Monday, January 17, 2011

discovery in the port

The best thing about a day off of school?  FIELD TRIP!  I’ve found that those fun activities that I took for granted when Hudson was home have turned into big adventures when he has off of school now.  We could do them in the afternoons (since he is 1/2 day AM), but Banana still naps.  Yes folks, blessedly, my daughter still naps…..Hudson still takes naps about 2 times a week too.

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We ventured to the port of Baltimore (not that far!) with Aunt Dana and Katelyn in the good ole’ grandmom-mobile.  We borrowed mom’s mini so we could all go together – thanks Grandmom!  Baltimore is one of our favorite cities.  We love it.

Getting there isn’t hard, but we didn’t have the GPS and ended up needing gas upon arrival to the city.  Oops.  Not easy to find a gas station in the city.  After two directions and a cop helping us, we found the station.  Getting back to the highway or to the harbor after that?  Eeek.  Took longer than it should’ve.  Oops, again.  But the kids were troopers and I was with Dana, so it made life much better.IMG_3210

Not only is it great for adults, but we love the zoo (have a membership again – thanks Bryan!), the harbor, the aquarium and Port Discovery children’s museum!  3 levels of non-stop constant motion.  An amazing climbing structure filled with tubes, ladders, nets slides surrounded by activities of perfection for little hands and growing minds.

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There were two particular stations my kids had a hard time leaving:  Tiny’s Diner (a fifties style diner where the kids had control of the kitchen – complete with a juke box, menus, booths and order tickets) and the Water Play room (provided with raincoats and crocs if you desired for super-wet play!)

In fact, Hugs got so busy making his Duplo boat to float on the river that he missed his turn on the bubble maker (below) and was so distraught that we made sure he understood we would be back to Port Discovery sometime soon. (Really.  We’ll be back.)

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The theme currently is Bob the Builder and all around there were neat activity stations that matched.  Hudson loved he could be in Wendy’s trailer and this is him using the light board in Bob’s Workshop to design architecture plans for his next building project.

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Another fave of the three kids was in the quiet room library.  Full of books, games and puzzles.  They had a blast water-painting rocks in the nature center.

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We were so busy having fun that we barely noticed we were hungry – it was WAY past lunch….but we were prepared (they’d had snacks), we had our lunch place already scoped out – PF CHANGS!  We love the Phoenix based restaurant.  Delicious asian pacific cuisine.  The kids love chinese food and they have kid friendly chopsticks.  But the kicker of them all?  My fortune cookie, so apropos: IMG_3231

You don’t have to know where you are to know where you are going.

Well, shoot, I’ll remember that next time I’m stuck in the city and can’t get out.

3 comments:

Flamingo said...

it is funny what you sometimes take for granted it isn't it? i love baltimore too...i worked at a hospital downtown after college. they have some kick butt open air markets. it's been awhile since we took the kids down. once the weather is nice it's fun to take the lightrail (we park in Hunt Valley) but the walk to the aquarium from there is pretty decent...BUT if it's nice who cares. i'm loving the snow but i can just feel the spring harbor breeze blowing on me as i think about it! lol

ps. sounds like you didn't get a hold of chris after all! lol

Bekah said...

Love Baltimore! I get lost in the city more often then not though, so I totally understand how easy it is!

Emily said...

Looks like a great time had by all! How fitting your fortune cookie was :)