Now I'm excited though because now I can tell you everything that I have done instead of getting sleep! Trust me. It's good. Or required. Or else I would have slept during that time. But...I doubt I'll get through it all, so I'll just start w/ one post... "A Visit From the Boys".
On Thursday of last week (dang...almost a week ago!) Dad and Darren came out to Baltimore! Have I ever told you how grateful I am for flight benefits!? I think without them this summer I would have gone psychotic and terribly ill from homesickness. Instead, my family got to visit me. I'm so glad for it! I don't have much longer left in Bmore (only 3.5 weeks!!!), but it was still TONS of fun to have them come out to see me.
On Thursday, we started out by showing Darren my apartment building. It was a new experience for him I think to see a downtown apartment building in a big city. It would have been (and was a couple months ago) for me anyway. Then, we went to a cute little restaurant up my street called Marie Louise Bistro. You see, I have a "Baltimore Bucket List", and this bistro was on my list because one of the students last year told me this place was their absolute favorite. Dad and Darren were willing to go there with me. It turned out to be really good I thought. Expensive for what you got, but definitely good. It was very cute, too.
Me and Dad at Marie Louise Bistro
Then, we went down to the Inner Harbor. It was around sunset at this point. It was still SUPER hot though. We got a rental car for the weekend, so it took and eternity and a half to find a parking spot, but after we finally got one, we got out and walked pretty much the whole Inner Harbor. It was a very lively evening, so it was pretty fun! We went inside the Power Plant, where they have the Barnes and Noble, and we went in some of the shops they have there also. Dad really liked looking at the ships in the Harbor as well. The Harbor is really beautiful at night. I had never been out there at night, so it was really cool to experience that.
With Dad by some of the fancy hotels near the Harbor
On Friday, we had plans to go to Washington DC. The weather also had plans to be the hottest day of the year yet. It was forecast to be 103 degrees. That doesn't sound completely outrageous for Utah bodies, but remember...it's the EAST coast. It's humid. Therefore, the heat index turned out that day to be about 130. It was ultra pleasant (*sarcasm*). I don't mind heat, but I was burning, and Dad was dripping sweat all day like I had never seen before. Our GPS even died that day because it got over heated. We had to use old fashioned maps to get around.
Anyway. DC was still great though! We went down to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to start out the day (and begin the afternoon). The boys wanted to go there. I went and would randomly find things that I would like every 10 min or so that would entertain me in a weird way. I'm not big into airplanes though. The boys were in heaven though. So that made me happy :)
After that, we drove to the classic part of DC, where we parked our car just outside of the Mall a few blocks. We went to an old favorite restaurant, Qudoba. A nice Mexican Grill. So delicious. We ate there three years ago when we went to DC, and we had to eat there again.
Then we went to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. I thought this was going to be the lamest thing ever. I was expecting a 3-D version of an 8th grade history text book basically. That's something Dad and Darren would like, and I would hate. Well, this museum was nothing like that. They had EVERYTHING! I LOVED it!! The science section was by far my favorite, and I really liked the part where they had dresses from the first ladies also. I think my pictures show that pretty well though. Haha!
The first PCR machine!!! I was stoked!!
In front of Stanley Cohen's Laboratory (he invented the plasmid)
The title to this Museum plaque says "What is a Research Laboratory?" hmmmm....I wonder...
Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz!
Sept. 11 remnants.
Some dresses from the first ladies. My favorite was the hot pink one from Mamie Eisenhower.
Michelle Obama's inaugural gown
Some more favorites from Mamie Eisenhower
In the middle of our visit to this museum, we had tickets to visit Ford's Theater, where Lincoln was shot. We had to walk about 15 min there. Which isn't bad. But it was SO hot, and SO humid. I almost died!! Jk.
Ford's Theater was so cool! I didn't know that it was still a functional theater! There wasn't much to see there, but it was fun to be in a theater, and to think that someone, such as Lincoln himself, was there and that his assassination happened there.
