Anybody been to or live in Baltimore, MD? any advise?

I am planning to take a vacation to Washington D.C, I looked on the brochure and it works out cheaper to stay in the Inner Harbour area in Baltimore, also, Baltimore is closer to Philadelphia, Newark and New York as I am hoping to take a trip to them too. My questions are: How close is Baltimore to Washington D.C. particularly the white house, also is it easy to get there from Baltimore? Is there lots to do in Baltimore like sightseeing, shopping etc? Is there anywhere else in Baltimore you recommend me visiting outside the Inner Harbour area? And (no offense) how safe is it to visit or stay in Baltimore as I heard there are a lot of homicides there? Is the crime in the Inner Harbour area or is it away from that?



Thank you for your advise, I really appreciate it :)Anybody been to or live in Baltimore, MD? any advise?
OK, here's the low down. First of all, when you're there you'll want to pronounce the city like the locals do. Baltimore is pronounced - Ballmer stressing the ball part. The inner harbor is a great choice. DC is about 45 miles from Ballmer. During the week take the MARC commuter train directly from the inner harbor by Camden Yards baseball stadium to Union Station in DC just 2 blocks from the Capitol Building and a short Metro subway ride from the White House. You couldn't do better staying in the nearby DC suburbs. As far as I'm concerned everything 'to do' in Baltimore is right there at the inner harbor. There's all kinds of eateries, a maritime museum, the Maryland Science Center, the National Aquarium; loads of other stuff. There's baseball, in the summer and football in the fall. You can take a harbor tour and visit Fort McHenry where the words of the National Anthem were inspired during the War of 1812. Yeah, there's loads to do in good old Ballmer. Hey if you're not careful you might forget to go over to DC. I'm a native of DC.