Charm City

 We spent Monday in Baltimore, not all of it admiring the great views from our hotel room.  :)  Mike had to work, so the kids and I went out to explore.  Our original plans were thwarted -- we thought we would be meeting up with our friends, but they had other things they needed to do, and we thought we'd go to one of the kid-oriented museums, but they were both closed on Mondays!  (Moral of the story: don't come to Baltimore on winter Mondays.)

We walked around by the water, and then headed toward the aquarium.  We found a cool playground along the way, which the boys thoroughly enjoyed.  Then we went not to the aquarium proper, but to the gift shop where the boys each got a stuffed animal (because apparently I am raising spoiled children!)  I love aquariums, but I was just as happy not to play $90 of admission fees (!!!) just for the kids to want to leave after an hour.  Then we had an excellent lunch (Matthew was delighted that they made him buttered noodles even though that wasn't on the kids menu, I was delighted to have crab cakes, and James was delighted that there was a TV with a football show on -- everybody wins!)  We hit the playground again on the way back.  Altogether, a very nice (if chilly -- temps in the low 40s!) afternoon.