After, Darren wanted to go see the Lincoln Memorial. Dad and I had already seen it, and we didn't want to bother with parking, so we drove around (which was just as awesome to see, I think) while Darren went saw the memorial. Following that, we went the the Jefferson Memorial. It was sunset again, and finally cooling down (you know...maybe to 100 degrees), so it was great to just sit on the steps and look at the view! I love the world that we live in! It's so gorgeous! And I love our country!
Then it was time to go home. We dealt with the loss of our GPS on the way home...and therefore found a Wendy's by way of freeway signs on the way home because we were awfully hungry and it was super late. I liked it when the boys were here because I could be out late in the city and not worry about bad things happening. They were even so cute and wanted to walk me to my door, when I assured them that where they dropped me off was totally fine.
The next morning, we woke up early and went to Fort McHenry. Fort McHenry is in Baltimore, and is where the Star-Spangled Banner is written! I'll admit that I had really low expectations, but it was on my Bmore Bucket List, so I had to go. Well, it exceeded my expectations by far! It was such a cool place! There was a manuscript there of the Star-Spangled Banner written by Fancis Scott Key, a really good movie they played, and they fort itself was way cool. I highly recommend to anyone in Baltimore who hasn't, to go there.
At Fort McHenry (Mom: THIS is the pic you wanted...I think, if not, one of the next two)
We spent a looong time at the fort, so it was then time for lunch. Another thing on my bucket list was to eat in Little Italy. There's a small little neighborhood in Baltimore called "Little Italy" and there's just homes and restaurants there. We went there, and found a good little restaurant. I thought the food was good. The service kind of sucked, and Dad totally got jipped on food, but I think overall it was good.
"Balt'Amore" Cute :)
After we went to Johns Hopkins Hospital and I showed the boys the lab that I work at. They met Jun, and I gave them a tour of the lab.
Darren found out that there was a railroad museum in Bmore. And he really wanted to go. I didn't. And I had things to do at home. So...the boys dropped me off at my place for a couple hours, and I went home while they enjoyed train stuff. I just ended up going grocery shopping and reading a science journal article for a bit. Nothing too exciting. I should have taken a nap though looking back on it.
Next we crossed something else off my list. We went to the Edgar Allen Poe house. I was very disappointed. It was in a semi sketchy neighborhood. I almost didn't want to get out of the car. In fact, dad didn't (not because it was sketchy though). There was an old sign on it saying that their hours were decreased due to lack of funding and staff. I read the sign, took a pic, and left. Mrs. Cross would have been terribly disappointed as well. She was my AP Literature teacher in high school.
I think this is the point where no one could decide what to do anymore. So...I wanted to show Dad and Darren around the city a bit more. I thought that what Darren had seen thus far was pretty bias in the way of tourist locations, so I wanted him to see what Bmore was really like to say the least. We went to North Ave. :) Stereotypically the sketchiest place in all of Bmore. Here's the WORST part. Dad needed to gas up. So he gassed up the car ON NORTH AVE. Yeah. No one does that.
Then we drove up the my church building so they could see that...nothing too exciting. It was just fun for me to kind of show them where I spend my time while I live in Bmore.
Then we were hungry for dinner. We decided to go the the good ol' Golden Corral. Any followers will now realize that every single time Dad has been to Bmore, we have been to Golden Corral. And it's quite a ways out of town. It's in one of the suburbs of Bmore. We still went though. It almost wouldn't be a trip with dad if we didn't go ;)
There's a Wal-Mart next to the Golden Corral. I don't remember why we went there. Maybe Darren wanted trail mix? I don't know. But I got another color of nail polish. I packed light when I moved out, so I brought one color of nail polish. My toes have been that color all summer. I wanted change. I've been staring at my toes ever since I repainted them that night. I'm happy we went to Wal-Mart.
I think that at this point they just took me back to my place. It had to have been super late. Transportation takes forever, so even if it doesn't sound like we did a lot in one day, driving takes up half of the time. I can't wait until I'm home and I can go anywhere in what no retrospectively seems like the blink of an eye.
I had to say my goodbyes to them that night because their flight the next morning was really really early. They took me to my place, found a parking spot actually, and walked me all the way into my apartment. I hugged the goodbye and they left.
It was SUCH a great weekend with them here! I'm sooo happy that they could come out and I could spend some time with them!
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