Baltimore Blog – part 9

Lucky number 8!

After putzing around the convention, we headed back to the waterfront for some lunch. We’re in Baltimore – home of crab cakes and seafood … so I ate a huge slice of pizza and Jonathan got Subway.

We had 1pm Camden Yards tour tickets (I should’ve tried to sneak in!). It was Jonathan (Cardinal’s fan), me (Cubs’ fan) and 23 Boston Red Sox fans. And our poor tour guide – the only Baltimore Orioles fan on a Baltimore Orioles ballpark tour.

We saw the dugout (we got to sit in it - AWESOME!), the press box and the announcer’s area, the luxury boxes (which we had already seen at the game) and a party box that you can rent out.

As we were in a luxury box, Terry Fancona (Red Sox manager) was hitting some balls to some players. It was a casual batting practice 5 hours before the game. All 23 Red Sox fans started yelling, “HEY TERRY, HIT IT UP HERE!!!”

To my surprise, Terry Fancona actually acknowledged their cries, and started swinging right in our direction. Unfortunatly, it’s nearly impossible to hit a ball in the luxury box. He came close twice – the balls went in the section below the luxury box.

Our tour guide went to go find the balls. He came back with 1. Now was the hard part – which one of us would get the ball. There are 23 hungry Red Sox fans foaming at the mouth! One girl whipped out her driver’s license to prove it was her birthday, but the tour guide ignored it. He decided to write a number on the ball, and the first person to guess it would win.

Luckily he started asking numbers near me. Some bonehead in front of me picked #20. WRONG. I was next!!!! Now, any baseball fan who grew up in the 80’s, and is in Orioles territory knows what number to pick. This is Cal Ripken country baby!

I proudly guessed, “8?!?!?”, and he handed me the ball. SCORE!!! I think I even let out an embarrassing victory “yipee!”, and hid my ball in my purse.

I am now the owner of 2 Major League Baseballs!!! And I didn’t have to go thru any bodily harm to get this one. (the 1st ball hit me on 1 knee, and bounced over to my other knee).

Up next – This is the longest trip report ever!!!

Baltimore Blog - part 8.5

In the Baltimore Oriole's dugout.

More on this later . . .

I thought their Oriole bird mascot (who's name is "bird") was a cutie.

View from the pressbox.

Fight! Fight!

View from when you first walk into the stadium

Baltimore Blog - part 8

"It's Don Rosa Day!"

Jonathan woke up very excited! It was actually quite adorable. He was finally going to meet Don Rosa!

If you’ve never heard of Don Rosa – he is the author and artist behind the Scrooge McDuck comic books. I believe he took over in the 80’s? The Scrooge McDuck comic have only had 2 men behind them – Carl Barks, who created Uncle Scrooge and all the duck characters (except for Donald, and maybe the nephews???). When Carl Barks passed away, Don Rosa took over. I’m sure that little autobiography is way off. If you’re really interested (actually, it is quite interesting), just wikipedia Carl Barks and Don Rosa.

After taking the slow train to the Baltimore Convention Center (which is right across the street from Camden Yards – that was awesome), we walked into NERDS-VILLE, population: A TON OF PEOPLE! The line to get tickets was huge (we already had them), and the line to enter the convention was huge!

I stood in line while Jonathan went off to see why everybody had a wristband. My line started to move. As I wound my way up and down the convention center hallway, Jonathan wasn’t back yet. He still wasn’t back. Where is he? By now I’ve almost wound my way into the convention. I don’t have a ticket or wrist band. My line gets to the door of the convention . . . and I walk right in . . . no ticket checker, no wrist band checker. I’m in – for free!!!

(not really, because we pre-purchased tickets)

Man – I rule at sneaking into places.

I finally found Jonathan (who got 2 wristbands), and we ran to Don Rosa’s table. I was expecting mayhem, because there were thousands of people at this convention, and I’ve been to Star Wars weekends. It’s a lot of line waiting.

DON ROSA WAS SITTING BY HIMSELF! Score!!! I couldn’t believe it! So Jonathan got him to sign a bunch of comics he brought. He had Don Rosa sketch old man Beagle Boy. He chit chatted with him. He bought some prints.

All in all – we spent hundreds of dollar to vacation to Baltimore to meet Don Rosa for 15 minutes. Doh! But it was totally worth it!

Up next – lucky number 8!

Baltimore Blog – part 7

“Take me out to the ball game!”

It was finally game time, and I was relieved. My feet were killing me, and I was exhausted. I felt like a pansy, but I just had no energy. I couldn’t wait to sit down for hours at a time.

Of course, we got to Camden Yards at 5pm, and they don’t let you in until 5:30pm. So that was another ½ hour of standing that nearly killed me. Jonathan foolishly wore a t-shirt with Orioles colors, so he wouldn’t stand out. What he should’ve done it wear Boston colors, b/c 75% of the fans were wearing red!

All trip I was excited to buy my 1 souvenir – ice cream in a mini baseball helmet. I buy one at ever game I go to. AND THEY DIDN’T SELL THEM! I couldn’t believe it. Even spring training stadiums sell ice cream in a helmet. I was so bummed.

I drowned my sorrows by signing up to be a designated driver (we were taking the train, so we weren’t driving anyway), which got me not 1, but 2 free sodas! That’s a $7 value at baseball games.

We had seats on the ‘club level’. It was the level where all the luxury boxes were. Of course, our seats were outside the luxury boxes, but we still walked down a long, fancy, air conditioned hallway to find our seats. It was pretty swanky. There were big screen TVs and leather couches in this hallway, along with super nice, clean bathrooms! That club level was where it was at! (still, no ice cream in a mini helmet!!!)

Red Sox 4 – Orioles 0.

Wait at the light rail to get back to the hotel = 45 minute of torture!

Up next – “It’s Don Rosa day!!!”

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?!?”