Rise and Shine breakfast Service - I was exhausted after my first day, but I woke up at 6:00am the next morning to do it all over again! That morning the focus was on the breakfast aspect of a B & B. Making breakfast is the easy part! However, it can be very chaotic trying to make breakfast for the couples, when they come downstairs at different intervals. While trying to make breakfast, you are also responsible for greeting, entertaining, serving and clearing. The phones may also need answering for reservation details.

Over the course of the weekend I learned how to make The Blue Door's specialty breakfast bowls, which I so love. There was Baked French toast and omelets. My cooking skills have certainly improved after that weekend at the Blue Door! Once everyone is done with breakfast its time to clean up, take a bit of time for ourselves. A time to reflect on the great conversation, and the uniqueness of each on of the guests,. And a simple time just to sit back for a few minutes with an entire cup of coffee and breakfast of our own.

Darn Sheets - Then it is off to cleaning the rooms again and the laundry. I have never seen so much laundry! It’s like it never ends. I have to say; the hardest part of the whole weekend was learning how to fold the sheets the proper way! I can say with certainty, that when I do open a B & B I will hire someone to do the sheets!

There are bits of downtime throughout the course of the day for an innkeeper. On the weekend, the House is full with lots of activity. Just when you think there is nothing left to do, there is someting lurking to yet be done. Even at the end of the day once all the rooms are cleaned and the guests are checked in, it is time to prepare for turn down service. During my stay I did not have to bake any goodies for the turn down service, but that would be part of the nighttime activities. And finally, preparing for the next morning's breakfast.

Turn down service was fun. I enjoyed making the tray full of goodies to bring to the rooms. Every night but one night the guests were out. On the nights that the guests were still in their room I just knocked on the door and left the tray outside for them to enjoy. Then you get to hear the great comments of the treats left at their bedside, it is quite flattering.

For two nights of my stay, Roger and Cecilia trusted me to run the B & B all by myself! They went to stay on their boat with Leopold while I took over. I must say I was very nervous to do this, but all worked out well. Both nights were quiet!

I had a wonderful time and learned so much. I know now more than ever that this is what I want to do one day. I couldn’t have asked for better people to shadow. Roger and Cecilia were a wealth of information. I was so inspired after my weekend of shadowing that when I returned to New Jersey I took a class called ServeSafe. ServeSafe is a food handling/safety class that the city of Baltimore requires. Other cities may require it too, but it varies from place to place.

I can’t wait until my next visit to the inn and get another turn at the Blue Door.

My first experience with a bed and breakfast was in Williamsburg, VA at the age of twenty-two. After staying there, I was hooked. It was a lovely place, the host and hostess were more than accommodating and I loved the atmosphere. There on after, I refused to stay in hotels and wherever I traveled I would stay in a bed and breakfast.

Enter the Blue Door -

In December 2010, after having no plans for New Year's Eve, my boyfriend and I decided to book a bed and breakfast in Baltimore, Maryland for something fun and different to do.We had an amazing time staying at the Blue Door on Baltimore and decided to make it a tradition, so the following year we returned on New Years. It was during that; stay that I talked to Roger about my dreams to one day open a bed and breakfast. Roger mentioned that my best option would be to find a bed and breakfast that would allow me to shadow them for a weekend in order to get a true feel for business. He then offered for me to come down in the spring to shadow him and his wife.

I find out for myself - In April 2012, I was off  driving down to the Blue Door Inn to start my first shadowing experience. I was not sure what I should expect, as I had never done this before, but my experience was more than I could have asked for. I arrived on a Thursday afternoon and was immediately put to work. I learned everything from how to make and strip beds, clean the rooms, check in and out guests and most important learned all about the breakfast!

