Baltimore Blog – part 6

“Dive, dive, dive!”

Next on the “things to tour” was a submarine called the Torsk. I believe this was built in the 1930’s or 1940’s. It sunk some Japanese subs in WWII.

The sub was a luxury cruiser compared to the Constellation ship. The guys got to sleep in beds, instead of hammocks. They had cushioned chairs in the cafeteria.

It made me laugh to read that they sometimes showered with condensation off some of the pipes. Each day on the trip, we always had condensation on our water bottles, and we giggled about taking a shower with it.

The only annoying part about being in a sub (besides not seeing the sun for months at a time) was the walk ways between each compartment. They were 1’ off the ground (so you had to step way up) and they were only 4 feet tall. Even I had to duck down, and worry about smashing my shins against the metal.

Next up was a lighthouse. It was a weirdly shaped lighthouse. It wasn’t very tall, and it was very round. We learned that the keepers of the lighthouse had to live on it (this lighthouse was far off shore), all by themselves. That a crappy job!

Last was a US Coast Guard Ship called the Taney. This boat saw action at Pearl Harbor. This ship was pretty sweet! There was a huge cafeteria, plenty of room to move, etc. It convinced me to join the coast guard!

On all the ships, they have an option to eat dinner and sleep on the ship! I think the Taney only cost $35 to sleep on it. We should’ve stayed on the Taney for 2 nights, instead of a hotel. It was right downtown and only 1/3 of the price! Not much privacy, since the Coast Guard-ians slept on bunk beds in a common room – but still! I am pretty frugal.

Up next - “Take me out to the ball game!”

Baltimore Blog - part 5.5

I forgot what photos I already posted, but here are a bunch more. (sure, I could go back and look . . .)

Listening to the audio on the Constellation

Don Rosa & Jonathan

ESPN Zone
Captain's "luxury" bathroom on the Constallation

Submarine Torsk

Baltimore Blog - part 5

“You take a pee where?!?”

After a delicious lunch of Chinese food, we still had 4-5 hours to kill. We purchase tickets to tour 4 old timey boats and a lighthouse that are docked at the inner harbor.

Up first, the oldest boat of the bunch, the Constellation. I think it was in the Civil War? I know it made a couple slave runs as well. Either way, it was from 1850 or something?

History is definitely not my thing, so luckily this boat had an audio option. We had to carry around these huge devices, and press a number when you wanted to hear something. There was an adult tour and a kids tour. I was all over the kids tour – it was actually quite interesting.

The sailors showered ONCE A WEEK. And they went to the bathroom up on the top deck of the ship – right in front of everybody. That ship must have smelled awful. We were sweating just walking around it. I can’t imagine wearing a uniform, working hard all day, then not showering. And don’t get me started about having to drink sauerkraut juice to ward off scurvy! They also only got to sleep 4 hours a night.

It was surprisingly fun!

Up next – “Dive, dive, dive!”

Baltimore Blog - part 4

“Did we fly into the wrong city?”

I think the light rail was more like a time portal, because we were instantly transformed to Boston, MA, where we continued to stay for the rest of the trip. Since the Orioles were playing the Red Sox for a 3 day series, the entire New England area purchased Boston Red Sox t-shirts, hats and jerseys and flew into to Baltimore.

I mean no disrespect to the people of Boston, but a lot of the Boston men were quite short. (Which I think it cute!)

After a 15 minute train ride, we arrived at Camden Yards (home of the Orioles). We had game tickets for 7pm, and it was only noon. Since we had no clue where we were going, we started walking in search of a fast food joint. After 4 blocks of nothingness, we realized that the Inner Harbor (a place we knew was a hot tourist spot), was in the opposite direction. Back track 4 blocks, walk another 5 blocks and we could see it. A huge, old civil war (I think?) ship in the distance. We had found the inner harbor!!!

The inner harbor was a neat little spot. We ended up hanging out here each day for lunch. Baltimore is known for it’s sea food, so what did I have for lunch. Chinese food! Yum!

Up next – “You take a pee where?!?”

