Baltimore Harbor

Yesterday morning the kids and I left the house around 8:30 and arrived in the Inner Harbor three hours later. Aside from an about fifteen minute screaming temper tantrum on the part of Oliver around 10:30, we had a very smooth drive there. We made no stops and didn't hit any traffic. We spent four hours in the Maryland Science Center. We could have spent even longer, but we were also planning to visit Port Discovery (a children's museum). In addition to enjoying the hands-on exhibits in the science museum, we also saw a 3D IMAX movie on lemurs and attended a science demonstration on optical illusions. They didn't have the van de graaff generator out yesterday like they did last year, and this year if you got in as a homeschooler (VERY cheap) then the planetarium show wasn't included, which it was last year. Nadia's favorite part was the bed of nails. It was hard to get all three of them out of the Kid's room on the third floor.

After we left the science museum, the six of us (my parents met us there) walked around the harbor to Port Discovery. We had an early dinner at a Subway near the museum. Once a month they have a reduced admission ($2) from 4-8 pm. The last time we took advantage of it was several years ago (before Oliver). It is a large three story children's museum. Oliver's favorite parts were the water room (see how much fun he had washing the windows!) and the diner. Nadia's favorites were the castle and the diner. Ian really liked the Lego castle area. After we spent about two hours in the museum we left because we had to walk back to the parking garage and then drive three hours to get home. My phone told me that once we were in Baltimore we walked 6 miles, and since I jogged 4 miles yesterday morning, the phone said I had walked 10 miles total. Oliver fell asleep as soon as we were in the van. My dad and I carried him a little, but he was walking most of the time as well, and he also didn't get a nap. Ian fell asleep about 20 minutes into our drive so it was a very peaceful drive home. We arrived home at 10:00 pm. It was great to be able to spend the day in the harbor with my parents!