Details, Details, Details - I know attention to detail in the Bed and Breakfast business is extremely important, however, the small details that the Blue Door Inn includes, makes them unique. I thought cleaning the rooms and changing the beds would be easy…I mean how hard could it be? I was wrong!There is so much detail that goes into making the beds! All the sheets must be put on the bed in a very precise manner and folded to make most fabulous night's rest at the Blue Door. The pillows need to be fluffed and placed on the bed in just the right way. And the service trays, magazines, and towels all needed to be placed in their own special locations. If they were slightly off, Roger would tell me it was time for me redo it.

There is more to the story in Part 2 of my visit - Stay tuned. I had a wonderful time and learned so much. I know now more than ever that this is what I want to do one day. I couldn’t have asked for better people to shadow. Roger and Cecilia were a wealth of information. I can’t wait until my next visit to the inn. Hope to meet you on your visit!

Just as you are reading this blog post, we at the Blue Door reach out to other sites in search of things to make our guest experience the Best in Baltimore. We came across this posting on one of our daily hospitality site newsletters from Dr. John Hogan at Hospitality Educators, Hogan Hospitality.

We hope that we can keep our "work" ball in Check so that we might present the un-shattered qualities of the other four balls to you our guest's as you choose to stay with us.

Dr. Hogan Writes -- This might have been a recommended reading, but in fact, it is mainly commenting on one small section in a 2001 book by James Patterson. I discovered an important observation and a learning lesson on page 20 in a diary entry of Suzanne’s Journal for Nicholas, where a main character describes life.

The character says life is a game in which people must juggle five balls. The balls are called:
1. work
2. family
3. health
4. friends
5. integrity

You keep them all in the air and one day you come to realize that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.

The other four balls are made of glass and if you drop one of them, it will be changed. The balls representing family, health, friends and integrity if not handled properly can become scuffed, nicked or perhaps even shattered.

Over the past 5 years or so, I have had many people reach out to me in many ways. The tough global economy, the indecision of both government and business on how to respond and the ever increasing pace of life in the information overload we now experience all contribute to how we deal with those five balls.

Once one really understands the lessons of the five balls, you have the beginnings of balance in your life.

I encourage anyone reading this to slow down for just a bit, take the time to think and appreciate the lessons of those five balls and what they represent to you.

-- Thank you Dr. John Hogan

Please do check out our Travel Tips Blog Category for some very specific things to do. But, our best answer is to experience the  Harbor using the Water Taxi. The Fells Point Water Taxi Stop is just 8 blocks from the Blue Door and provides an easy access point to the greatest sampler of Baltimore highlights. For a nominal fee of $12 per person you can use the Taxi ALL DAY, getting on and off at as many locations as you may wish.

• Take in some art at the American Visionary Arts Museum
• Visit the Science Center or the Aquarium
• Sample some of our restaurants using the offer coupons available onboard the Taxies
• Enjoy the views of the harbor from multiple vantage points (Federal Hill, the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and the Korean War Memorial)
• Take in the marina districts in Canton and Fells Point 
• View boats of all sizes under power and full sail
• You can even have some crab at Captain James' waterside dock
• Go to Fort McHenry (Limited Service April - Mid October)

With the sun shining, there is no better way to experience  the "big deal" about Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Even on a not so stellar day, when the clouds may drift in, you can seamlessly drift from one ivenue to another. Want to remove some walking time to the Convention Center or the Ball Park?  The The Water Taxi is just the ticket giving you very special views of the city along the way.

Hungry along the way? Great restaurants and Pubs in Canton, Fells Point, Harbor East, The Inner Harbor, and Federal Hill are just steps off the docks. You can always get a lively discussion going by asking the drivers or hands who has the best crab cake - The most hotly debated item on the Baltimore Food scene. If you don't have one before you leave, you have not really had a taste of Baltimore.

Also, see what our past guests may have done.  In each of our rooms we have log books where our guests jot down some things they did during their visits. Viewing our log books makes for some engaging  light reading upon relaxing after settling in your room or maybe upon your return from your first great dining experience in Baltimore.

