Got to know Baltimore

This weekend Dan received an award for his dissertation (hooray) and presented at the American Education Finance Association Conference in Baltimore. Joshua and I went along for some fun. Here are some things we got to know in Baltimore.

1. The Inner Harbor. Great little area, great sculptures, great shops, great ships, great restaurants. No guard rail--kind of scary for moms and dads.
2. The National Aquarium. (That's the structure that you can see behind Dan.) This is perhaps the best aquarium I have ever been to. The Australia and rainforest exhibits amazed us, the dolphin show impressed us (until Joshua had to use the potty), and the fluidity of the traffic was exceptional. There were loads of people there--I can't imagine what it's like in tourist season. Get your tickets on-line--that's my word of advice. We didn't have to wait in the two-hour line because we picked them up at the Will Call window.

3. Port Discovery, easily the best children's museum I've been to. Joshua dug for potatoes, drove a train, mailed letters to Clifford the Big Red Dog, made and ate a fruit shishkabob, filled up a car with gas. And we didn't even touch the three story maze/playstructure. This place is perfect for entertaining a underslept toddler who needs to be tired out for the drive home.

4. The USS Constellation, a naval battleship from the Civil War, docked right there in the Inner Harbor. It's so neat to literally stand on that kind of history. All four decks were open for us to explore, and we would have done more if Joshua had a longer attention span.

5. Mercy Hospital's ER. A horrible earache sent me to seek a doctor's help at midnight. Dan had to stay with a sleeping Joshua in the hotel room, so I caught a cab and made it there and back in a couple hours. There were so many people at the hotel and hospital who were so helpful and so kind, and I was so grateful.