Our time at the beach in Ocean City, MD has come to an end. We woke up to some bad news though. My mom's new Chevrolet Blazer had sent her phone a notification that she had a flat tire. This was especially a bummer since we were about to leave for Baltimore this morning. I talked to one of our neighboring condos and they luckily had an air compressor that they so kindly let us use. This was enough to pump up the tire to where the car was driveable so my parents could get to a local tire shop. This only slowed things down about an hour in total, so the crisis was successfully averted.
We left Friday morning and drove just under 3 hours to Baltimore. I had only been to this city one other time, back in 2019. I came here to go to a rave where Midnight Tyrannosaurus, Kai Wachi, Yakz, and Cromatik were all playing. I arrived then after dark and mainly was inside a dance club called Baltimore Soundstage. So really, I hadn't explored the city at all, but that was about to change.
We had booked a couple of rooms at Kimpton Hotel Monaco Baltimore Inner Harbor. The place has an elegant/historical vibe to it and it's totally gorgeous. I was very pleased with our room. It had a king-sized bed, an amazing bathroom with a huge shower, and a spectacular view of the city from our massive windows. This place is also pet-friendly, so that worked well for us since we still had Littleton and Fritz with us.
We got checked in just before 1 p.m. and then just had to wait on everyone else to get settled in here. As soon as we were all ready, we went for a walk towards the Inner Harbor area of town. It was a brief 10-minute walk away since my mom found the ideal hotel location.
There are many hold ships in the harbor and we took several photos of them. We went inside of a few Baltimore-focused gift shops and then it was time for our 3 p.m. reservation at The Cheesecake Factory. There we had such a yummy meal. My order of meatloaf was the best out of everyone's I think, a few would agree with me too. Then we splurged and got 5 pieces of different types of cheesecake to split between 6 different people.
Keep in mind, that all of the following are cheesecakes and not just regular cakes. I went with Cinnabon. @flowerbaby got Lemon Meringue. My mom decided upon Pineapple Upside Down. Chez picked one called celebration, which was basically Neopolitan birthday cake. Kristian opted for Coconut Cream Pie. I had at least one bite of all of them and if I was ranking them starting with the best, it would be in the order that I just listed them.
We were all overly full after finishing our meal. Our next stop was at the other end of the Inner Harbor. So we had to power through the feeling of a full belly to get to our destination. We had a 4:45 p.m. booking for a tour through the harbor on this big boat. It lasted nearly an hour and allowed us to get out on the water and enjoy a nice breeze. We all had a lot of fun on the boat and I'm glad that we decided to do it together.
Next up was a quick trip across the way to one of our favorite discount stores. We left with a few things, but nothing major. By that time we were all pretty exhausted from walking around all day. We went back to the rooms to relax for a bit and also check on the dogs.
I stumbled upon the fact that there was a graveyard nearby. @flowerbaby loves strolling through cemeteries, so I knew she'd enjoy going. Especially since this specific place happened to have a very famous grave at it. We walked a brief 10-15 minutes into this sketchy area of town and once we arrived, we were greeted by the monument and grave of the famous writer Edgar Allen Poe.
Shortly after coming back from the cemetery, @flowerbaby was somehow hungry again. We found a place that was open late called Connie's Chicken and Waffles. I had a waffle with my breakfast earlier in the day, so we only got some chicken, french fries, and a few very tasty drinks for us to share. My parents and the rest of the crew ordered a pizza to share in their room.
Now, as of me writing all of this up, it is Saturday morning and we are preparing to depart Baltimore and head back home to WV. @flowerbaby and I plan to stop at the shopping outlets in Hagerstown on the way since we didn't manage to go there when we were in that town at the beginning of this trip. It's on the way, so I am down. Overall, our drive back home should take just over 5 hours. As much as I've loved this trip, I look forward to being home and getting to relax. I'm also hyped to get back into the gym after taking this week off. Plus I have some basketball jerseys that somehow are already about to be delivered from China, despite me ordering them less than 2 weeks ago.
I'm so thankful to have finally been able to take another family vacation. Our last one was back in 2019. This was actually the first time that I've ever brought a girl with me on a family vacation and I'm glad it was @flowerbaby.
I'm very appreciative to everyone who has been reading my blogs about the trip and enjoying all of the photographs we've taken. Thank you all so much for being an awesome community!