The ladders come out and Leopold delights in the new but strange smelling colored liquids being applied to the walls and ceilings, and to the backs of our white foyer steps. These same liquids also make funny marks on the floors when he just so happens to see what they are about. There are floors that are wet to the paw, freshly mopped, and furniture sometimes in the hallways while strange sounding construction noises eminate on the other side of a closed door.

We also look forward to our annual trek to the International Hospitality Conference each November in New York where we get to go shopping for you, our guests. There are all sorts of things to pick and choose from to make our guest experience very special. Our sheets, which have made their way into several on-line review comments, and our lounging robes that seem to fly off our shelves as soon as we re-order more for our gift shop are acquisitions from our trips to New York. Shopping is fun especially when you throw in a night at the theater and some great restaurants.

So you remember those daily tasks from Part 1?

Here is what happens: 

• Up at 6:00AM starting with breakfast service and ending the day at 7:00PM when all of our guest rooms are turned down for our guests. comfortable return from dinner.
• Table is set, breakfast is prepared for serving starting at 7:00AM
• There is paperwork to be done (email, bills, website updates, Facebook and blog posts like this one to name a few), and relax until guests arrive to begin breakfast.
• Serve breakfast and enjoy conversation
• Breakfast service is over at 10:00 with dishes cleaned up usually by 11:00. There are breaks in the action - rarely do we see 4 straight hours of breakfast service, but it can happen.       
• Cleaning starts around noon and  finishes sometime around 2:30 PM with a little help from our housekeeper on the fully booked days.
• Then it is our time to slow down the pace, relax over dinner, attend to our guests who will check-in until Turndown at 7:00PM.  In between we may learn more about Baltimore from where guests when they explore. Multi task finishing previously started  things and starting new ones.       
• In between all that, we answer the phone, taking reservations, answering questions, and dealing with vendors.  We are also shop for groceries and office supplies,  and bake the breads and pastries, in addition to the night time treats. 
• When everyone is staying over we can decide to put the crunch on to catch up on a specific set of tasks (like the laundry which is never done completely) or put things on hold  till the next rainy day and go out and play ourselves.     
• It will start all over again at 6:00AM the next morning so do not be surprised if your phone call at 10:00 PM is met with voicemail.      

In 2011 (Thank you for your reservations so that we can show you these numbers): 

• 403   Check–ins
• 780   Room nights served up
• 1400 Breakfasts made
• 3600 Breakfast breads, and pastries baked
• 3100 Cookies, brownes and fudge made and presented for turn down
• 3900 cups of coffee served
• 780 Beds Made – (1800 Sheets washed, 3600 Pillowcases washed and steam pressed, 600 duvet covers washed and steam pressed)
• 2600 Assorted Towels Washed
• 1400 Robes laundered and folded
• 1600 Assorted table cloths and napkins laundered and ironed
• 3100 cleaning cloths laundered

Oh, about the pictures for this posting series. These are from the entire house checking out on the same day. One load of breakfast dishes for dishwasher number one. One load of pots, pans, prep items and guest room servicing items for dishwasher number two.  Ten loads of Laundry if you take into account on a check out day with three sets of king bed linens  (two top sheets, a fitted bottom, six Pillowcases and Duvet cover), two to four robes, assorted towels, bathroom rugs, breakfast table linens, and cleaning cloths. 

REMEMBER WE DO NOT NEED TO FINISH ALL OF THE LAUNDRY TODAY. We can take the time to enjoy all of our wonderful guetst while you stay at The Blue Door, too.

One of our favorites at breakfast are our miniture Blueberry Scones. They are not only delicious with breakfast but also can be served for Afternoon Tea with friends. We hope you will enjoy this taste treat from our Blue Door Kitchen!

---

2 cups flour
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
J teaspoon salt
6 teaspoons butter, chilled, unsalted, cut into pieces
½ bag (2 oz.) dried blueberries
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Up to ½ cup milk

Preheat oven 425 degrees and place rack in the middle of the oven.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Mix butter into the dried items. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Add the blueberries and incorporate. 