Baltimore Blog - part 3.5

More random photos:

Did you know I know how to drive a submarine?

Look how tiny this ship from the 1800's is! (no accessability kit needed here)Programs! Get your programs here! (and I think the little Oriole bird is just too darn cute!)
Fight, fight, fight!Don Rosa drawing a sketch for Jonathan. It's the old man Beagle Boy. (I don't remember his name).

Baltimore Blog - part 3

“Time keeps on slippin’ …”

We foolishly purchased tickets for the light rail. Not once in 3 days did anybody ever ask for a ticket of proof of payment. There goes $21 down the drain. Although if we were caught WITHOUT a ticket, it would’ve been $500, so I guess it was money well spent.

I calculated that we spend approximately 46.28% of the trip just waiting. Most of that was waiting for the light rail. The only public transportation I am used to is the Walt Disney World monorail, and that does arrives more than once every 25 minutes. It was kind-of frustrating. Although it’s all we knew, so we dealt with it. The train itself was fairly clean, and it was only crowded 1 trip.

Up next – “Did we fly into the wrong city?”

Baltimore Blog - part 2

“Where’s the rest of the room?”

We arrived at our hotel (Microtel Inn & Suites) around 11am. Of course, check in was not until 3pm, but thankfully there was a room available. And it was really close to the lobby (where the free breakfast would be served). Score! This trip was starting out great – a short, sick-free flight and early check in.

You might be thinking to yourself, “I’ve never heard of the Microtel Inn, why did you stay there?” Well, I had never heard of them either, until we saw the hotel chain featured on the TV show Little People, Big World. Matt Roloff sold them his ‘little people accessibility kits’. Neither of us needed a kit, but when we saw that this place had a good rate, we figured, “what the heck!”

When we opened the door to our room, I understood the name MICROtel. The room was tiny! It was a queen (?) bed with about 2 feet around the front and 2 sides. No matter – we were never in the room except to sleep. And the bed was really cozy, and it seemed pretty clean (except for the 18 layers of caulk all around the bathtub).

After changing into a t-shirt (I made the horrible decision to wear pants and not shorts), we headed down to the MTA – Maryland Transit Authority. The locals call it the ‘light rail’.

Up next – “time keeps on slippin’ …”

Baltimore Blog - part 1.5

Some photos to hold you over:Don Rosa - the reason we went to Baltimore

See the green purse I had to buy?

Camden Yards - home of the Orioles

Don Rosa drew the 'blue' nephew for me (Huey?)

The Power Plant - a converted actual power plant!

Baltimore Blog - part 1

Friday, 9/7

“Oh crap – I forgot my _________!”

We left the house at 6:45am for our 8:50am flight. As we arrived at the airport, I realized and said out loud, “Oh crap – I forgot my purse!”

Now, in my mind all I meant to say was, “oh darn – I put my cloth purse in the washing machine last night, and I left it in the dryer. Now I don’t have a purse to carry around all my stuff, and my carryon bag is way to big to be lugging around a city.”

But what Jonathan heard was, “I left my driver’s license at home!” And he knew we had no time to run back home to get it.

When I assured him that I did indeed have my driver’s license and wallet, I just didn’t have anything to carry it around with me; he breathed a sigh of relief. Although I was a little annoyed, because now I was forced by buy a purse or bag somewhere either in the airport or in Baltimore.

Normally it would be fun to buy a new purse, but not when I was under pressure to buy an inexpensive but cute bag. Luckily the Baltimore airport had a store with a fancy French sounding name. I think the name translated to “everything in the store is $10!”. So I bought a pea-green messenger bag made of a strange straw like material. I think this bag will disintegrate if it get’s wet, but it did just fine walking around Baltimore.

I also realized I had failed to pack my glasses. Now, this wasn’t a “I forgot to pack my glasses”, because it never really dawned on me to pack them. I only wear glasses to drive, and I wasn’t planning on doing any driving. But I also wear glasses to see distances – and they would’ve come in handy at the Oriole’s game we were planning to go to. Oh well.

Tune in soon for more Baltimore Blog … up next – checking into the hotel and “where’s the rest?!?”

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