Road Trip v1.2

The Sightseeing Madness

Saturday Morning in Annapolis

We had a wonderful, leisurely breakfast wherein Eileen cooked us the best buttermilk pancakes I have ever tasted and we soaked up the cuteness of our four little ones gathered around the wooden table in the kitchen.

Then, it was off to Baltimore.

We spent the day at the inner harbor, starting with the aquarium.

It turns out, I think aquariums are a bit of a racket. 
I am a fan of the awe-inspiring giant tanks of sea creatures, to be sure, and I appreciate the work and expense that must go into maintaining them.  But $80 for our family to walk through a crowded, claustrophobic maze and push ourselves into little dark corners to see those sea creatures? And then be charged $3.00 for  a bottle of water in the cafe?  Oy.  To the aquarium's credit, the kids did have a marvelous time and seems to truly enjoy their glimpses of the underwater world, leaving principled annoyance to the adults.   For me, though, I think I'll stick to just wandering around outside of the famous, overpriced attractions in the future.

The inner harbor was lovely and rather magical, with the tall ships and dragon boats and swarms of people and lots of ducks.  My mom and I soaked up all the bustling harbor-side ambience of it with a quick escape to Chipotle (yes, we drove all the way to Baltimore and ate at Chipotle) after the aquarium, while Nat took the kids to see a few of the ships.

Then, we drove our tired, hot selves back home to Annapolis.  Nat headed off to D.C. to spend the evening with Jamo while the rest of use recovered with some TV time before venturing to the harbor in Annapolis for dinner.  

Annapolis is utterly charming.  

And the little harbor, really a dead-end canal dubbed "Ego Alley" in honor of the yachts and sailboats that cruise down and back to "see and be seen", was a delightful bustle of cars and people and summer-evening leisure. 

We ate hot dogs for dinner then got ice cream for dessert, and slowly milled about with the crowds.  The children climbed on statues and were wonderful for me.  Corydon was quite the celebrity:  Annapolis is wonderfully dog friendly, with water bowls outside of every store, and plenty of patio dining, and people here know their dog breeds, apparently.  We are used to Cor getting compliments.  In Cleveland, they sound something like, "What a pretty dog?  What kind is it?"  In Annapolis, it seemed that every person who walked by was saying "A Springer Spaniel!" and I lost count of the enamored visitors who told of Springers they'd had as children.  It was fun.

Next installment:  More Hot Weather and a Busy Sunday.  Followed by:  The Exciting Trip Home.  Please bear with me on posts, though, as I am off on my "mommies only" trip to NYC early tomorrow!!  (Woohoo!) Stay tuned!