Sea Life and Presidents

One of my sisters moved to Baltimore this summer and she had a housewarming/President's Day party Saturday afternoon. We hadn't ever been to Baltimore before so we decided to make a little weekend of it. Our plans almost fell apart when my sister reminded me that they have a cat, and Scott is highly allergic. He went back and forth about staying home, going with me but sleeping in the car if he couldn't breathe, going for just one night instead of two...eventually we stuck with our original plan which was for him to take the bus to work, the kids and I picked him up at 3:30 and then set off for Maryland.

Friday was one crazy day for me with packing, not just for a weekend, but costumes for the party, and leaving the house spotless since we had a showing scheduled for Saturday. I barely got everything done by the time Cakes got off the bus, loaded up the car and set off to get Scott. I had one brief episode of panic driving to one of the many tunnels around here when suddenly the warning lights said "All traffic stop." That is never a good sign and could potentially have left me sitting there for HOURS if there's been an accident in the tunnel. Thankfully, it was a very brief stop. A semi was pulled aside and then traffic resumed, truck must've been to tall for the tunnel or something.

I drove all but the last hour and a half or so to my sister's house, and it turns out I did the easy part because after we stopped for dinner Scott drove and traffic was a mess, plus you pretty much go through a maze in downtown Baltimore to get to my sister's house. Note to self: it would be best to call and confirm one's travel plans, especially when they have changed many times in the previous 24-hours. At about 7:00 my sister called to ask when we were arriving, I told her about an hour and a half, last she'd heard we weren't coming until Saturday. Oops! But even if I'd thought to call her, I hadn't thought to put her number in my phone anyway. Sorry! It all worked out. After figuring out where to park, we were safely at our destination. It only took about 4 1/2 hours of driving; we were expecting closer to 6.

My kids were thrilled to be with their favorite cousin again. It took me a while to get used to seeing all my sister's stuff in different places. Her house is pretty cool. We all slept upstairs in their finished attic, after blocking the stairs with our suitcases to keep Bubba safe. We slept pretty good, but I should apologize for my early-morning children stomping all around about sleeping people, and for my 4yo who woke up several times both nights to use the potty. I can't wait for some of my other siblings to have kids to I'm not the only one feeling like a nuisance!

Saturday morning we hit the National Aquarium which was pretty darn cool, waaaaay better than the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago which had the cheesiest, most ridiculous show EVER. This dolphin show was pretty fun. We sat in the splash zone, but didn't get wet. If you want to get wet, you chances are better off to one side or the other, we were right in the middle.

 

While the kids waited for the show to start Scott bought two soft pretzels for all of us to share, Bubbs ate about 3/4 of mine.

 



The coolest part of the Aquarium was "tank" full of all sorts of rays, small sharks and one giant sea turtle; it's essentially their entire basement and you can see down into it from just about anywhere in the aquarium. They have feeding time too where quite a few divers go in and swim around feeding all the rays. I never knew rays could be so gigantic. We were watching the feeding from the observation windows down below and there was a volunteer down there telling us this one weighs 180, that one weighs about 250, and these rays liked swimming right on top of the divers' heads. Yikes!



View from down below



Ray swimming across diver's head

  


Giant ray




Lots of divers and the three-armed sea turtle (he's missing a front flipper)




View from up top

 They have a whole jellyfish section too, which all the kids really liked. I didn't know there were jellyfish in such dark colors.

After the Aquarium we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe (where I left my credit card!) then went to the Barnes and Noble next door which was built in an old power plant. They had a whole table of books on the presidents, and my sister had said the night before that they had nothing with Obama, so I found a cool book by National Geographic with Obama on the cover and inside, plus a whole section on First Ladies. I thought that was quite appropriate for the party.

We hurried back to my sister's house (after going to pay for the book and realizing I'd left my credit card next door and going back to get it) and got dressed up for the party. Scott and I were President and Mrs. Hoover. My mom took a picture of me, but I don't think anyone took pictures of Scott.

Cakes and Silly were Ike and Mamie Eisenhower.



Silly in his camo and great-granpa's WWII hat



Cakes as Mamie, with her cute hair done by her Mamie

And Bubbs as George Washington, but he refused to wear his wig. He almost refused to wear his little ruffle too, but some Ronald Reagan jelly beans cured that.

This picture cracks me up; George Washington scooting around with his tongue out while Ike marches by

Apparently this was Scott's first exposure to my mom's magical costume closet. He kept asking where we all got our dresses from (my mom and two other sisters were at the party) and I kept trying to explain that mom just has all sorts of clothes from all different eras and you can find something to wear for anything. That was just a normal part of my life. Just among my relatives at the party we had Dolly Madison, Abigail Adams, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Bill Clinton, Jackie Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Lots of the party guests really got into the theme too. One guy was introducing himself as Ben Franklin (with the appropriate wig), second president of the United States. Another one of her friends already had lamb chops, so he was Van Buren. One couple came a Secret Service, we had some Rough Riders, Ronald Reagan, a couple other Jackies, Teddy Roosevelt, Nixon, and some others I'm forgetting. There were some presidential party games; one was guess how many Lincoln's on the jar. Cakes wouldn't guess but at the last second she guessed a number and turned out to be the closest, so she brought home a jar with 811 pennies in it. We ate lots of presidential favorite foods and drinks. My sister an her husband have this camera collection to my mom did a little research and made some labels for each one saying who used it to take pictures of which pres. Everyone thought that was pretty sweet, and I don't think my sister will take those down. It was a great party and we all vegged out in front of the TV together after everyone left.

I got Bubba jammied up and he passed out while I was making lots of racket getting all out stuff packed up. I went back to check on him at least an hour later and I"m pretty sure he hadn't moved at single bit.

Yes, he sleeps with a naked mole rat.

While I was vegging out, Scott took Cakes and Silly to Medieval Times for dinner and a show. Silly thought it was real at first and was a little freaked out that he was seeing people get stabbed and slashed with swords until Scott explained. Cakes came home with a fancy ring and Silly got a sword and shield.

Sunday morning we headed for home. We weren't even entirely out of the city before Cakes and Scott (who was driving) started to feel sick. We stopped to eat breakfast, well, the boys and I ate breakfast while Scott and Cakes went to their respective bathrooms. Cakes felt fine after she threw up and ate something; Scott still didn't feel too hot so I drove the rest of the way home. We had decided to try out the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel route. I'm pretty sure I'd been over it before, but certainly never as the driver. I did not enjoy it. I don't ever need to see the Eastern Shore again. I'll stick to the Outer Banks, thank you. The last twenty minutes before home was pure torture, but we survived.

Overall, it was a pretty good trip and not as long of a drive as we expected. Oh, I forgot one thing. driving on 395 you can see the Washington DC temple all lit up at night for a good long while (especially if you're stuck in traffic). All the kids saw it and oooh'ed and aah'ed. Bubbs was looking at it and I told him it was the temple. He pointed and said "I wike it."