Port Call!

We've known for a few months that the boys were going to make a port call during this underway. I'd been begging my husband the whole time to let me drive down....he said it wasn't worth it since he wouldn't be getting off the boat.

Fast-forward to the day they pull in. He calls at 3 and says he is being forced to get off the boat for a few days but still doesn't want us to drive down since it's so far and it would only be for 2 1/2 days. I was bummed but I understood. L and I went home and ate dinner and were getting ready for bed when a strange number came up on my phone(at 9 PM). I answered and it was a sailor from the boat "I have a message from your husband(who was standing watch and couldn't call), he's requesting your presence in Annapolis tomorrow morning." I got a few more details and told L to start packing. At 10 PM we were on the road(after calling and booking a room to make sure I knew where we were going).

The drive went great! I've never driven that far by myself! L slept almost the whole time just waking up to tell me he loved me and fall back asleep. We didn't stop at all until we got to the hotel and we made great time!

J showed up to the room at about 11(which was nice since we didn't get in till just after 4 AM) and we headed out with two other couples that were there. We headed to downtown Baltimore where we ate lunch and went to the Aquarium!

Baltimore. It was such a neat city. I always love going to new places!

The bottom right picture is L sleeping with his elephant. That 2ft guy goes EVERYWHERE with us. To the left is the boys in front of the Aquarium, the next is L running to the Aquarium and the one above that is the Hard Rock Baltimore!

The big picture is a piece of the Twin Towers. Its a memorial for all the people from Maryland who's lives were taken on 9/11.

Baltimore Aquarium. This was the most amazing aquarium I've ever been to(it was kinda like a mini zoo!)! While they didn't have a lot of the big animals(like penguins, seals, otters and such) they had more than most do of other things! They had a ton of fish(all different kinds and sizes in TONS of tanks!), Dolphins, monkeys, a sloth, alligators, bats, turtles, sharks and Jelly's! They had hundreds if not thousands of Jelly fish! It was so amazing!  L's favorite was Bob the fish(we named him) He was almost as big as him!

Washington DC. We've always said we were going to go to Washington DC while we lived over here, but we said we were going to wait till L was 7 so he could do everything with us since we don't like leaving him behind.....he turns 7 in 4 months so I think this counts! Since we were so close(only about 30 min) we decided to head down the next day!

We spent the day in DC walking around(we walked 7 miles and never once got a cab!). We went with a list of things we wanted to see. The Smithsonian, the Holocaust Museum, Washington Monument, Big Abe and the White house. And we did it all! AND we even went and ate at the Hard Rock to get L a shirt for his collection!

The Smithsonian Museum was amazing! We spent about 2 hours in there and while we saw everything we didn't stop and look at everything. My favorites(in the top left of the pictures)....were Julia Child's kitchen, the original Muppet's and the ruby red slippers! J liked everything about all of the wars and L LOVED the trains! The big pictures on the right were us before going in at the start of our day!

The Holocaust museum was nothing like I imagined. You aren't aloud to take any pictures in there so I don't have any to share, but if you ever go, check out Daniels story first. It's a beautiful exhibit and really paints the picture of what happened and feels nothing like a real museum but gives you the feel like you were walking through someones life. Everything there didn't hold a candle to it after we were done, we couldn't stop thinking about Daniels story.

After the museums we walked to all of the monuments. It was neat seeing them and I'm so glad we did it! But it was a TON of walking! Haha. L was perfect and J only had to carry him for about 3 blocks at the end! I was so proud!

It was so hard saying goodbye again the next morning but I'm so glad I drove down! I asked J the first night we were together what changed his mind and his answer melted my heart...he said that he was standing watch after we talked and all he could think about was how much he missed me and wanted to see us. He said it would have been sad to see tons of other guys with their wives, knowing I could be there to but he told me not to come.

I'm officially that crazy wife that drives to all of the ports. lol.