Our backyard

We don't have a yard so much as a cement patch out back. Our backyard is our rooftop deck. I'm a little out of breath once I make it up all the steps, but the view is incredible. We can see Patterson Park, Hopkins, and downtown. Every July 4th we fill the deck to its maximum capacity with great friends and watch the fireworks shooting up from the Inner Harbor. Our first kiss was on the rooftop, as well as our first "I love you's." We've set up the tent up there for some urban camping, and even just an air mattress to sleep under the stars. It seemed like a good idea at the time, until the stars were replaced by raindrops :P

We haven't been up to too much lately other than playing around here and there with our new camera, a Nikon D3000. For the most part we've been shooting in auto mode, but I plan to buy some books to re-learn the basics of photography that I can't seem to remember from the course I took during my study abroad in Australia back in 2002, plus start learning some of the advanced features of the digital SLR.

Here are a few pics taken from our backyard and the streets of Canton...

Cityscape as seen from our roof. The clouds make it look like there is a mountain range behind it.

Downtown Baltimore with Patterson Park in foreground

Classic Baltimore rowhouses

I really like how this tree and flag had "grown" together. I couldn't come up with a very good caption ... but Mother Earth and motherland came to mind. It reminded me of a Spanish phrase we learned in Puerto Rico - la Patria. The man who defined it for us said there isn't really an English translation, but it means "mother country" plus an implied emotional component that embodies a love for one's country ... for me, the feeling I get when you think of what the USA stands for: freedom, liberty, protection, prosperity ... home.