Applecore...

Baltimore!

The view from our hotel room. In the center is M&T Bank Stadium, home of Super Bowl XLVII champions, the Baltimore Ravens. On the right, is Camden Yard, home of the Baltimore Orioles. 

We took a last-minute trip up to Baltimore while Max was on spring break. It was only a one night, two day deal, but we had a great time and by the end, Isla was ready to move there. She still asks quite often when we will be able to go back, and if we will ever actually move there. Judging from the response from our children, I think the short little vacation was a success!

After arriving, we checked into the hotel, ate lunch, and then walked over to Charm City's Inner Harbor. It's a pretty cool place with lots to see and do. We made our way over to Port Discovery, Baltimore's children's museum. The kids had a lot of fun, but Shayla and I kept drawing comparisons between Port Discovery and Ogden, Utah's Treehouse Museum. We both felt that Treehouse was far superior. Regardless, we still had a blast running around and exploring all that Port Discovery had to offer.

Watching ducks swim in the harbor.

The museum featured a three-story play structure with twists, turns, slides, towers, and rope bridges. The highlight of the museum though, was the water room. We spent a lot of time splashing and playing and getting wet. I think Wyatt enjoyed it the most, but all of us had a great time.

Walking the rope bridge at Port Discovery.

Unfortunately, we forgot to grab our camera when we left home, so all we had were crummy cell-phone cameras, but at least our cell-phone cameras are better than no camera. It was at least good enough to snap a photo of Bumblebee at the Ripley's Believe It or Not Odditorium.

The next day we walked over to the National Aquarium. This aquarium is constantly rated as one of the best in the country, and it didn't disappoint. It had every type of fish and water creature you could think of. From freshwater to saltwater, and from the common to the not-so-common.

The highlights of our visit were the sharks and the dolphins. For Isla, the only thing she wanted to see when we first got there were the sharks. We had to walk through the rest of the aquarium before we got to the shark tank, and when we finally arrived, we watched as seven and eight foot sharks circled around us (the shark tank is shaped like a giant "O", and the center of the "O" is the viewing area). I held Isla up to the glass to get a better look, and after just a few seconds, one of the larger sharks swam slowly in front of us. Only the thickness of the glass separated us from this shark. As it got closer, it moved it's head slightly in our direction and opened its mouth. Now, the word "opened" is accurate, because that is exactly what this shark did, but the word "opened" does not do justice to what the shark really did. If I would have had a basketball I could have tossed it in and hit nothin' but net! This shark showed us every single one of it's razor sharp teeth. We had a first-row glimpse into death itself. If this shark wanted to swallow a child-sized school bus, shredding the metal like string cheese with it's fine-honed, knife-sharp teeth, it wouldn't have had to open it's mouth much further.

Isla was petrified. She stood stone still. After the shark passed by she quickly turned and held tightly onto me. She was done with the sharks. 

Our next stop was the dolphin tank. This place was much less threatening. A dolphin show was just an hour away, so Shayla took a break and saved us some seats in the dolphin arena while I took the kids below to watch the dolphins swim around. The dolphins seemed to love all of the children gathered at the window and would frequently swim up to say hi. It was awesome to watch the kids react each time the dolphins stopped by. It was almost as if the dolphins were waiting for the kids to hop into the pool and play.

We also hit the jellyfish exhibit while waiting for the dolphin show to begin. Wyatt loved watching all of the alien-like creatures as they floated aimlessly around. After the jellies, we went back to watch the dolphins jump, slide, and play during the dolphin show, and left a little disappointed after our splash zone seats didn't even see a single drop of water.

Of course, no visit to any theme-park, attraction, museum, etc. is complete without a stop at the gift shop. While Max and Isla were running around begging us to buy every single thing they could get their hands on, one little shark seemed to have escaped his tank and came swimming by for a closer look. 

By the end of our trip, when we had finally returned home, our kids were completely out. We let them sleep for several minutes before waking them. After running all over Baltimore's Inner Harbor, it was nice to see that they are actually capable of being peaceful and quiet!