In a small cup, beat egg and vanilla together. Add the egg and vanilla to previous mixture, mix well. With the mixer on, add the milk slowly and just enough until the mixture just comes together, and is soft.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead lightly four or five times. Form batter into ball and flatten slightly to pie shape; cut into 8 wedges. Form each wedge into a ball, and cut into 4  more wedges.

Place small wedges on cookie sheet. Bake for 5 minutes and then rotate the cookie sheet on rack in oven. Bake for another 3-5 minutes till lightly brown.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool. 

Makes 32 scones.

The most common question we get from our guests is, “Inn Keeping looks like it may be fun but it sure looks like a lot of work. So what is it like?”

The short answer to the question–like any profession there is a balance. It’s not all dirty dishes, mountains of laundry, scrubbing, and maintenance as our photos may imply. There is a lot to be said about setting your own schedule in a beautiful place you call home, taking up residence in a small hotel, playing with your passion for cooking, and getting to meet and share a space with new and interesting people every day. So there is work and there is fun. A job with fun is not necessarily WORK!

Of course, there is something to do all of the time. The balance is not letting a pre-occupation of thinking everything must be done today, get to you. It is not like we have to leave our home for 8-10 hours and then return to do everything. Our usual 6 loads of laundry, three rooms with common rooms needing cleaning, fixing that broken thing, and attending to an unsightly mark on the wall would surely be a nightmare if they needed to be done at the end of hard day of the office. The Blue Door is our office and they are manageable with a little creativity.

All in a Day–Long before our first guests are down for breakfast we already have two loads of laundry (from the previous day!) in the machine. The email from overnight is getting answered. The table and kitchen are set for the menu of the day. Our guests arrive and breakfast is served from 7:00 -10:00 AM with the dishes cleared and washed shortly after. A little quiet time. Guests Check out. More email is read, more loads of laundry. Rooms are attended to. More Email, a little marketing and some R&R time (mixed with fixing that broken thing, more laundry, playing with Leopold, escaping to the sailboat, answering some reservation questions). Check-in–greet visit with more of our wonderful guests. Turn down rooms for the evening with special treat. Relax and enjoy some more guest conversation… There you have it...

Innkeeping is more about pacing throughout the day with high degrees of flexibility for the interruptions that are bound to happen. Any experienced innkeeper will say, if you like having a structure to your day this may not the job for you. What you plan for is rarely accomplished in the order hoped and often things that were supposed to be addressed in the future become the center of attention. A guest arrival time significantly altered, a broken gadget in the kitchen necessary for the day’s breakfast prep, a contractor saying today is the day to make the repair requested with guests checking in that evening are all in a day’s activity. They give the appearance of us never taking a break, or seamlessly taking things in stride as chaos reigns, as we go about making your stay with us special. We can assure you there is some breathing time.

Of course there is always more to it than just the few short paragraphs you have read so far and we do not want to take all of your time. So while we go about our daily tasks making stays special at the Blue Door we would like to give our loyal followers a small task. Your Task: 2011 brought us 403 checked in reservations. We would love to have you venture and post your guesses on any of the following  statistics. 

How close can you guess?

• Number of room nights served up
• Breakfasts Served
• Sheets Washed
• Cookies served at turndown

Post your guesses in the comments section and have fun in our online community.

We will report back with the numbers when “Inn Keeping looks like it may be fun but it sure looks like a lot of work. So what is it like? (Part 2)” hits the Blogwaves in two weeks.

Our Goal for 2011 was to better share our Blue Door experience with expanded website information, enhanced Blog and Facebook business pages, and Twitter presence. We hope that you may have had opportunity to drop in to take a peek at our candid photos, recipes, travel tips, and personal content. In 2012 we want to put "You Our Guests in the Spotlight". We are introducing three new featured discussions:  Ask the Innkeepers, Local Eateries, and "Names in Lights". These will also be broadcasted to our Facebook and Twitter fans.

