Posts about 520 Park Apartments in Mount Vernon

Monumental Bicentennial

It's no surprise that the town will be abuzz this weekend for the Fourth of July, but did you know there is even more of a reason to celebrate, just around the corner from 520 Park ? The "Monumental Bicentennial" and reopening of America's first Washington Monument takes place on July 4 th , too! With its cornerstone laid on July 4, 1815, Mount Vernon's Washington Monument became the first public monument to honor George Washington and the ideals of American Democracy he represented. Baltimore is celebrating this iconic time in American history with the Monumental Bicentennial, a one-day celebration. After being closed since 2010, the restored Washington Monument reopens with an official rededication ceremony and ribbon cutting at 10:45am. The ceremony includes live performances from the Maryland Defense Force Band and Fort McHenry Guard Fife & Drum Band. An old-fashioned country fair follows at 11:30with entertainment, children's activities, baking contests, delicious food and beverages and more. The event will be centered on the 600 block of N. Charles Street with festivities taking place throughout the four surrounding park squares and admission is free. The "Colonial Kids" area features family-friendly activities like hands-on crafts, colonial period demonstrations and games, a pixelated photo booth, blacksmith, live entertainment, story-telling and more. In addition to the centralized festivities in the park squares, many area institutions and businesses will offer activities such as a neighborhood scavenger hunt, organ performances and tours at the Engineers Club, and a Walters Art Museum art activity. This Fourth of July gives us an opportunity to celebrate our national as well as our local history with fun from morning and into the night. See you there!

Waterfront Weekend

While there is always a lot to do near 520 Park , you'll want to head over to the harbor and surrounding areas for the "Wonderful Waterfront Weekend." Events run from June 19th - 21st, offering tons of free, family-friendly fun. Check out some of the highlights within the schedule below and click on the links for details: June 19th: Summer Social at West Shore Park Bring a blanket and enjoy a fun, family-friendly evening at West Shore Park, featuring live music, kids' play area, food trucks, beer, wine and mixed drinks, and the interactive fountain. June 19th: Friday Night Live at Power Plant Live! The Friday Night Live Series features Kanye Twitty with a free show at 8 PM and a food truck event from 5 PM - 9PM. June 19th - 21st: Visiting Tall Ship L'Hermione Come see an exact replica of General Lafayette's 18th-century ship called the Hermione - the largest and most authentically built Tall Ship in the last 150 years. Visitors can enjoy free tours, craft demonstrations, a traveling exhibit, and live music. June 19th - 21st: Pride of Baltimore II Pride will be docked at the Inner Harbor and will be open for deck tours. In addition, Pride will offer 2-hour public day sails from 2-4pm each day, but tickets are extremely limited. June 20th: Harbor East FIT+ Festival Experience the latest in exercise, health, and lifestyle at the 3rd annual FIT+ Festival at Harbor East with complimentary fitness classes, healthy food offerings & demos, music, a Superhero kids' zone, a photo booth, and more. June 20th - 21st: African American Festival The African American Festival is an annual celebration of life, music, and culture. It includes stellar performances, empowerment seminars, and non-stop fun for the entire family. June 20th - 21st: Waterfront Wellness West Shore Park offers its free fitness classes taught by local professional instructors. Classes are suitable for all fitness levels and will include bootcamp, dance, yoga, kayaking, and parkour. June 20th - 21st: WPB Waterfront Play Join Waterfront Partnership for free interactive children's programming at West Shore Park. Play your favorite recess games. Splash in the Walter Sondheim Fountain. Imagine your own playground. Be sure to come back and let us know your favorite events!

Decorating Resources

Living in an apartment, even one as great as 520 Park , can make decorating a challenge. Small spaces don't offer a lot of room to spread out with design, and renting means that you are often limited in the changes you can make to your living area. However, that doesn't mean apartment decor has to be boring, so this post will offer some great apartment decorating blogs to prove it. These apartment decorating blogs often have great photos, design inspiration, and DIY craft ideas for making any space feel like home. My Little Apartment shares the best of design blogs for small spaces. You can follow the My Little Apartment blog to discover apartment decorating ideas, interesting pieces, and great ideas for design when you're short on space. Intentionally Small explores small spaces and simple living. The blogger lives in a 306 square foot studio apartment and offers tours of inspirational small spaces, ideas for simple living, and other great resources for apartment decorating and design. The Borrowed Abode is written for renters of all types, with tips for renter-friendly decorating projects, as well as thrifty organizing solutions. Offbeat Home & Life offers out-of-the-box thinking in home decor, with great ideas for storage and fun designs that you might not see anywhere else. Our Little Apartment gives posts on decorating small spaces, decluttering and minimalism, and tips for frugal and green apartment living. Apartment Diet takes an educational approach to apartment design, offering eCourses and coaching to blog readers to declutter and adopt a healthy living plan for your apartment. Living in a Nutshell teaches about decorating small spaces with cheap and chic DIY projects. It regularly features interesting crafts and ideas that are perfect for small space living. The Darling Apartment offers suggestions as the blogger upcycles, decorates, and bakes a whole lot of pies in her third floor apartment. My First Apartment is a resource blog with decorating ideas and tips for apartment living. Find out how to use with tips on double duty furnishing, brightening up your apartment, and colors choices that will breathe life into any living area. Have any others you can suggest to your neighbors? Let us know in a comment!

