This was the hardest trip ever to put together. Every time I want to go to Baltimore there is either bad weather or no seats available to fly there. I have been wanting to go to Baltimore for awhile, but when my airline announced they were not going to be flying to Baltimore any more, things became more urgent. Things seemed to be coming together perfectly with the Red Sox in town, me being off of work, and the flights being pretty wide open. I decided to make things a two for one and take my nephew to a Red Sox game in Baltimore for his 10th birthday. However, every hotel room was sold out in Baltimore...even Days Inn and Red Roof Inn. It was insane. I was all set to give it up, when I had the brilliant idea of just making it a day trip, but that ruled out the baseball game.
Elijah in front of the "Finding Nemo" tank
Apparently, my nephew is more into aquariums anyway and as luck would have it, Baltimore has a great one. The unfortunate aspect of this trip is that I had to fly to Columbus to get my nephew and then immediately fly back to Milwaukee with him. The captain and flight attendant got a kick out of that. I bought the full package for the aquarium which included a dolphin show and a 4-D immersion theater show. We arrived at BWI and I was immediately impressed. This was a nice airport. Now, I'm even more sad that we wont fly there any more. The train to take us downtown took forever to arrive, and it wasn't exactly a quick jaunt down to our stop. Koby got more and more sad as Red Sox fans piled on talking about the game.
Flying Fish
I felt bad for him. He had really been looking forward to the baseball game. We got off at the Convention Center and headed for the aquarium. It must have been at least 90 degrees, which is fine by me, but Elijah started complaining pretty quick. We stopped and got him some water and carried his backpack for him. This may turn out to be a long trip. We finally made it to the aquarium right at noon which was our entry time. My first impression of the aquarium was that it was not all it is cracked up to be. The Cincinnati Aquarium (Newport aquarium) was better. However, as we walked around I changed my mind. It was pretty nice, but it was very crowded so it took awhile to see each exhibit.
3-D Dorks!
We actually ended up missing a lot of things because we had to hurry to the dolphin show at 1:30. The dolphin show was fantastic Maya and Henry ( I think that was their names) flew through the air and played with balls and imitated the trainer and splashed on demand. It was great fun and Elijah really enjoyed it. Then was the 4-D Immersion theater which maybe was even better than the dolphin show. I don't want to ruin it for anyone that hasn't done it and might, but Elijah was laughing hysterically. They should have more of these things. It was a real hit with all of us. We finally left the aquarium at 3pm and headed to lunch in the inner harbor area, which is full of restaurants, but they are all chains.
Elijah chillin' while me and Koby paddle our a**es off.
I like to try to eat at new places. I really wanted to head to Lexington Market which was suggested to me by a travbuddy, but Elijah wasn't in the mood for walking. We ended up at a place J Pauls, that had average food. Following lunch we went paddle boating on little paddle boats shaped like dragons. Elijah really wanted to go, but he just sat in the back like a fat cat and me and Koby did all the work. What a life! And that was that. We caught the train back to BWI where Angela (Elijah's mom) was waiting to fly him back to Columbus. I am now really excited for everyone at work to go to Baltimore. I loved what I saw and it seemed like the perfect day trip for kids. I highly recommend it!
