Mt. Vernon Place, Baltimore

We just returned from a mini 2-day vacation to Baltimore, Maryland to visit my parents and to do a little sight-seeing with the kids.  On Thursday night, my parents were kind enough to babysit so Scott and I ate dinner (alone!) in Little Italy and then took in an O's game.  The Orioles are currently working on their worst record ever, so naturally they lost (actually, the opposing pitcher threw a complete game shut-out, ouch) but we were treated to not one, not two, but ejections of three Orioles players AND a fan running around the field for four long minutes.  Four full minutes, as confirmed by the Baltimore Sun newspaper, which commented on the event by saying the Baltimore police "gently corralled" a fan on the field.  It was so hot the police just let the kid run around until he was exhausted, and then slowly walked him away. Actually, I think the kid finally left the field because the home plate umpire took off his mask and yelled at the kid and scared him off the field. 

The highlight of the trip for the kids was a visit to the Port Discovery Museum in Baltimore, which is the Baltimore Children's Museum.  It is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and has all sorts of hands on exhibits, like a convenience store, mystery house, Egyptian maze, water lab, and delicatessen.  By far the favorite exhibit was called "Kids' Works" which is a 3-story urban treehouse and rope maze.  The kids climbed for at least an hour, probably longer.  If you are ever in Baltimore, we highly recommend taking the kids for a visit. 

Caroline and Ben in Rope Maze

The highlight of the trip for Scott was probably the O's game, but a close second was a short visit to Mount Vernon Place, which is four city block monument to George Washington.  I cross-stitched a Mt. Vernon Place picture for my godmother back in high school, and she returned the picture to me when she downsized her house.  We were unpacking some more boxes recently and Scott decided to hang the picture in the kitchen and wanted a family picture at the monument to hang with it.  So, we visited the monument and got the shot. 

Mount Vernon Place

Inherited Cross-Stitch Picture

(I would like to note that I am not 100% sold on this particular style of decorating yet, but it made for an interesting outing)

The highlight of the visit for me was a dinner of delicious, spicy, hot steamed crabs and a chocolate snowball for dessert.  I even got the sticky weird marshmallow on top of the snowball, just for fun.  Yum yum yum.  I know all you Baltimore locals are now jealous.