Last week was Edie girl’s first week of summer break, upon which I realized I had failed to put together any semblance of a summer plan, which coincided with the realization that my better half was off to a conference for the week, leaving me to wing it alone, with no plan. So I did what I always do in that situation – I packed up the car and hit the road to Aunt Jenny’s in Baltimore. While most of our time up there was spent visiting with family, we did take advantage of being in the city for some fun adventures.
Like Honfest. We’ve spent some time in Hampden – a neighborhood within the city – but we’ve never actually gone to Honfest. My cousin Molly, who lives and works in Hampden, has some of her artwork currently on display at a shop there, along side her father Kevin’s works (and ones they collaborated on). She mentioned she would be down there Saturday and it was Honfest and we should come down. And so we did. (This is exactly why I pack up and head to Aunt Jenny’s when faced with the lack of a plan as a solo parent – because thankfully, between all the family we have up there, someone has something for us to do the entire time.)
Honfest is a neighborhood festival that celebrates the culture of Baltimore (pronounced by the locals as Bawlmer). We caught the Little Miss Hon contest, while seeing contestants for the other Hon pageants and competitions milling about.
We really thought the Domino Sugar skirt girl was a lock for her age group, so we were slightly sad to read in the paper the next morning she was first runner up, but she ended up getting a much bigger write-up than the winner. Her mother made the skirt out of 25 lb sugar bags and her beehive was filled with small plastic pink flamingos (drink stirrers we think). She also had some Natty Boh touches and was overall, just fabulous.
The people watching at Honfest is some of the best around. The main theme of the costumes are beehive hair-do’s, pink flamingos, leopard print and anything distinctively Baltimore – Domino Sugar, National Bohemian Beer, crabs and of course their sports teams – the Orioles and the Ravens.
Costumes are not required, but Edie and I agreed, next year, we’re going in costume.
Because these are definitely the sort of costumes we can get behind. Leopard print, wigs and pink flamingos? We are so in.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 
Great photos, appears to have been a blast!
And it was!
It looks really fun. Baltimore is such an iconic city.
It really is, isn’t it? To me, it’s just home. My parents grew up there, my grandparents grew up there, my great-grandparents grew up there….
It is hands down, my favorite city, for purely sentimental reasons.
I just returned from Baltimore! It’s such a cool city–so much to recommend it. And the COLOR of your visit! Looks like you had a blast.
Because we have family there (I was born there, my parents grew up there, my grandparents grew up, my great grandparents grew up there and their parents and so forth and so on), we visit Baltimore a few times a year. I guess I sort of take the charm for granted, but it is definitely my favorite city.