Baltimore

USS New Jersey

I know you are all dying to know about Washington DC, but I can't ignore all the awesomeness of Baltimore! We got up early (doesn't it seem like we do that every day?!) and checked out of the Philadelphia hotel. We had a 9:30 appointment to see the USS New Jersey. It was one of the things my sweetie really wanted to do on this trip. Since his dad was in World War II, he wanted to tour one of those Battleship Museums.

I arranged our trip beforehand, registering us as a scout group, after all, we are five scouts and five scout leaders. Our guide's name was Bill and he did an amazing job! The kids loved him. We went up and down ladders, climbing all over the ship. Bill was full of information and before we knew it the morning was gone. As we sprinted for the van, we realized that some of our plans were going to have to change. 

Curly loved the aquarium

We headed for Baltimore, but instead of eating lunch at Ft. McHenry, we picked up Little Caesar's and got back on the road. We did eventually drive through Ft. McHenry, but the kids were so offended by the naked Indian statue that we didn't even stop!

We turned toward downtown Baltimore and began looking for a place to park...one that didn't have a height limit of 6'6". We finally found one and it turned out to be perfect for us! We walked a couple of blocks and soon we were at the National Aquarium. One of the things all the kids wanted to do on this trip was to visit an aquarium. Princess was a little disappointed that they didn't have manatees, but it was still pretty cool.

I  love baseball!

We left the aquarium around 6:00 and walked back to the van. Then we grabbed a bologna sandwich and walked two blocks the other direction to the Oriole's Ballpark at Camden Fields.

Did I ever tell you how much I love baseball? It was the first major league game any of us had seen and we loved it. My sweetie insisted that we had to leave at the top of the 8th, but we saw all the exciting parts and the Oriole's eventually lost 3 - 1. Since we still had an hour to drive, we didn't want to get caught in the post-game traffic.

We got to Chantilly, VA about 11:00 or so and by the time we unloaded it was close to midnight. We all just climbed into our beds, knowing it was going to be a really early start on Wednesday...