Many
moons ago when we lived in Tennessee and our children were young, I remember going to Washington, DC and
seeing all the sites there. But, we never saw much of Maryland. This week I
went along with Randy to Baltimore, Maryland where he had a safety manager’s
conference. This is what I have been up to –
Monday - That morning we drove Randy's truck to the airport and took a 4 hour 15 minute flight to Baltimore. It was
really smooth and the winds must have been in our favor, because we actually
got in about 25 minutes early. The plane was FULL, Randy was by the window, and
hadn’t taken his neuropathy medicine - so his feet were pretty miserable by the
time we landed – but we survived. Then we had to board a shuttle bus to go to
where the rental car was – about 10 minutes away. The bus driver came on the
intercom to tell everyone to be sure to leave 2 hours time for returning the
car! Really??!! After we got a car, we tried to follow the attendant’s
directions to the hotel, but we ended up getting a bit lost and having to ask
someone else. (I had printed off instructions to travel from the airport to the
hotel, but they didn’t include directions from the car rental facility! I know –
GPS…) Anyway, we finally got to the hotel and unloaded our things. It was right
on the bay with most attractions within walking distance.
Our hotel is the shorter building in front of the tall building |
We were both hungry
since all we’d had on the flight were drinks, cookies and pretzels or peanuts.
We walked several blocks to where the bay's water front area was, and
found a “5 Guys” hamburger place to eat at. I also found a place to buy postcards
to send my kids, and we got some yummy homemade fudge to eat before heading
back to the hotel. We watched a movie before hitting the sack.
Randy
went right to sleep, but I tossed and turned until after 1:30 am! I realize
Baltimore is 2 hours ahead of home, but sometimes I have a hard time sleeping
anyway . . . And the room was freezing .
. . AND the noise of the fan kept me awake. So, I never got into a deep sleep
and the alarm went off at 6am.
Tuesday – We went down to breakfast
provided by the safety people and it was pretty good. While we were there, we
found out that a fire alarm had gone off about 11:30 pm the night before, and a
lot of the people there for the safety conference had started to evacuate. I
had heard the alarm, but it was so far away that I thought it was a car alarm
in the parking garage. I guess someone was making popcorn in a microwave and
set it off. While Randy attended his meetings, I went back upstairs and read my
emails and the newspaper. Then I went to the Physical Fitness room and rode a
stationary bike for about an hour. After that I got my shower, dried my hair (I
had forgotten how flat it gets in that humidity!), and got ready to go
sight-seeing. I walked to a place where I got a smoothie for lunch, and then I
walked about 1 ½ miles mostly uphill to go to an art gallery. I had spent so much
time making sure of the hours and address that I neglected to see that it
wasn’t open until Wednesday. Oops. So, it was locked. But, I managed to see a
lot of downtown and take lots of pictures.
I walked back down the hill and
around the bay. I was able to climb up some stairs to see the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse that was
built in 1875 and used to be further out in the bay, but was moved into its
present spot in 1988 when it was no longer useful as a modern lighthouse. I
don’t know why, but I LOVE lighthouses!
View from top of lighthouse looking west |
Then I walked around to the other side
of the bay and took some pictures from Federal Hill Park.
Baltimore from Federal Hill |
Around 6pm, all the
guys (and a few women) at the safety conference were shuttled to a restaurant
about 15-20 minutes away (they said it was only 2 ½ miles, but traffic was
terrible) and dinner was very good – although the portions were small, and some
people complained about that. Randy had discovered that he had lost his truck
key sometime in the last two days, so we searched through the hotel room, he
asked about it at the front desk, and we walked back to the couple of places
that we had been to the previous night– all with no luck. My stomach started to
act up, and let’s just say that I had evacuations taking place from both ends
until after midnight. Let me just say here, that I NEVER throw up. Ask my kids.
I have a cast-iron stomach. So, you know I must have been REALLY sick. Not a fun
night. We did turn the fan off, however, and that helped me fall right to
sleep.
Wednesday – I stayed in bed rather than go
to the breakfast, and didn’t actually start moving until 9:30 am. I thought I’d
better stick with just drinking water for at least the morning. I got up, took
a shower, read the paper, read my email, looked at Facebook, read in my book of
Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, etc. Randy was through with his meetings around
noon, so we walked to lunch. I had only a chocolate shake to drink. We went to
the Star-Spangled Banner house where they have a replica (it is HUGE) of the
flag that was flying when the song was written. It was sewn by Mary
Pickersgill. Randy went around the exhibit while I sat down. Then we toured 2
ships in the harbor - the US Submarine Torsk,
and the US Sloop of War Constellation.
They used to have about 80 sailors aboard the small submarine at once (one
level), so they would have to sleep in rotating shifts. I would be SO
claustrophobic!
(HaHa - I know my hips look huge - but I have a sweatshirt tied around my waist!) |
One of the torpedo rooms |
Sleeping quarters |
There were 4 levels on the Constellation, so it wouldn’t have
been quite so bad. On this ship, only the officers had beds, with the regular
sailors sleeping in hammocks. It was beautiful.
There is a place along the
water front where they have entertainment every day. The acts we saw were not
too bad – with one guy being quite good. We walked back by an hour or so later,
and I could tell his voice was getting tired, however! Finally, we drove about
4 miles and toured Fort McHenry. This is a star-shaped fort that was defended during
the Battle of Baltimore, September 13-14, 1814. The valiant defense of the fort
inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner."
First, they have a short movie about the history of the fort, then a small museum
to tour, and then you get to tour the actual fort. Originally the buildings
were just one-story, but later a second story was added on, and there is still a
lot of remodeling going on with more displays. Because it is higher than
surrounding areas and at the end of one of the land projections in the bay, it
has a wonderful view.
All during our site-seeing, I had to walk slow and
sometimes stop because of my tender stomach. I took this picture of the houses because I was amazed at them - they were EVERYWHERE. They couldn't have been much more than 10 - 12 feet wide, with no yards.
We parked the car at the hotel
again and walked to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. Randy happened to be wearing
a Beatles t-shirt, and we got sat in a room that had a lot of Beatle paraphernalia.
I could only eat about half of a mound of mashed potatoes. We then walked back
to the hotel and relaxed before going to bed early because we had to get up at
4am.
Thursday – We got up very early and packed
everything up. We left the hotel about 4:20am. We drove the car back to the
rental place and took a shuttle back to the airport. We ate some breakfast and then
waited to board our flight. Once again, the flight was very smooth and took about
25 minutes less than scheduled. I think they tell you longer flight times in
case there are problems, because they just want every flight to be on time!! Anyway, everywhere that we had been Randy
checked about the truck keys, but without any luck. So, Tyler picked us up and
took us home. After a little while I drove Randy back up to the airport, he met
a locksmith there, had new keys made (it had to be a Smart-Key), and drove
home. It was fun to see some sites and be out of the state for a few days – I just
wish I hadn’t gotten so sick!
I didn't know you were going to Maryland. I have always wanted to see more of the East.
ReplyDelete