Today a group of 21 family members and bloggers from DailyKos, Booman Tribune, My Left Wing, skippy the bush kangaroo, Political Cortex and The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire met in Baltimore. I wish you could have been there.
We had (at least I did and I’m fairly sure I can speak on this for the others) a fantastic time in Fells Point today.

I don’t know if the others are returned yet. Many of them are possibly still <s>drinking martinis and shooting pool in a Fells Point bar</s&gt deep in political discussion on advancing a progressive agenda.

We met at the Water Taxi landing in Fells Point, traveled by water across Inner Harbor to Ft. McHenry and toured the bastion that defiantly withstood the British onslaught. Sail boats glided across the water, but none fired on us. No bombs or rockets burst around us. The sky changed from deep blue to gray, but the weather remained beautiful and the clouds blew away.

A National Park Service ranger pulled out a replica of the original garrison flag from a duffel bag and had volunteers stretch it out. It’s huge yet it wasn’t as big as other garrison flags. The ranger would make a good kossack/tribber/leftwinger/skipster/cortexian with his wit.

We rolled the flag back up (good forearm exercise, btw) and he picked my daughter and another girl to hold the bag and jsmdlawyer’s son to feed it in.

After a time we moved back to the landing to catch the Water Taxi back to Fells Point. (Point of information for those attending YearlyKos: getting these people to move in the same direction at the same time is like herding cats without the aid of a collie).

We broke up to eat lunch with one group choosing seafood, and another group heading for the Broadway Street Market.

The worst part about the meetups is I always wish I could spend more time with everyone. My daughter had grown slightly bored with our talk of NSA wiretaps, the chances for different Democratic candidates for president in 2008, and the defense of the Constitution, so I took her for a walk and looked at hippy dresses on sale in a shop that also sold incense and bowls then we went in an antique shop. Fells Point has gone more upscale in recent years (I miss the grunginess and eccentricness of the past), but it’s still a great neighborhood.

Hopefully the other participants will drop by and expand on this. I’m going to spend some time with the rest of the Carnacki crew.

Also, feel free to use this as either an open thread or a special edition happy story or to talk about your meetups in the past.

UPDATE: Great pictures from mlk here!