This Weekend's Field Trip

So, Baltimore. Specifically the Harbor, Pratt St., and Camden Yards, as well as a few side streets and the watch tower which probably has a more official name than that. It was a nice sunny day, which accounts for the slightly reddened face (sorry, Mom, no sunscreen), but still pretty chilly, which accounts for the shivering most of the game. We shifted our seats a few times because we wanted to sit in the sun until the game started, then people kicked us out and I was getting nauseous in my ticketed seat from the guy next to me who was drooling. I suspect he was using tobacco or some such thing and that combined with the smell of beer and motion sickness from the drive almost pushed me over the edge. So we moved down a row and only got kicked out of our seats one more time, for a total of three.

The game, despite being the purpose of the trip, was not as exciting as one would wish. It was interesting to note that there were about an equal number of Orioles and Red Sox fans, and a very tiny minority of Yankees fans. The Orioles took an early lead, but lost it all a little later and never caught back up. I don't believe there were any home runs, although I might have missed one in there somewhere. Fortunately, it wasn't too long of a game, although even so, we left early to beat the crowds, supposedly so we could find something to eat, even though that never happened.

On the way back to the harbor, we came across a magician entertaining the crowds. He wasn't very good, or at least the first few minutes weren't. I was hoping he would juggle or spit fire or something so I could take some pics, but instead he made bad and mostly inappropriate jokes. We soon moved on to explore the shops with sparkly things and the Cheesecake Factory.

The only other item of note was the bathrooms. Being female and all, one has to make mention of the poor quality encountered and to applaud the little things that were okay. By far, the best restroom was that at the ball park, the only bad part being the cold water, which didn't much help the shivering. The next ones I tried were in the shopping center place and the door didn't have a lock or even stay closed, so I passed until the next building. Not a good idea, although the door did lock. Most of the stalls didn't have any toilet paper and there was no paper towel either. I survived, though, so all's well that ends well.

Oh yeah, and we talked the pretzel guy into giving us a discount. Wasn't even a very good pretzel, but better than nothing. So that's it. Baltimore. Lots of cool apartments, tons of restuarants and bars, little boats shaped like the Loch Ness monster, student discount tickets to the park, historical buildings, elevated walkways, and a really cool B&N we stopped in to find a map, since they just dump us in the middle of the city without any directions. Who knows, maybe I'll go back some day...