Absolutely Febulous

Want an excuse to go back to a favorite restaurant? Or, maybe there's another restaurant you've been wanting to try out? With the latest Baltimore Restaurant Week upon us, you'll have your chance with tons of locations near 520 Park and all around the city! As you may recall from last summer, the idea for Baltimore's twice-annual Restaurant Week started back in 1992 in New York City, thought up by successful restauranteur Joe Baum and Tim Zagat of Zagat Survey/Ratings fame. Since that time, however, the concept of Restaurant Week has spread across the country, to cities and states which participate in their own versions, much like Baltimore City and its surrounding counties. While the events vary from place to place, the general concept is that local restaurants partner with local business organizations or chambers of commerce to promote a week of lunch and dinner specials. Restaurants offer reduced prices for a prix fixe menu, the idea being that what they lose in check averages they gain in sales volume and exposure to new customers. Baltimore's latest Restaurant Week is part of a larger campaign called "A bsolutely Febulous ," (a play on February, not a typo) which goes beyond dining to include special deals on attractions, museums, and hotels. It will run until February 28th, featuring prix-fixe, 3-course dinners for $20 or $30 (per person, not including drinks, tax, and tip) and 2-course lunches for $15. And, there are 79 restaurants to choose from! Just a few tips, make reservations to secure your preferred date and time and be aware that promotions and menus vary. When calling for a reservation, confirm the Restaurant Week promotion pricing and details. Click here for a list of participating locations, plus links for menus, reservations, ratings, maps and phone numbers. Now, get out and enjoy a meal at your favorite restaurant or explore some new ones. Bon appetit!

Forget the Cold...Ice Skate

With the temperatures dropping and snow in and out of the forecast, it's time to embrace the season by enjoying a classic activity just down the road from 520 Park . Right across from Harborplace at the corner of Light and Pratt Street, you can once again enjoy ice skating at the Inner Harbor. The ice rink, part of a larger campaign by the Waterfront Partnership, is not new to the Inner Harbor though this location may seem new. A rink used to be in place at Rash Field from 1988-1991 and from 1993-2002. Originally, the rink was to remain open only until mid-January, however the date has now been extended until Sunday, February 15th. Public skating hours for the remainder of the season are Thursdays from 12 p.m. - 8 p.m., Fridays from 12 p.m. - 10 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. - 10 p.m., and Sundays from 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. Admission to the ice rink is $9 for adults and $7 for children, seniors, and military, and skate rentals are $3. We can all hope this begins a new annual tradition at the Inner Harbor, given that this the first of a 5-year grant secured by the Waterfront Partnership for the space. So, instead of dreading the winter, let's skate right through it! McKeldin Plaza 101 Pratt Street, Baltimore MD Baltimore, MD 21202 443-890-6158 [email protected]

Khan Academy

Since you live at 520 Park , you must be incredibly smart, right? Yet, even with all of your obvious intelligence, have you ever wished you had learned more in your school days or perhaps, just retained more of those lessons you did learn? While we may yearn for a greater understanding of the world around us or even just what we've forgotten from our youth, the notion of going back to school can be far too daunting to consider. However, what if you could take your pick of academic topics and have access to award-winning tutorials that move only at your own pace? And, what if these vast resources were free? That is where the Khan Academy comes in. This non-profit educational organization was created in 2006 by educator Salman Khan to provide "a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere." Khan's own academic credentials include three degrees from MIT followed by an MBA from Harvard Business School. The Khan Academy's website features thousands of educational resources, including a personalized learning dashboard, over 100,000 practice problems, and over 6,000 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube. The subjects (so far) include mathematics, history, healthcare, medicine, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, cosmology, American civics, art history, economics, music, and computer science. All resources are available for free to anyone around the world and by 2013, were used by about 10 million students per month and its micro lectures have been watched over 468 million times! The educational approach differs greatly from the typical classroom environment. Broadly termed "flipping the classroom," the idea is that students will watch lectures and work through problem sets on their own time, at their own pace. Once mastery of a concept is demonstrated, adaptive software can suggest new ones, much like Amazon recommends new books. This enables you, as the prospective student, to choose what you'd like to learn about and to absorb the material based on your schedule and ability, completely unencumbered by grades, availability, or cost - just a pure learning experience providing its own rewards. So now that you know it's out there, what will you learn about first? Khan Academy Website