Vacation with Babies, 2010: Day 6, Part II

So, this will be a total shock to some of you, but I did not nap this day. Keith ran an errand, and while he did I sat and stared at people visiting a fountain visible from our room.  

And when he got back, I went to work out in a very fancy gym. And I got back just in time because frick and frack woke up and we were heading back out. And this time, we were heading out in strollers! Yes, strollers. Whoohooo. The errand Keith ran was to find a local store that sold these. Best $30 spent on a vacation. The boys were thrilled to be in strollers. "My stroller!" we heard over and over as we were getting ready. Here we are waiting for the elevator, and Cole is predicting which of the two elevators will open. Grady is checking to make sure we buckled him in properly.

We walked back to the Inner Harbor and headed to get our tickets for the Historic Ships. This turned out to be such a deal. The boys were free, and we scored a great discount that left Keith smiling for the next 30 minutes. We love deals. Anyway, we were ambitious and got the ticket to see all four of the ships on display.

First up is the Lightship Chesapeake. So, get the boys out of the strollers, fold up the strollers, carry both a baby and the stroller on board, talk to a very scary looking volunteer to get an info card, and then we can explore the boat. Thankfully we could stash the stroller at the entrance ramp to the boat, or it really would have sucked.

But now we're ready to expore the Chesapeake. As you can see from the yellow sign behind Grady, extra care had to be taken to get the little ones down the stairs. That includes me since I chose to wear wedge flipflops this day. Not the most practical shoes to wear when exploring ships, but at least I looked cute.

And once in the innards of the boat we explored a bit.

And then up to the wheelhouse.

Where we sat and admired the wheels. The boys started to get really excited because of the wheel. Would there be more wheels later? I bet they wondered.

And then up a little more to the top. Not sure what this part is called...

But from whatever its called, we had a nice view.

Then back down, and more down, then up and out of the Chesapeake. And then we need to make a pitstop before we boarded the next ship. So Keith turned to me and said "can you manage these two by yourself?" and since there had been a little crankiness, I turned to him and said "you better run".

The boys and I stood/sat and looked over the harbor while waiting for Dada to return. There, across the water is the Aquarium, and in front of it the Chesapeake we just visited. And right in front of us are the dragon paddle boats. The dragon boats were discussed in much detail. The colors, the head, the tail, how we want to get in the dragon boats. We promised we'd do it the next day after naps. Grady probably still remembers that we promised this.

And then a minute later, Dada came back. Good hustle.

Next stop was the USS Constellation, my favorite of the four. Our two shipmates needed a snack at this point. When we boarded the ship, Grady took one look at the volunteer who was suppsed to tell you about the ship and went to sit just like him. See the volunteer engaging with the public there? Doesn't he look thrilled to be here? No. This ship was really big, so I stood on boy patrol while Dada explored.

These are some pics Keith took.

I like this one.

Appropriately enough, Cole was snacking on Cap'n Crunch. I told you those little cereal boxes were a hit. For any grandmother reading this, they are not for everyday consumption! These are for travel-related bribery only.

And what does a captain say? ARGGG! Well, maybe a pirate captain does.

We went one level below. There were four levels total.

We even had a chance to stop and read some of the information signs. 

The two levels below this one were no food/beverage spaces, so the eating pirate captain and I stayed above while Grady and Dada explored below. Cannot imagine sleeping here.

Grady was playing with the rope. Look closely and you can see the blur of the swinging rope.

We spent a decent amount of time on the Constellation. It had a regal presence and an odd calmness. I liked it.

But we had other ships two explore, so we left that ship and boarded a submarine, the USS Torsk.

I was really worried here that a baby would go falling into the water.

So we quickly scampered into the sub. And were the boys in heaven! Little gadgets and doodads everywhere, and the doors were tunnels. TUNNELS!

Cole spotted a wheel.

And Grady, a bed.

And I kept hoping the next door was the exit. Not a big fan of submarines, thank you.

Oh my, look at all these handles and levels and things. We must touch every single one.

The afternoon was quickly turning into evening and we had one more ship left so we scampered off the Torsk and went to find the USCGC Taney, a Coast Guard vessel.

More wheels. And a neat blue line on the floor to lead you through the vessel. The boys loved this.

I've mentioned that Keith finds unusual things interesting. Something about the bathroom appealed to him.

Don't try to tell Grady where he should or should not look. He'll give you a look.

Awww, look at those two curly heads. They're so cute with each other lately.

And then we had to leave for the Taney was closing up for the night. And it was just as good because the afternoon wore this parental unit out. The in and out of strollers, carrying babies up and down ship stairs, lifting over doors...phew. So we walked towards Baltimore's Little Italy with the hopes of finding good Italian food. And on the walk there we assessed the boys' ability to sit through a meal. It was iffy at this point, so we went to plan B. This meant the boys ate a very kid-friendly meal in the hotel. Clothes optional.

And while I put the boys to sleep, our vacation forager went back to Little Italy and brought home a delicious meal for us to enjoy in the hotel room. He even found wine for the meal. What a great guy.

And what a great day. This day was so much fun for us because of the boys' excitement over the fish, the dolphins, the dragon boats and the ships. Worth our aching joints and feet, for sure.