We found a parking garage right by the Inner Harbor and left the car for the day. We were aiming to find the National Aquarium, which was more difficult than it should have been. Half of it is on one side of a water way, and half on the other side, joined by a bridge. But you can only get into the building on one side. That aquarium also only admits people at certain times, to keep it from getting too crowded. So we bought our tickets and had an hour and a half until our admit time. To kill time we had nachos at the Hard Rock and then went to the top of the Baltimore World Trade Center. Here I nearly made a complete fool of myself by almost saying out loud, "I can't remember if I've been to the top of the World Trade Centers in New York since 9/11", while thinking I couldn't remember if I'd been to the top of the Empire State Building or any other excessively tall building. Luckily I caught myself before having to stick my foot in my mouth in a crowded elevator. The view from the top of the BWTC was beautiful.
After the World Trade Center we were able to go into the aquarium. Our ticket included the dolphin show and the 4D theater. The dolphin show was cute, not too long, but enough to see some awesome dolphin tricks and learn some cool things. Now, if you're wondering what the forth dimension in the theater was, so were we. Turns out it's wind, "snow," bubbles, and a little bit of water. I nearly fell out of my seat from being startled by the water a couple of times. The aquarium was very nice, but nothing too out of the ordinary. They have a spiral type ramp that goes around one large tank, and of course many individual tanks and exhibits. Despite only letting a certain amount of people in at a time it was crowded and seeing into the smaller exhibits was difficult. But all together the aquarium was a great addition to our vacation.
Next on our agenda were the historical ships that were in the harbour. We bought a four pack which allowed us on to all of the ships. The first was the USCGC Taney, which was the last surviving ship to have witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor. Then the LV116 Chesapeake and the submarine the USS Torsk. The Torsk sunk the last enemy ship of WWII (and I just learned was also built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard which I used to live about an hour away from). And our last ship was the USS Constellation which was involved in the Civil War. All of the ships were awesome, and provided some great opportunities for photo ops. The Constellation had an audio tour, and the Chesapeake had an exhibit devoted to the furry friends of the Navy, dogs that lived on board of various vessels. The Taney of course had an exhibit on board about Pearl Harbor. We were lucky because there were no crowds as the ships were about to all close. I wouldn't recommend going on a hot and humid or crowded day as all of the ships are small and very hot inside and below decks.
We walked down to Little Italy but it was mostly just restaurants. After having our dinner at the Hard Rock we used the GPS to find Edgar Allan Poe's gravesite. The cemetary actually had two headstones for him, one where he is currently buried, and one in his original burial spot. At both, people have placed roses, coins, letters, and other little things. Kinda creepy if you ask me, but all it lead me to do was want to read one of the letters. It seemed like a bad idea, like I should just leave it all without touching. But I have to touch. So I read one. After carefully placing it back a bunch of birds (ravens???) began squawking in the trees and creeped us right out of there.
So at that point we had seen everything we set out to see. Baltimore was beautiful and I'm sure I'll visit again. Maybe next time spend some time on the water and venture out into the night life.
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