Send us your burning questions on Innkeeping or things about Baltimore (Our first post "So What is it Like" - will provide a behind the scenes look at some of our inn keeping tasks and statistics). Add your comments to our in depth local restaurant features. Submit some information that you may have shared in your in-room guest log with some photos from your visit. Share the links with your friends and put your "Name in Lights".

If you have not had opportunity to check our new stuff out, make sure to like us on our Facebook Page.

As always, thank you for choosing the Blue Door for your visit(s) to Baltimore and we look forward to serving you again!

Hi, Leopold here!

I would like to wish all of our new friends and fans a Happy New Year. As many of you know, I am the Innkeeper in Training at Blue Door on Baltimore. I have been improving my greeting skills for our guests checking-in and upon arriving back after a busy day out and about in Baltimore. Of course, since I am a cat and a bit closer to the ground sometimes, I truly do look up to all of our guests. Oh, and put your allergies aside. I am a Bengal, after all, and as close to hypo-allergenic as a cat can be.

I have been growing quickly into my paws and am now a full 9 months old. I am so looking forward to my very first birthday in March. I am only going to get one of those, I am told. If you met me earlier in the summer I was only measuring half of the 13 pounds at which I now tip on the scale. My mom calls me a big bruiser compared to the dear Miss Megan you may have had opportunity to meet on a past stay. That has not deterred our guests to threaten to pack me in their bag and take me home with them. I really like them, too…

As the Innkeeper in Training, I have the opportunity to make marketing suggestions to my parents, Roger and Cecelia. So, for our blog and facebook followers we have something special for you for in 2012, MY FIRST BIRTHDAY YEAR! We would like to propose a special final rate adjustment to your reservation request.

Type in my name “leopold” in the Promo Code for your online request or mention me on the phone and we will add my weight in dollars as a bottom line credit to your reservation at the time of booking! I am still growing so the discount may not stop at $13.00.

Hope to see you soon... and if you cannot visit as soon as you might like, please do post a comment. We love hearing from our past guests and blog readers! How have you liked the Blue Door on Baltimore Blog so far? Do you have any topics you would like to hear about that we haven't covered?

Oh, and don't forget to like us on Facebook!

The Better Baltimore Bed and Breakfast Association’s 2^nd Annual Holiday House Tour on December 4^th was a huge success! We wish to thank all of our guests for spending this special day with us. We received great exposure from the Baltimore Sun, WBAL TV, and assistance for our chosen charity, Moveable Feast. There were tons of couples and small groups totaling 160 in all who kicked-off the holiday season with our five participating inns with local food and wines. All reported having a wonderful time at our tour event which raised a $1500 donation toward the efforts of Movable Feast.

This year’s event highlighted what each of Baltimore B&B’s offer in our amenities and our neighborhoods. Our featured neighborhood Chef Sean Guy from Water for Chocolate with local Maryland wines from Elk Run. Turns out Elk Run offers a wine named the Red Door, fancy that. A perfect complement to our Blue Door!

Our menu was a great hit. We started with a tasting of Cold Friday Chardonnay with Grilled Tilapia gracing Parmesan Grits, accentuated with Cowboy Caviar, adding a finishing touch of our Blond Currant Biscotti’s. Then we stimulated the senses with Barbequed Pulled Pork on Jalapeno Cornbread merged with Maryland Merlot and then with Elk Run’s signature recipe, Sweet Katherine Sangria.  We think the biggest hit of the tour included a stop in our kitchen where Chef Sean and our able assistant Michelle were assembling the creations and offering holiday serving tips.

It was fun transforming our parlor and dining room into a culinary wonderland for the day. Rest assured all has been put back in place for the casually elegant breakfasts we offer every morning. Watch our blog for information on next year’s event. Consider planning a stay with us in early December of next year as three guests did this year to tour Baltimore before the busyness of the holiday season takes center stage.

All photos provided by John Kardys Photography.