Picture wall

Our picture wall is finally complete with art from NYC and New Orleans!

Baltimore

Our April full of travel craziness continues with a weekend trip to Baltimore!

This past weekend, we took a road trip to Baltimore - about a 2 hour drive. We started out with a bang and a LOT of thunderstorms on Friday night, but were able to walk around the city on Saturday. It's an interesting city - built around the shipping industry on the Chesapeake Bay. A lot of the "inner harbor" area is new developments in converted old shipyard buildings - or new buildings where the shipyards used to be - so it has a different feel from other cities I've been to. It's a great mix of history while feeling "new".

We found an amazing coffee shop on the harbor - Dad, you'd love that they hand pour every cup just like you do at home! The barista told us about a Privateer Festival going on, so we went to check it out...and by Privateer, she meant Pirate! It was awesome. A pirate band, ship tours, and SO many people dressed up. The below picture doesn't quite do it justice...

And the food of the city is Maryland blue crab! We had dinner on the pier with fresh steamed crabs...in the shell! This made it twice in one week that we needed to be taught how to eat our seafood. This time the fish came with a mallet and no plate - just butcher paper taped to the table. But the work was worth it for that crab - delicious!

 

Mmmm...Crab!

We were in town specifically for the Orioles game on Saturday night, and we had a great time! It was cool, but being the good Minnesotans we are, we packed our long underwear and were cozy. :) The stadium was so much fun to explore! I'm sure Mike will chronicle later in his blog.



Mike Posing with Cal Ripken, Jr.'s Statue and retired number



We also explored the National Aquarium, and a historic ships tour. I loved the aquarium - there were a lot of exhibits, but the highlights for me were dolphin and jellyfish. Oh, and this crazy Amazonian fish that squirts water into the air to surprise bugs flying above them which then fall into the water!



Exterior of the Aquarium on the Inner Harbor



Welcome to the aquarium care of a prehistoric shark fossil!

The historical ships were awesome! 4 different vessels - one a huge old sail boat, another a "light boat" that stood in the mouth of the Chesapeake, a submarine, and a coast guard ship that is the last remaining boat that fought in Pearl Harbor.

I'm just the right height!

Submarine...look at that paint job!

Doors were a bit small...

And so were the beds!





New Orleans

We got back last Sunday from a wonderful trip to New Orleans. We had such a fun time - I understand now why they call it the Big Easy! It's a great city with a ton of culture all its own. Everyone's laid back and ready for a celebration.

We got in on Tuesday knowing that the Quarterfest Jazz festival was starting on Thursday - before the mad rush. I'm glad we did! We were able to really enjoy wandering around town for a couple days. We saw so many incredible sights:

• The famous Bourbon Street, which is pretty much a dirty mini version of Vegas
• French Market filled with local crafts
• Incredible live music - my favorite, other than the festival, was at the Spotted Cat where the lead singer used a wash basin instead of a mic and the band included a saw. Yup. Sounds crazy, but the music was incredible! 
• Riding the streetcar to Garden District - Beautiful! Then walking through the above ground cemeteries.

And then there was the food...wow! We tried Charbroiled Oysters, Gumbo, Po Boys, Crawfish (and even saw crawfish eating competition!). Our favorite dinner was at the Louisiana Bistro - a super small chef driven restaurant.

  

Our B&B was just wonderful - we enjoyed every minute there! The morning before we left, we even enjoyed mimosas with the proprietors! It was only 1/2 block north of the French Quarter so we could literally walk everywhere. Not the safest city we've been in, but the people we met were so friendly and enjoyable.

Now for some pictures:

Eating crawfish for the first time. It's an art form. We had to be taught!

Po'Boy!

Note the gorilla dancing behind the Navy band. He was having a very good day - we saw him multiple times!

Beautiful French Quarter

Streetcar

Beads still in the trees from Mardi Gras

At the Quarter Fest - this was Friday which was significantly quieter than Saturday



Eating a beinet and cafe au lait at Cafe Du Monde. Note the mound of powdered sugar in front of us? Yes, that's the beinet. It got ALL over my pants - but so worth it!



Mike's new hat - like? :)

Travel week!

Mike and I are a few days into our travel week, so it may be a while before posting again...

This past weekend we figured out how to take the train to New York and met my parents for a weekend. We had such a great time! I can't believe it's been 13 years since I was there last, and I loved this time in the city even more. We stayed near Chinatown, and walked everywhere! We saw some amazing sights...here's the highlights:

• Walking the Brooklyn Bridge
• Wall Street
• Battery Park (still under major construction from Sandy damage)
• Taking the subway to Queens to see a Mets game
• Grand Central Station
• NY Library
• Rockefeller Plaza
• Taking a carousel ride in Bryant Park
• Walking through Times Square at night - I couldn't believe how much it'd changed in 13 years - it's cleaned up well!
• Eating dinner at the first pizzeria in the US - Lombardi's
• Touring the 9/11 Memorial - wow, a really emotional sight
• Getting asked about buying knockoffs on Canal Street - sketch, but I was really tempted!

 I really can't believe how much we were able to pack into 2 days! Here are a couple pics we were able to take. Note in the first that Freedom Tower (being built on the WTC site) is nearly complete in the background.

Next up: New Orleans tomorrow!