I’m back from my amazingly lovely weekend getaway with Mr. SOTSS. It started with a drive down to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. We checked into our hotel which was situated literally across the street from the harbor, and since it was sort of drizzly we decided to hit up the National Aquarium for some indoor fun.
fish are cute! There, I said it!
The cuteness continues…this is a cowfish.
Dolphins are cute too!
And so are jellyfish when they aren’t in the ocean touching my leg. Isn’t this cool? Like electrically charged sand dollars.
why yes, I think this little yellow frog is cute too!
I can’t remember the last time I got to experience an afternoon at the aquarium. It’s really fascinating to me to see all the amazing colors and patterns on the fish. There was a cool shark exhibit too and of course we watched the Dolphins as they learned and shared their latest tricks.
After the aquarium, we went back to the room to change and then arrived at Phillips restaurant where we had dinner reservations.
My smiley guy.
The harbor at night
I went with the classic seafood platter that included crab cakes, shrimp and salmon. Really tasty!
Seafood dinner
Dessert was their signature warm cinnamon bread pudding. And yes, it was really unbelievable. I loved it! Except for the “whipped cream”. I’m a bit of a whipped cream snob and this tasted like Cool Whip to me. 🙁
PHILLIPS SIGNATURE WARM CINNAMON BREAD PUDDING
After dinner we walked through the city to Illusions Magic Show Bar where we had reservations to see their show.
Magically the 2 glasses of wine I had didn’t knock me out completely but i admit I got a little groggy before intermission
It was mostly slight-of-hand style stuff. Very cool!
i have a thing for shutters
Saturday morning we woke up and each set out for a 4 miler.
Getting ready to head out for our run…a little blurry but you get the picture (pun intended).
A photo with context. You see, now i’ll remember where i was.
running around the harbor
I stayed mainly around the harbor while Mr. SOTSS mapped out a slightly different route. The weather was perfection! Spring has finally arrived! We met back at the room, showered, had some breakfast and then hopped in a cab to the beautiful Baltimore-Penn station. I love historic stations.
He’s smiling because there’s free WiFi at the station. LOL! I love how he matches, too!
Baltimore-Penn Station.
We took the train into Washington DC (about an hour’s ride) because I wanted to see the Cherry Blossom trees. Our timing was perfect because they were in peak bloom. Of course that also meant CROWDS! It was insanely crowded. We ended up walking almost 15 miles on Saturday. Mr. SOTSS was such a trooper humoring me as we walked around the tidal basin while I snapped an obscene amount of photos. Here’s just a handful of the obsenity…
my iPhone did a better job at the close ups than my Nikon DSLR. My fault for not taking the right lens. But it’s just so heavy and I didn’t feel like hurting my shoulder.
I wanted to put one in my hair but they are fragile flowers and there were signs not to touch or break any flowers off the tree. I obliged =)
Not sure if there was a genuine smile under that smiley face. But like I said, he was a trooper.
do you see the washington monument in the distance?
I love the buds that grow right out of the trunk
Which way to the cherry blossoms? LOL! (For the record: I didn’t pull this flower off. It was on the ground already)
Jefferson Memorial in the background
Lincoln Memorial in the background
And yes, I wore a shirt with white, pink blue on purpose…..to coordinate.
one of my faves of the day.
it’s like a painting
After all that walking we worked up quite an appetite and since we both love BBQ we hit up Hill Country for some ribs and brisket.
the sweet tea, cornbread and cole slaw completed this masterpiece
And after a long and crowded train ride back to Baltimore and a 40 minute walk back toward our hotel (because neither one of us wanted to wait on the line to grab a taxi!) we treated ourselves to some cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.
Vacations are for too much dessert
Side note: I’m so glad we didn’t go to DC on Sunday. The Cherry Blossom 10 miler was happening and apparently they had to shorten the route to bypass a car accident/crime scene! Crazy. So it ended up being 9.5 miles.
Sunday morning Mr. SOTSS and I set out again for another run. He banged out another 4+ miles and i got in exactly 5k.
I love that my NYC Marathon shirt says “marathoner” in big orange letters! Can’t you read backwards too?
ready to run
All of my tight spots were barkin’ after the 15 miles of walking we did the day before and I didn’t feel comfortable running more than 3. Not to mention I didn’t want to get pinched for time since we had to check out.
Our last adventure of the weekend was going to Oriole Park at Camden Yards to see a baseball game. Go O’s! (I’ll admit I kept chanting (using my inside voices) Let’s Go Mets!
My first ballgame in YEARS!
Loved all the graphics they had throughout the stadium on the walls where the rest rooms and water fountains were.
Cheese!
My OCD loves the ballfield grid. The grass was perfect
With perfect weather, the perfect companion, 2 good runs, peak Cherry Blossom viewing, good eats and aquarium and magic show fun I only pouted about one thing…the ridiculous traffic we hit driving home. What should have been under 3 hours took about 6 hours.
Guess who’s pouting more
And now it’s back to regularly scheduled programming.
So how was your weekend? Have you ever been to Baltimore or to Washington DC?
What a great weekend! I’m a Baltimore native so I of course love all of this, glad you had fun! Sorry the O’s couldn’t pull out a win for you guys!
It was still a great game! Lots of scoring and lots of great catches too =)
Holy cow, I want to do everything you did! That looks, truly, like the perfect getaway weekend!!! And once again, your pictures are stunning. I knew from the title that this would be a photo treat…even though Duncan is missing!
Thank you! I know how crazy, a whole post with no pictures of Duncan. But those cherry blossoms! They were just so beautiful.
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