Charleston & Baltimore

We went to Baltimore and Charleston over the last few weeks. Ana and really enjoyed spending time with Jeremiah. He travels a lot and most of the time we have to stay home, so it was a real blessing to be able to go on a trip with him. These pics are out of order so bear with me. This is the reenactment we went to in Baltimore.

It was really interesting and fun, but lasted too long for Ana.

She turned into a pumpkin before our eyes.

Here we are in the airport... I love ColorWonder markers!


Here's a jellyfish in the Charleston aquarium.

We went aquariums in both cities and I have to say that

Charleston's was much more child friendly. Baltimore's wouldn't allow strollers.

Its at least a mile on foot... yeah that was fun with a toddler.





Here's Ana smiling after she got to play with the sea urchins and sponges.

She's actually saying "EWWWW!"

Gotta love my funny girl.

In Charleston, we got to spend time with one of Jeremiah's long time collegues, Mark, and Mark's wife Danna. We had a awesome time... they are very well-traveled and knew a lot about some neat places to eat and go. The guys were in conference all day, but we girls had fun on our own.

In Baltimore, I met a lot of Jeremiah's coworkers from OMD. Probably too many to count. They were all so great about Ana being with us, and were very impressed with how good she was. We all went to see Senator John McCain speak. Jeremiah was concerned that she wouldn't behave, but it was after her nap... I laid down with her so that she would sleep.

I really didn't like Baltimore as a city. Everywhere you went there were panhandlers asking for money. You are told when you check into the hotel to NOT give them money and to do so is a crime. But everywhere you go there they are. I felt unsafe walking alone with Ana. The panhandlers actually blocked the way of my stroller more than once. I got into a habit of walking in a large group of people from NGAUS to deter them from bothering me.

A lot of people ask me why we take Ana with us rather than leaving her with friends or family when we go out of town. I grew up traveling with my grandparents. I went all over the country with them from the time I was very young. I want Ana to be well-travelled. I want her to experience the world outside of our little town. So as often as we can, we'll take her with us.