Baltimore’s Washington Monument has 227 steps winding up a tight spiral to the top. If you thought climbing up was scary, it’s even scarier going down. However, there is much to explore on the ground floor, including some incredible ironwork on the fences and gates. Check it out in this Nerd Trip.

George Washington was a surveyor and military man, known for his physical stature. You may need to summon some physical stamina to tackle the 227 spiral stairs to the top of Baltimore’s Washington Monument, but it’s worth the climb to survey the city from this rare vantage point. In honor of Washington’s birthday, come along for my spontaneous...

If you’re a history buff, at some point you’re probably going to be tromping through an old cemetery. On a recent tour with the Baltimore Heritage Foundation, I finally had the opportunity to explore Old St. Paul’s cemetery. I wouldn’t say I was dying to get in there, but I have always wanted to see inside.

O! Say Can You See. In this post, we will see more from our tour of the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House in Baltimore. Flag maker Mary Pickersgill and a team of eight other women, including indentured servants, took just six weeks to sew the mammoth flag that survived the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, inspiring attorney Francis Scott Key to pen a poem that would become our national anthem.

We found a way to make the War of 1812 celebration a little nerdy with an excursion to the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, home of flag maker Mary Pickersgill, whose mother was a flag-making “rival” of Betsy Ross when both lived in Philadelphia.

Now to Part 2 of my encounter with Chris Matthews and his book “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero.”

Despite early word that the MSNBC host would not sign books, at the end of his talk, Matthews said he would stay to autograph copies for anyone who wanted them.

Baltimore definitely lived up to its former slogan “the City that Reads” as about as 500 people packed the main atrium of the Enoch Pratt Free Library Thursday to hear MSNBC’s Chris Matthews speak about his book “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero.” Matthews shared his insights on Kennedy’s early years, his illnesses and how they affected his life, and his drive to be a career politician, studying and mastering the craft of “retail politics.”