Baltimore!

Well, we went to Baltimore this past weekend for some fun! 
We headed down Saturday morning had a nice trouble-free trip and made it to Laurel, MD where our Hotel was.  We stopped at a KFC for lunch and of course used to restrooms.  Well...  The mens room was OK (I consider myself lucky if it simply functions) ignoring the toilet paper on the floor and what not.  So I'm waiting out by the counter thinking that Sara had been gone a while, but she had to go to the car first so I didn't know how long she had been in the bathroom.  Well then I hear "LEVIIIII!!", and banging and as I'm making my way down the hall "CAN SOMEONE HELP ME IN THE BATHROOM!" and I'm worrying and wondering what on earth has happened to Sara, I open the door and apparently the inside door handle had come off in the stall.  Luckily there was no problem from outside.  As I headed back out another woman was standing asking if Sara was OK as apparently she had gotten locked in as well but her daughter was there to let her out.  The lady at the counter just said "someone's supposed to come look at it".  Needless to say, Sara wasn't too happy with them.
Then we got to the Days Inn and it was surprisingly nice.  Quite large and roomy and pet friendly and Sara even felt that it was clean(a rare occurrence).  So we checked in and after a brief sit, we headed over to the Arundel Mills Mall.
The mall was quite large and we walked all the way around which took about an hour.  And Sara was happy to get her Dairy Queen fix for the day.  We stopped in this big outdoor world store and looked around a bit and we were still an hour or so away from the 3:30 check in time for Medieval Times so we went out to the car to sit with Shadow and get the camera.  We came back a while later and walked about half of the mall again at which point it was about 3:20 and we found Medieval Times had a line out to the door which rather surprised us since the show didn't start until 5:00.  So we stood in line for a while, then stood around inside the waiting area where you can buy your drinks and swords and what not.  They had a couple "knighting ceremonies" for Birthdays and Anniversaries, but otherwise we just stood around until almost 5.  At that point we finally got in and seated.  It was a great meal and show as I had remembered from the one I had gone to with the Meyer's in Texas.  Lots of horsemanship and jousting and such.  Sara very much enjoyed the horses.
After that we headed back to the Hotel, but tried to find some ice cream on the way.  We tried out the GPS' search function and the Dairy Queen's looked to be a ways away so we headed for a McDonalds.  Unfortunately the two that were nearby seemed to be shutdown or non-existent, but we did find a dairy store and some ice cream.

So Sunday morning we got up and had a pretty good breakfast.  This time they actually had waffles and a little more than the usual coffee and danish.
We then headed over to the parking garage in Baltimore.  We had a coupon for one in particular so we were trying to find it.  But if you've never been to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, We can tell you that there are a considerable number of parking garages  and most of them don't have much in the way of signage to tell you their names.  Luckily as we were driving around Sara noticed a LITTLE sign with the name on it and we got parked.
Was a nice short walk to the aquarium which was surprisingly already getting a line at about a quarter to 10 (they don't open until 10) so we got inside and they finally let us go around 9:55.  Lots of interesting aquatic animals to see but it is set up a bit funkily.  They tell you on a little sign to plan your day accordingly as there are feedings basically every half hour in the morning.  However, they don't tell you that information ANYWHERE else...  And the whole place is set up as a one way up through the levels, basically a self-guided tour.  Which would be fine, except that after you've been doing the tour for half an hour you're up around the 4th floor and you then find that the 10:30 feeding you want to see is down on the first.  So I found the elevator in the dark corner (after heading the wrong way) and we
made it to the second floor anyway which was a nice view of the stingray feedings.  Though we later found out there's a better view at tank level underwater.  So then after that we head BACK up to the 4th floor and look around a little bit before the puffin feeding there.  Then a little more looking before we have to head back to the first floor so that we can take the bridge over to the other pier to watch the dolphin show.  That was the best part for sure.  Sara loved the dolphins as well, often mentioning how they were just like Shadow in terms of smartfullness and playfullness. 
Then after that, back to the 4th floor so that we could go to the jungle on the 5th floor, and there were a couple other exhibits along the way.  In all it was around 1:30 and about 4 hours from when we started so I was ready to get off my feet but we had pretty much covered the National Aquarium.  So we decided to head home and stop somewhere on the way.  We found a Wendy's near York, PA and had a nice lunch.  Somewhere closer to Williamsport we were looking for a Dairy Queen and the Hardees I had seen on the way down.  Well I JUST missed the Brusters ice cream at one exit unfortunately, but then found the Hardees.  I couldn't think of the name of the sweet frosted biscuits I wanted and they weren't on the menu, but we got to the window and I asked if they had "those biscuits" and sure enough they did!  So I ordered like 3 two packs to take home.  Well we get on the road and Sara opens them up and says.  Uhh, these are like buttery biscuits.  Well, buttery biscuits are good and all but are NOT the glazed cinnamon raisin ones I wanted even though the box did say that they did have cinnamon raisin biscuits.  Oh well.  We decided to try for the nearest Dairy Queen which was 10 miles in the wrong direction.  Well of course that was closed too.  Oh well, I was getting a bit frustrated by then and was just heading for home.  Sara and I each had a biscuit and our Shakes that we had gotten from Hardees.  A while later we made it to where we had seen closed Dairy Queens Saturday morning.  I had mistakenly thought they were closed for the season.  Apparently not as they were open!  So we pulled in and got some food to go.  Well we got back to the car and I was just laughing as I said "well, Shadow enjoyed those biscuits!"  I noticed earlier she had been smelling them just sitting up in the bag up front and was very interested.  We didn't put them anywhere so there were just 3 empty boxes sitting on my seat.  Ahh, I'm sure she enjoyed them much more than I would have!  (:
So a more or less uneventful trip the rest of the way home.  I can tell you this though.  AVOID the Texas toast from Dairy queen.  Very bad flavored rubber about sums it up.  (:  Made it home just before the ice started and we were inside Monday when it was icing.

Well, as usual I write too much and I still don't say everything in my head.  Sara took some pics so I will have to see if I can get them up here.  Hopefully before too long!
Levi (: