Family Vacation to Baltimore

In early August we took a short family vacation to Baltimore.  This summer our plan was to not take a big family vacation (bathroom remodeling plans instead), but once we saw that the Cardinals were playing the Orioles for a weekend, we decided to make a quick vacation out of it.  And I apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures - our camera settings were obviously wrong and thus all vacation photos were blurry.

We were lucky enough to arrive by lunchtime on the first day, so we had a half day of exploring to start our trip.  Our first stop was the American Visionary Art Museum.  While no pictures were allowed inside any of the 3 buildings, trust me when I say that this is a museum worth going to!  It was fun, beautiful, disturbing, whimsical, imaginative, and kid friendly (except for the guard who followed us for 45 minutes).  Just ask Olivia or Ethan about the fart exhibit in the basement (a true exhibit on the history of fart jokes, humor, and art)!  I was only able to take pictures of the outside art.

This silver egg was Joe's favorite piece - images that the Hubble telescope captured and then these were etched onto the egg.

A fun fort for the kids to climb in.

After the museum, we climbed Federal Hill to take pictures of the great skyline view.  To end our day, the kids rode on the Baltimore carousel and we ate at the Rusty Scupper (it was just OK food).

We hit the ground running on our second day in Baltimore.  We started with a full morning in the Baltimore Aquarium (this fun shark submarine was just outside).  This Aquarium was very nice - an excellent reef exhibit where we could watch the scuba divers feed the fish, a rainforest, an Australian exhibit, dolphin show, and so many great little exhibits.

Olivia always likes to pose with the anemones.  In real life these were so brightly colored!

Ethan with one of about a dozen jellyfish exhibits.  These are always some of my favorites in the aquarium.

After a crabcake lunch at Phillip's Seafood, we met with grandma and grandpa (who also wanted to see the Cardinals vs. Orioles games!) for the rest of our trip.  We started with a fun (but surprisingly strenuous) ride in the dragon paddle boats in the Inner Harbor.

We all then took a water taxi to Fort McHenry for an afternoon of exploring.  This is the fort that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner during the War of 1812.  I had no idea that the anthem had so many verses!

The Fort looked more like a town and less like a fort.  A town surrounded by cannons!

The kids reported to guard duty.

The views on top of the Fort were gorgeous!

After the Fort we then walked to L.P. Steamers to try our hand at eating crabs.  We had a waiter that was very patient with us to help us order the correct amount of crabs (about 4-5 jumbo crabs per person) and how to get out the meat.  We learned several things while doing this - you have to LOVE Old Bay to eat these crabs, hammering open the crabs is a lot of fun even if it did shred the meat (people from Baltimore avoid the hammer completely according to our waiter), Old Bay really hurts when you cut your finger while opening the crabs, you do a lot of work for not a lot of meat, the crab gills taste terrible (I accidentally didn't scrape all of those off on one crab), and this experience is a one and done (although we ate crabs twice in this vacation) and we will stick to crab cakes from now on.

Day three brought another full day of exploring.  We spent the morning visiting the Historic Ships of Baltimore in the Inner Harbor.  We started with the USS Constellation, then the submarine, and last the Chesapeake (a lightship).  The kids really enjoyed exploring all four levels of the Constellation and trying to imagine how awful it must have been to sleep/work on the ship (so stuffy below deck!). 

The second level of the Constellation had dozens of cannons for Ethan to explore.

Preparing to enter the "stinky submarine".  We toured a submarine on a previous San Diego trip, and basically the smell is all that the kids remembered!

So many levers and buttons to push in each room!

The sleeping areas were beyond awful to imagine having to actually use for months at a time!

We ate THE BEST crab cake in all of Baltimore for lunch at Faidley's in the Lexington Market.  I highly recommend making the trip here!  Plus, in the Market be sure to splurge on a Berger Cookie - shortbread covered in chocolate ganache YUM.

After the Market we walked over to see Edgar Allan Poe's gravesite.  The small cemetery was very interesting to walk through.

Next on our list was a visit to the Walters Art Museum.  This was a very large museum to explore with so many different themes of art.  We always love the Egyptian areas, and the kids loved the Greek statues.

Doesn't this look like Elvis Presley????

We ended our day with our first visit to Camden Yards.  Joe met Boog (a former Orioles ball player) at Boog's BBQ inside the stadium and talked with him a long time about his BBQ (YUM).

We had excellent seats for the first game - about 6 rows from third base.  Too bad that the Cardinals were horribly defeated by the Orioles.

After the game was a laser/fireworks show and introduction of past great Orioles players to celebrate the Orioles 60th Anniversary.  Needless to say, Ethan did not survive the entire show.

Our final full day started with an excellent brunch at Miss Shirley's (order the crab Bloody Mary and the funky monkey bread), and then we walked to Babe Ruth's Birthplace and Museum.  We were greeted outside by a very energetic tour guide who gave us an excellent overview of the museum.

This kids comparing Babe Ruth's monster sized bat (so heavy and thick!) with a modern bat.

Joe was very disappointed that autographed Babe Ruth balls were not for sale in the gift shop.

Our next tourist spots were the Geppi's Entertainment Museum and the Baltimore Sports Legends Museum. Joe was in heaven in Geppi's.  The first room was about 1000 comic books - including very rare ones like the first edition Superman.  Joe and the kids spent a long time browsing this room.

Olivia with Superman in Geppi's.

Beyond the comic book room, each room in Geppi's had a theme of toys by the decades.  So one room was toys popular in the 1950s, or the 60s, or the 70s, etc.  We all found this Dopey doll to be a bit creepy!

Ready for Cardinals vs. Orioles take 2!  Unfortunately, the score of this game was no better than the first.  But first the family had to pose with the Babe Ruth statue outside of Camden Yards.

OK, first off, the hat was a give away that night.  Second, yes, that is a hot dog covered in macaroni and cheese and lump crabmeat.  I felt I had to eat it since I pretty much ate crab every single meal in Baltimore (even for breakfast).  My take on it was "eh" - the cold crab and hot macaroni did not play well together, I think that the crab should have been hot as well. 

These were MUCH better - crab fries with a Natty Bo beer.

Our second attempt at eating crabs went much better than the first time, showing that practice does make perfect.  But I am still ordering a crab cake next time.

The family enjoying Baltimore's beautiful Inner Harbor one last time.