Baltimore, MD Inner Harbor - June 28

We had out of town guest for the weekend.  Well, technically, my mother did but since we played assistant hosts, I will claim them as my own.  My cousin Rita, her daughter Vasoliki and her two kids Rita and Nickolas were here from Cyprus.   They had just done a two week packaged tour in California and had spent some time with Rita's sister in New York but could not be in the US without Rita visiting her favorite aunt, my mother.  And, of course, you absolutely can't visit the Washing DC are without doing a little of the tourist thing.s

So, Saturday, we ate Maryland's famous steamed blue crabs and then headed north to Baltimore's Inner Harbour . Unfortunately, we didn't do any pre-trip planning (we were 'flying by the seats of our pants') as we drove up with two full vans.  Just as we hit the inner harbor area, we were smack dab in a traffic jam.  A call to my husband revealed that there was an international soccer game just letting out and a baseball game that evening.

In an act of desperation we parked in the first open spaces we could find and headed tot he inner harbour on foot.  Our walk took us past the convention center where, it turns out, there was a huge Anime Convention.  There were people in crazy costumes and makeup everywhere.  Big Boy grabbed a couple of pictures with him posing with a few of the characters.

By the way, I should take a moment now to mention that we initially had way more pictures but Lil' Bit lost our camera the next day (I know, I know another camera). 

My mother was not really up fort he walk so I stayed behind with her at her slow pace while the others went ahead.  By the time we caught up, they had decided to jump on a water taxi for a tour of the harbor.  The taxi prices were reasonable, ranging from $4-6 for kids and adults but it was designed as a means of transportation so there was no "tour" per se.  It took them about a half an hour to get around and back.  The passed Fort McHenry and a few other landmarks.

The inner harbour has two large buildings which contain shops and eating establishments.  There is plenty of souvenir type items as well as clothing and other merchandise.  You actually could spent quite a few hours there and not run out of things to see.

There is an outdoor amphitheatre where you can watch licenced street performers during the day and enjoy free concerts in the evening.

There is a replica sailing ship which can be boarded.

And for a reasonable price visitors can go to the top of the Maryland Trade Center for a spectacular view of the entire City of Baltimore

It was very hot and my mother was getting tired so we cut our visit short just as dusk began to fall.  It would have been nicer to have arrived during the early evening hours since it has started to cool and the concert was about to begin but, we had not planned it out well.

We also would have liked to have visited the National Aquarium, a place Big Boy and I used to frequent.  But, we had not allowed enough time and it would have been frightfully expensive (around $300 for our group of 11) considering how little time we would have had to enjoy it.