We're Home

We've arrived back in Oregon and are settling back in. Unpacking, putting things away, and doing laundry always seems to take forever. I thought I'd catch you up on what we did on Saturday - our last day of vacation.

The boys wanted to "sleep in" and not get up so early, so we decided to spend the day in Baltimore. We had breakfast downstairs in our hotel again and were on the road by 10am. About 10 minutes into our drive Evan quickly and quietly announces he's going to throw up and seconds later as we're driving down the Interstate, he tosses his cookies all over the rental van. We quickly pull over and try to clean up with only two paper towels - not going so well. Matt drives us to a wayside and he gets some towels from the bathroom and buys a bottle of water and makes good progress with the mess. We then stop at Target to get some carpet cleaner and Fabreeze to mask the smell.

Finally, we're back on the road to Baltimore. We decided to go to Baltimore's Inner Harbor and see what we feel like doing when we get there. After we find a parking garage (which charges $20 for more than 3 hours), we decide to have lunch first. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe - the kids had never eaten here before. We have a nice lunch and head out to see the Harbor. We discuss going to the Baltimore Maritime Museum, but find that you actually buy tickets to go on board several different ships. It's expensive and the boys are happy to look at the ships from the outside.

Just down the Harbor, the kids see people paddeling around the harbor in dragon paddleboats. This is what they want to do. Matt says he'll take them on and I stay on land to take pictures. They drive around the harbor for just short of the half hour they purchased. Michael and Matt are sitting in the paddeling positions and Evan is steering their dragonboat. Apparently he thinks it's a bumper boat and wants to steer into everyone. Michael tries to help him by telling him where to drive the boat. After they get off the boat, Evan says he wants to go again, but it's extremely hot in the sun and the paddleboats are hard work.

After a quick bathroom stop, we discuss either going to see Fort McHenry in Baltimore or going on a Ducks tour of the city. Michael requests the Ducks tour, so we buy tickets and make our way to the line. Each of us is given a duck bill that makes duck call noises - oh my goodness - did they really give those noisy things to my kids? Evan thinks he's now in heaven and is becoming one with the duck. I on the other hand am getting a headache. When we board the ducks, Evan sits with Matt and Michael sits with me. We get a wonderful tour of Baltimore on land and see the real first Washington Monument, Edgar Allen Poe's grave, The University Of Maryland - Baltimore, and much more before our duck enters the Harbor and our water tour begins. The Harbor looks so different from the water than from the land. During the tour, the guide is playing some lovely music and quacking his quacker a lot. Both boys have a great time on the tour. After 80 minutes or so, we're returned to the loading area and we get off the duck.

It's after 5pm by now, so we take a quick drive out to Annapolis - the Capital of Maryland. The city is much smaller than I imagine and much more historic/old. We stop by to see the Naval Academy which is closed, so all we see is the sign. We also drive over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge - a 4 mile long bridge. It' s a toll bridge that costs $2.50 to go over one way and the return trip is free. Then we head off to find dinner and end up at a steakhouse. Yum - the portions are huge! Michael enjoys a steak and then he, Matt, and Evan all attempt desert. I, on the other hand, am way too full for desert.

We drive back to our hotel and pack up our suitcases trying to even out the weight to 50 pounds max per suitcase - this is challenging. We set the alarm to get up by 2:15am EDT to head off to the airport. As I mentioned, we're back here in Oregon. Now we're thinking - where to vacation next year that can live up to the excitement we had on this great family vacation!