Final Days

I await pictures of Rhett's birthday to share, but all accounts indicate that little man had a great birthday. Would probably have been better if his favorite Aunt had gotten it together and sent his birthday card with "like a million dollars!" (inside joke, sorry people) inside on time.

So to entertain you until I post his birthday pics, how about a roundup of our vacation? We are on our last day in Baltimore, and we were getting in the swing of hotel living. This morning we had:

Good moods? Check.

Stolen small boxes of sugary cereal from hotel breakfast? Check.

Claimed our strollers for exploration? Check.

Gotten coffee for Momma? Check.

Had a plan of action for the day? Check.

First on that plan of action was a visit to the Baltimore Public Works museum. We had walked past its rather humorous sign that said " the surprisingly interesting museum" for a few days, so we figured we'd go check it out. It was right around the corner from the hotel, and our excitement grew as we approached....and then...well, then we were confused...I work in a museum and we don't let bums sleep in the entryway...then we begin to wonder the usual questions when you arrive somewhere and things don't seem right-are we too early? Is this the right place? Something was not right.

Keith spotted a small sign near another entrance that indicated that the museum was closed, and we should check back in May. Not any particular year, just check back in May. So it seems the only thing surprisingly interesting about the museum was how popular it was with the bums.

What a bummer. I love a quirky museum.

By now it was 10am, and we were going to take the Water Taxis over to Ft.  McHenry. I thought this would be a great idea, and it was fun...except that the water taxi system was so poorly planned and there was little to no printed information to help tourists get around. If you like asking the same question a thousand times to figure out which boat you're waiting for, then you'd love the water taxi. If you prefer clear directions you can follow in an efficient manner, then the 3 separate legs of the journey on different boats just to traverse the harbor would be a wee bit frustrating. In a sidenote, I think the city really would benefit from a few civil engineers doing an efficiency assesment in the Inner Harbor. Is someone taking notes, Baltimore?

To top it off, it seemed the museum being closed and the taxi service being crappy wasn't the only problem this day was going to throw our way...it started to rain. We did check the weather forcast, but no mention of rain...so this Momma did not bring anything we might need in rain. Except little boxes of cereal.

While on the water taxi, it started to drizzle. But the boys were enjoy the boatride, so all was good.

Oops, uploaded the wrong pic here. I have a better one of Cole, will have to replace this later.

After our 2nd stop, we had to wait for the third boat. And the skies had opened up and it was raining hard. HARD. There was no canopy for us to huddle under, so we ran with the strollers to the closest restaurant to huddle under the awning. Here I'm digging for something to dry the boys' legs. It was a wee bit chilly when one got wet.

And taxis kept coming...but we didn't know which would be the one to take us to our destination...no signs, you see. We made an educated guess, and Keith ran ahead to go ask, and as luck would have it, we were right.

This taxi brought us to Ft. McHenry, a destination best visited in pleasant weather, since it's all outdoors. We did get some good info from these park ranger dudes. Guy on the right is a great, great educator.

We didn't listen to all of his speech, because like canaries in a mine, our two would let us know its time to move to the next room. So we stayed one step ahead of the rest of the visiting group, and would usually have the room to ourselves. It was almost funny. Most other visitors were older couples, and they would come into a room we were in, startle like they saw a mouse, and then scurry to another room. Children! Oh God!

We did a quick survey of the buildings open to visitors, then left. We put it on our "Return to Visit" list.

After the rainy and tiring morning, we had a quick crabcake lunch, and napped/worked out.

And set back out to explore in the afternoon. We visited the seven knoll lighthouse. It had a lot of stairs, and we loved that.

And we loved that we could run around the perimeter.

We tried to get a picture of the two boys and Momma after we descended, but only one baby cooperated.

Our next stop was to go ride the dragon boats, but they were closed! at 4pm on a Sunday in a touristy destination. Go figure! We had promised the boys we would ride the dragon boats, and they most certainly remembered...and we felt so bad. We had to tell them the boats were broken, but Grady in the most sorrowful voice kept saying " dragonboats are broken"...like he just cannot believe it, they are broken. So sad for the little man.

We did ride a really old and really, really fast merry go round. Two dollars a person will give a person whiplash here.

And to round it out, we had some ice cream. A video will be uploaded here with some details, but onlt later today. Check back.

And that's it for our last day of vacation. The trip home was uneventful, and as always, we were happy to be home. Sort of. You know how it goes, you're ready to be home, but not ready for the responsibility of real life.