The Baltimore Bounce

Well, I'm back from the east coast, and had a great time....a quick recap:

Thursday we flew from Portland to Houston to Baltimore. Basically flew in a "U" shape. Took us all damn day to get there. We got to see "Kicking and Screaming" and "Monster in Law" on the flights, but I had a book and didn't feel like shelling out $5 to watch a movie I'd already seen and one I didn't really care to. Finished reading 1776 by the time we got to Baltimore. Good book, but tough to read unless you have no distractions. It's just so loaded with information, you have to pay full attention. I learned a lot about the Revolutionary War that I didn't previously know, and the whole book I was like "I know we win this war, but I'm not really sure how we did it." Of course, General George pulls us out in the end. That's why the guy's on the dollar bill.

Heidi picked us up at the airport, nearly t-boning a taxi as she pulled up to the curb. Talk about hilarity. Jerked wheels, scared faces, angry cabbies...laughing Andy and Rachel. After dinner at Bennigans, we headed to Heidi's home. When you think inner city.....that's where Heidi lives. She very possibly could be the only white person on the whole block. There were rats the size of my dad's girlfriend's dog roaming the streets at night, and police helicopters shining spotlights on the streets all night. I don't think we're in Corvallis anymore, Toto. Heidi sleeps with a hammer by her bed, and I can't say that I blame her. That being said, her place is actually pretty nice. Small, but nice. Good location too, like 15-20 minutes from literally everything in Baltimore.

Friday we got up early and took the train into DC. Rachel had never been there, so I was pushing hard to take her there. Plus, now that I'd read 1776, I was feeling all patriotic. I really wish public transportation was as good on the west coast as it is on the east coast. I know it'll never work as well because everything's so spread out here, but maybe someday. Anyways, after a 50 minute train ride, we were in the nation's capitol. This nice old man (who talked to me literally the entire trip about his failing eyesight and his friend that he met online and his wife in the retirement home and where he was when Kennedy got shot) told us that all the monuments were within walking distance of Union Station, so we just started walking. And we kept walking. It was humid as hell and about 90 degrees. Rachel blew out her flip-flop and as a result had blisters like you wouldn't believe on her feet. Poor kid. Thank goodness Heidi had the foresight to bring an extra pair of flips or we might've had a real situation on our hands. I was pretty sure the Capitol building didn't have flip flops in the gift shop. Our 5 and half hours in Washington were pretty action packed. Saw the Wright Flyer, the Hope Diamond, The constitution and declaration, dinosaur bones, most of the monuments, etc. A few quotes from other tourists:

Lady: I thought John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence. How come I don't see his signature?
Security Guard: Because this is the Constitution. The Declaration is over there.

Overheard in the dinosaur exhibit at the smithsonian as a lady stares at a brontosaurus bone....
"What the hell is this?" Obviously this lady is not a golfer. (That's a Big Lebowski reference for those of you who don't get it)

Guess they're right, there aren't any smart people in Washington.

I took a few pictures there, which I will post on my bebo site. I wanted to take a picture of the declaration, but I was afraid that I'd accidentally use the flash and forever be known as the guy who destroyed the most famous document in american history. I didn't really think moving to Canada was worth the gamble.

Then we hopped the train back to Baltimore in time to shower before the Orioles game. Camden Yards is pretty nice....I liked the layout of the stadium a lot. Sadly I didn't realize that it was "Dollar Dog Night" until after I'd payed $7.50 for the biggest cheesesteak I've ever seen. Oh well. Orioles got stomped by Tampa Bay 6-1. After four batters, the Orioles were already down 2-0 with runners at the corners. So guess when you take that into account, 6-1 isn't so bad.

Saturday we were planning on going to see the Baltimore Aquarium, which is amazing from what I hear, but we were so tired from Friday's events, that we decided to take it easy. Which was fine with me, I got to watch the Beaver game on ESPN. Sadly, we got stomped. Kind of saw that one coming, so I wasn't too disappointed. Then we headed to Diana's wedding.

Diana's wedding was really nice. Nice church, nice ceremony, nice everything. A friend of hers was the vocalist for the wedding, and she was amazing. Fantastic singer. Rachel and were debating getting her drunk and becoming friends with her so we could get her for our wedding. At the reception, the food was excellent and then the dance began. Rachel+alcohol+dancing=fun for all. She even made up a dance that was dubbed the Baltimore bounce. It's one of the strangest dances of all time, but extremely funny. By the end of the dance, I was sweating so much I had soaked through my shirt. I literally danced so much that the collar of my shirt gave me a rash on my neck.

Then Sunday came all to fast and it was time to head home. We flew from Baltimore to Newark where we got to the gate just in time to hear our flight was overbooked. Not having anything to do yesterday, we volunteered to take a later flight, in exchange for $300 vouchers towards a future flight and meal money for the day. Then we settled in for 8 hours in New Jersey. Watched a little football, read two Dan Brown books (the ones not titled The DaVinci Code or Angels and Demons) and walked all over the C terminal. The cool thing is that we had a view out the window of the New York City skyline the whole day. When our flight finally took off at 5pm, we flew right next to the Statue of Liberty, another national monument Rachel had never seen. All in all a fantastic trip....aside from the fact that they showed Kicking and Screaming on the flight home as well. I guess it could've been worse - Grant once saw Mr. Holland's Opus on four consecutive flights.