The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

As many of you might have read in a previous post, Earl and I took the kids to Inner Harbor this weekend. As luck would have it my cousin, Nicole, and her husband Jon also happened to be heading to Baltimore. Well, maybe it was more than just luck.

Here is the low down on our trip. I'll classify it into the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

The Good:

1. It only takes 2.5 hours to get to Baltimore. For some reason I thought it took longer. The kids were great. They watched a movie and took a short nap. Before we knew it we were there.

2. The hotel. We booked on-line on hotels.com and got a great room for $90.00 that was .5 miles from just about everywhere in the Harbor.

3. We got to spend time with Nicole and Jon. We don't see them nearly enough so it was good spend time together.

4. The National Aquarium. It was awesome. Cooper loved seeing the fish and would run from one tank to another. McKenna liked the little stations that were set up throughout the Aquarium where you could learn about different sea creatures.

5. The free McDonald's latte's they were handing out on the street.

The Bad:

1. The weather. It was cold and windy, windy, windy. Almost to the point of miserably windy. The .5 mile walk from the hotel seemed like 3 miles when walking in the wind.

2. No shops were open on Sunday. Remember that if ever planning a trip to Inner Harbor. The bars also are not open.

3. You weren't allowed to take your stroller through the Aquarium. They should really put this on their web site. We were glad to have Jon along because when Earl and I had our fill of carrying Cooper and holding him up to see some of the fish we handed him off to Jon (or Nicole).

4. No Pack-n-Play. We decided to travel without the Pack-n-Play just this once. I mean, come on we've been dragging it with us for the better part of 5 years. Wouldn't you know that Cooper rolled right over the pillows we had placed beside him and ended up on the floor. He was okay though and quickly went back to sleep.

5. As if falling out of bed wasn't enough....Monday morning Cooper shut his fingers in the hotel room door. He cried for a few minutes and kept pointing out his "boo-boo" to everyone. But no swelling, no disfiguration and lots of movement led us to believe they probably are not broken.

The Ugly:

1. THE STOMACH BUG- Yes, that's right...the stomach bug. On vacation. It started out as "food poisoning" or so we thought when I started getting sick late Sunday night. Suffice to say that I did not sleep and was glad to see the sun rise Monday morning. At least the "active" sickness had stopped. And I thought that I could muster the energy for one last day in Baltimore, especially with Nicole and Jon's help. After all, the last thing that I wanted to do was disappoint McKenna. We had big plans to visit Port Discovery that day.

2. THE STOMACH BUG - As if my being sick was not enough, Earl fell ill right around breakfast time. Of course, we had already checked out of the hotel. Let's just say we won't be eating at Panera again soon. (I know, TMI). But we soldiered on. Earl thought he could make it and I honestly didn't give him much choice.

3. Reading the schedule wrong. After our attempt at breakfast we headed to Port Discovery. All we had to do was make it through a few hours for McKenna's sake. Which would be nice....if it was open! Turns out I read on the on-line schedule wrong. It's closed on Mondays! Let the tears begin. Mine and McKenna's. No problem though. There's still the Maryland Science Center. Surely that would be open. We checked the iphone and sure enough they opened at 10am. So, after paying our $7.00 for 1/2 in the parking garage, we headed across town to the Science Center. It was great and McKenna loved it. Earl mostly sat on any bench he could find while Nicole, Jon and I took advantage of the exhibits. If you've never been there I highly recommend it, especially with 5 year olds. I managed to make it about an hour and a half before my dehydrated body could take no more. I looked at Earl and said, "We have to go." Nicole and Jon were so wonderful and offered to keep McKenna with them and stay the afternoon. We are so appreciative of that and McKenna had a blast. Earl and I packed Cooper up and headed straight to, where else - my mom's - where we promptly unloaded Cooper the diaper bag and headed for home to our bed. I've never been so happy to lay down in my life. I honestly have no idea how Earl got us all the way home but I'm eternally grateful that it was not up to me to drive us.

4. All the tears. Namely all of my tears. I think I cried the whole way to the PA line yesterday. Even though it was my decision to leave McKenna with Nicole and Jon and even though I knew she was in VERY capable hands, I felt like I was giving her away. I looked so forward to this weekend and making memories with the kids (and no, not the memories I've just recounted). Plus, she was having such an awesome time at the Science Center. She is becoming so very curious about so many things. She's like a sponge and just wants to learn about everything. I never knew that could be so fun. To hear her ask questions about the human heart and then tell me facts about is almost as great as watching her roll over for the first time (maybe you have to be a nurse to appreciate that). But you get the idea. So to leave her to enjoy that time with someone else was so, so hard. All that said, I wouldn't change a thing. I'm glad she got to enjoy a few more hours at the Science Center and I loved hearing about the other exhibits today. I just can't wait to see the pictures.

So, there you have it...The good, the bad and the ugly. I honestly can't imagine just how ugly it would have been without Nicole and Jon there. I know that God had them there with us for a reason. And I'm so grateful. I'm just hoping that they might consider vacationing with us again. We're really hoping that the rest of our vacation is more positive. So far it's looking promising. I'll have to let you know. For now I'll leave you with some pictures of the "Good" part of our trip.