We invited Kim, Tom, and the kids down to Baltimore for Easter as it was a weekend that the kids did not really have any activities planned home. They made it to our house by 4:30pm.
We gave them the nickel tour of the house and then got them all settled in - we had set out the foam mattress in the beach room so there were two queen beds. We had a couple of beers at the house before walking over to
Bo Brooks tiki bar for buckets of beer. Amazingly, Ryan saw a school friend as he and Riley were running around the brick path- a German couple that Kim and Tom knew who had stopped off in the area on the way to DC. After a couple rounds of beer and a crab pretzel we walked over to Canton Square for dinner. We did not have a reservation so had to check out a couple of places before settling on
Claddagh pub. We all ordered basic pub food - we had the fish tacos.
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| Camden Yards |
Saturday, we had some breakfast at the house before heading over to
Starbucks so Kim could load up on her "mommy juice" - which we think Kim may be spinning with vodka! Our next stop was
Camden Yards, so we Ubered over since it would have been a really long walk. The tour of the Orioles stadium was quite good - and the place was getting set up since opening day was only 9 days out. We saw the plaques in the ground for the home run hits that went over the fence, went down to the dugout, and then saw the party rooms and media centers. The entire tour was about 1.5 hours.
It was then time for lunch so we made a pit stop at
Shake Shack in the
Inner Harbor - which worked out well so that Kim could get get food for Riley at the
Chick Fil A next door. It was our first shake shack experience - pretty good for "fast food" hamburgers. We walked along the harbor, stopping at
Itsugar so Keith could get some gummies for the kids. That enabled us to crack them on sugar to carry them through the
Science Museum. The museum was quite well done - definitely designed for kids. That said, the adults had fun making a few of the experiments into competitions: balance, dancing, heart rate, and then jumping between floor markers (this wasn't even a science game - we made it up). It was a long walk back to the house so we broke it up with a few beers at
Slainte in
Fells Point. After walking the rest of the way home, Shawna set out wine and cheese for us all to nibble on as we were getting showered and ready for dinner. Kaley was the assigned babysitter for Ryan and Riley - she stayed in the room while the other kids watched
The Good Dinosaur as the rest of us went out to dinner at
Fleet Street Kitchen. We started with a cocktail in the bar which took a really long time to make. Dinner was pretty good - we had a four course menu paired with wine.
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| After the 'hunt' |
Sunday morning was Easter and the easter bunny did stop by - since we have no yard the bunny left the eggs on the second and third floors of the house. There were only a few tears over who got which eggs - probably better than when Keith was a kid! Each of the kids had a few of their eggs before we left the house - again with the first stop being Starbucks. Shawna had arranged an earlier brunch at
Alexanders Tavern in Fells Point - Shawna had an omelet and Keith had the breakfast burrito. No one had any mimosas - we had plenty to drink the day before! We timed the end of lunch to coincide with the departure of the
water taxi - it was a great way to see a bit more of the harbor and we had never been on it before. We had paid for an annual membership at the
Aquarium earlier that week - with one of the benefits being we get to skip the tourist line and go to the member entrance. We get "free" tickets and up to four guests get a discount on tickets. The aquarium was really well done - with the ground floor pool in the first building being really cool with rays and black tipped sharks. Another tank was exclusively for larger sharks and that was pretty amazing. We wrapped up the tour in the dolphin area, seeing the tail end of a presentation.
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| National Aquarium |
Ryan had wanted steamed crabs so we went back to the house and ate at
Bo Brooks - this time in the restaurant. Tom and Ryan shared six steamers while rest of us had lighter items. Following lunch they packed up the car and started off for home. The house was in really good shape - we did the sheets while watching TV and called it an early night at 9pm.
