vive l’Apertif to drink, which is St Germains and champagne and the beef tartare. The dinner was duck breast for me, and Porgy for Maureen. They were both amazing, and I love how French food uses cream to really add flavor to the food.

And then we finished with creme brulee, which is always a sure finish to the meal. The atmosphere at Colette was laid back enough that you would fit in with a suit, or a t-shirt and jeans.

After dinner, we walked up the street to the display, but the exhibit there left a bit to be desired. I think the thing that makes Light City so great is that it’s at that is flashy and beautiful, but also can be appreciated by the general public. The Station North display left me trying to figure out what they were trying to do because I didn’t get it. One screen was a wall of text, another was a picture of Duox4odell (I guess), and two others were on the DVD start screen. I didn’t get it. Although it was called DUOX4ODELL’S: YOU’LL KNOW IF YOU BELONG. Maybe I don’t belong.

Hampden was the same kind of thing. It was a room with two large faces that were changing. Didn’t fit with Light City. I didn’t get it.

The Wrap

I think the take away is that the neighborhood displays (other than Waverly) are based around an event. Skip them unless you make the event. The Inner Harbor display is still spectacular and is worth checking out.

West Baltimore also is not as scary as I expected. Beyond Druid Hill Park being a really nice park, the whole area was much nicer than I expected. I knew it wasn’t fair to paint the whole area with a broad brush, so its good to get out there and confirm that in person.

Next week, I think we will try to make it out to Waverly to see their light display when its all done. Waverly has a surprisingly developed main street that I really want to explore a bit more. Our list has Thai Restaurant from Waverly, and there is Peabody Brewery in the area.

Beyond that, I will be spending the rest of the week checking out Light City down in the Inner Harbor of course!