Monday, August 2, 2010

Baltimore Redeemed

Saturday July 31st

Richard and I spent the day together in Baltimore.  This was our first trip to Baltimore since we moved up here, it's less than an hour drive from our house to the Inner Harbor.  So we decided it was time to finally see this Aquarium that everyone is always talking about.  We got to the inner harbor by about noon, so we decided to have lunch at subway which happened to be the cheapest meal I've ever had with such ambiance.  Richard and I both ate for $6 and check out the view...
Not too shabby....

After lunch, and a little exploration of the inner harbor, we headed on over to the Aquarium. 


Richard, Aquarium in the Background



The reason we had never been to the aquarium before is because it's a little pricey and in Baltimore.  So luckily my husband is one smart cookie and reserved our tickets ahead of time, because it was super busy.  The tickets included entry to the Dolphin Show and a 4-D showing of Planet Earth.  It was nice, but would have been much nicer had it not been so crowded.  The dolphin show was great, and they have an exhibit called Jellies Invasion which I really enjoyed.

Me and My Hubby




Bubbles...My Bubbles!!

After the Aquarium we enjoyed a beautiful dinner with some great people watching, before heading over toe M & T Bank Stadium, where the Ravens play.  There was an exhibition match between Inter Milan and Manchester City.  Inter won 3-0, we got to see Materazzi play among others.  It was a wonderful day, Baltimore has officially been redeemed!


Going into the stadium.


Rich in his element.

Thank you Richard (and Baltimore) for a wonderful day!

Boston or Bust!

To further celebrate being done with Phase I me and a few girlfriends from school took a road trip to Boston.

We took off on the 18th and stopped for the night in NYC.  It was a nice way to break up the 8 hour drive to Boston.  We didn't have time to do too much in NYC so we went to Times Square and to a tasty Cuban restaurant in Chelsea called the Cuban Cafe, they had fantastic mojitos.

Mmmm... Strawberry Mojito!

Day two of our trip we hopped back in the car and headed to Boston.  This was my first visit to Massachusettes, and let me tell you, it's a great place to go in the summer.  The weather was so nice and cool.  I loved Boston, it was beautiful, clean, cool, and felt much smaller than it is in reality.  The day we arrived we settled into the hotel, had some dinner (Clam chowder and Chocolate Fondue), and headed out on our sunset harbor cruise.


Boston Harbor, In front of the Aquarium


Lobster Hat...Haha


Boston Harbor Cruise

Some of my favorite stories from the harbor cruise include the story of the Boston Molassacre (or molasses disaster), google it, it's quite interesting, and the stories about the U.S.S. Constitution.  After the harbor cruise we sought out the Bell in Hand Tavern, the OLDEST pub in the US.  It was established in 1795.

Bell In Hand


Blue Moons at the Bell in Hand

Day two we headed out for our 'wicked awesome' segway tour.  Although Lauren may disagree about the awesome part.  But we spent two hours cruising around the harbor. 

Segway Adventure

We were wicked hungry after our long morning so after the segways we headed to the closest patio at Tia's, which lucky for me they happened to have $13 Lobster lunch.  After lunch we explored the glory of Fanneuil Hall.  I wish I had understood exactly what that had meant, it was so amazing I may have sacrificed the Lobster for the food extravaganza that waited inside.  It is essentially a food pavillion with any kind of food you could hope to find, Seafood, Greek, Italian, Indian, Chinese, Ice Cream, Smoothies, Pastries, Candy, etc.  It was amazing and overwhelming, the gelato shop didn't have any chocolate so I settled on a M & M cookie sandwich.  YUM!


Please notice the Glint in my eye :)

What could possibly be great enough to follow Lobster and a M & M Cookie Sandwich?

Pedi's!!!!

After our relaxing afternoon, we headed to dinner with some of Lauren's friends.  Before heading out on our Boston Duck Tour.  The duck tour took us around the North End and up the Charle's River.  Some of the highlights: The Old North Church, MIT, Mass Gen.

Quack, Quack, Quack!!!

Now as if this day wasn't long enough, we spent the rest of our evening meeting Baker #3, Lauren's sister is the banquet director of the hotel we were staying out, so we got to know Jaime B. a bit.  Then at last it was time for bed!

The following morning we met Jaime for breakfast at the Hyatt.  If you want an Amazing view for breakfast in Boston, you have to check it out.  The view is amazing, you can see the entire Boston Skyline.  It was quiet and cool, right on the water, and the food was great too.

The View

Our last event before leaving Boston was a trip to the famous Ether Dome at Massachusettes General Hospital.  This is the site where the first anesthetic was administered in 1846, ether was used to effectively anesthetize a patient while a submandibular tumor was removed.  I know, maybe not that exciting to you, but I really enjoyed it alot.  It was actually a highlight of the trip.


This is the Ether Dome, Heyni is sitting in Dr. Morton's Seat!

After this we went shopping, on our way to Lauren's parents house.  We also stopped at a local farm and indulged in a little homemade ice cream, while watching it rain.  Before heading out to vampire territory...  On the way we went through Sterling Virginia, where Mary Had a Little Lamb.  We spent the rest of our vacation with Lauren's family, relaxing by the pool, playing games, and of course watching The Exterminators.  We had a wonderful time!


Homemade Ice Cream!

End of Phase I Party and Field Day

July 16th

My classmates and I celebrated the end of phase I with a BBQ Pool Party.  We spent hours just hanging out eating and drinking, attempting to regain some sense of normalcy in our lives.  It was so good to kick back and relax.

Angel got to come to the party too, she was a hit!!!

The next day, July 17th, was Lauren's Birthday party.  She celebrated with a huge old school field day.  We divided up into teams (of course Rich and I were on separate teams), and competed in a series of events including wheel-barrow race, egg race, water balloon toss, dizzy cone, and a combination relay.  Lucky for me, my team won technically (regardless of what Richard says).  He seems to think his team should of won, but he didn't listen to the instructions and was disqualified. 


The Birthday Peeps


The Winning Team...Go Hairy Hippos!

Back to the Blog

So, It's been 4 months since I've blogged about anything, so I'm not going to even attempt to catch up except to say that it's been a crazy few months trying to keep up with school, vacations, and visits.  Some of it's been great, but unfortunately more of it is overshadowed by the overwhelming sense of horror associated with school.  But now, on to better things...

I think I'll start with July 15th, which is just about the best day in recent history.  This was the day I took my last final for summer school, a pharmacology oral exam (which is just as awful as it sounds), but the completion of this exam signalled the END of phase I of my program, or the end of the didactic (all school all the time) phase.  So we went and celebrated with lunch at the Liberty Tavern, yum!

It was also Lauren's birthday, Happy Happy Birthday Lauren!!!


 
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