Christkindlesmarkt at Zion Lutheran Church in Baltimore, November 25, 2017

Like I wrote in my previous post, I decided to go to Baltimore on November 25 because I wanted to check out the Christkindlesmarkt at the Zion Lutheran Church. But I got stuck in horrible northbound traffic then I waited a long time for both the light rail and the Metro subway. By the time I arrived at the church I only had 45 minutes left until the event ended for the day. (They would continue it on the next day but that day was Sunday and I wasn’t able to make it at all due to commitments I had with my own church that took up most of the day.) I eventually made it to the church, where I saw this statue outside of the church that’s dedicated to all of the Baltimore City firefighters both past and future.

Outside of the church were these trees that produced wonderful red colored autumn leaves.

Despite finally making it to the event so late in day before closing, there were still plenty of things to see and do.

There were a lot of stuff I would’ve loved to buy but I couldn’t due to tight finances. I purchased two German-imported Santa Claus chocolates that were more patterned after the original bishop, Saint Nicholas, than after the fat jolly man who hangs around with elves and reindeer. I kept one for myself and I plan on giving the other one to my mother for Christmas.

I also purchased a pack of Haribo gummy candies that were all cherry flavored and they were even shaped like cherries.

I was bummed that I arrived at the Christkindlesmarkt event so late in the day. It was still daylight outside so I decided to just take the Charm City Circulator bus to the Inner Harbor where I checked out the Christmas Village in Baltimore and the Inner Harbor itself.

Maryland’s Eastern Shore Trip-Day 8

Yesterday was my last full day in Ocean City, Maryland and I was determined to make the most of it. It was also one of the few days that had no rain in the forecast and it was sunny and hot all day long. That morning I finally was able to do the one thing that I couldn’t do earlier either because of my back problems or the weather or both—go for an early morning stroll along the beach. Aside from a few early-morning swimmers and angler fisherman, the beach was mostly clear, as you can see in this photo below.

After my brief stroll, I returned to the condo for some breakfast. After that my husband, sister-in-law, and I decided to make a last visit to The Bookend Cafe where we had some drinks, browsed the gifts and books sold there, and did some web surfing using the cafe’s free wi-fi. On the way back from the cafe, we stopped off at the same Fenwick Island lighthouse that I took a nighttime photo of just a few days ago. Here is what the lighthouse looks like in daylight.

After lunch we spent some time in the afternoon at the beach where we took a few last dips in the ocean then did some final book reading on the beach. Then we changed out of our swimsuits and headed to the Boardwalk for one final time. Unlike the last time I went to the Boardwalk, the day was much brighter and I was able to do some more walking than I was before since I didn’t have to worry about raindrops. Here’s a photo I took of the landmark Esskay Clock. When I used to go to Ocean City as a child with my extended family (including my cousins), we kids used to be instructed to wait by that clock if we somehow became separated. I remembered when I did just that one crowded night when I got separated by my family and they were all happy that when they found me at the clock.

Next to the Esskay Clock is a newer Boardwalk landmark. This is the Firefighters Memorial and it was erected to honor the firefighters who perished in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Here’s a different kind of landmark. For many years a sculptor and minister Randy Hofman has been creating these gigantic sand sculptures based on events in the Bible. They are really a sight to behold.

If you want to see more of Randy Hofman’s work, check out his website right here.

The Boardwalk have long been home to would-be artists and musicians who try to ply their trade among the vacation-goers. Sometimes you’ll see someone who is both an artist and a musician, like the guy in the photo below.

After walking around on the Boardwalk, we headed to the Angler restaurant to take advantage of its dinner and sunset cruise. We ate a wonderful dinner in the restaurant then we went out on the dock in the back of the restaurant where we boarded a boat. I took a whole bunch of sunset photos. Here’s one of the sunset over the Route 50 bridge that leads into Ocean City.

Here’s another sunset photo, this one over Assateague Island.

And here’s sunset over West Ocean City, Maryland.

And here are a few sunset photos of the Boardwalk, where you can see the bright lights from far away.

In this photo, you can see the kites that are located right outside The Kite Loft. The kites are flown day and night during the summer.

Towards the end of the boat trip, things took a really dramatic turn. Our boat got word of another boat that had literally run aground and the boat I was on decided to go over to see if it could offer some help. By the time we arrived, the Coast Guard had already arrived to offer aid to the boat. I managed to take a few photos of that ship that ran aground but it was really dark and my camera had a hard time picking up the image so the next two photos are blurry. Here is the white boat that’s stuck among the rocks.

The blue lights in this photo are the ones from the Coast Guard boat.

Orient Doll Ji

I’m devoting this week to my Orient Doll Ji. She was my second Asian ball-jointed doll made out of resin. At the time she cost $100 but she stands five inches tall. I purchased the doll even though my rational side was screaming that I was paying so much for so little. But I fell in love with her face and I just couldn’t resist.

The Orient Doll no longer exists as a separate website but this doll is still sold on the website of The Orient Doll’s parent company, Leeke World.

I decided to save some money and take a stab at doing my own faceup. Of all the doll faceups I’ve done, Ji was the hardest because her face is so tiny. It took at least two or three times before I got her faceup right enough for me.

Here are some photos of her. I still don’t regret buying her at all.

Here is Ji as she first came out of the box before I did any kind of customization. Unlike many Asian ball-jointed dolls, Ji has an asexual body (meaning that she has a flat chest with no nipples and no genitailia). Even though I chose Ji’s gender as female, I could’ve just as easily made the doll into a boy if I wanted to.

Here is Ji after I finished customizing her the first time.

The biggest problem with the faceup was that the original chalk pastel blush had faded after a few months. I also thought that the original faceup was a bit on the plain side. So I re-did the blush (using acrylic paint heavily diluted with water), replaced the navy blue eyes with brown eyes, re-painted the eyebrows, and added eyelashes.

Here is a close-up of her face after the second customization.

I made Ji’s outfit myself using a Barbie pattern that I reduced down to Ji’s size. I made Ji’s fairy wings out of polymer clay, then attached the wings to the dress using velcro.

Here is my tiny doll photographed next to a few memorials to the fallen firefighters from one firefighting company in New York City who died while on duty during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.