Trip to Virginia, Side Trip to Baltimore

When planning our trip to Virginia, Sean told me that he was bummed that we keep going to cities with baseball teams but we never go to a game (Kansas City, NYC, Washington, Boston).  I told him that we were going to go to a game then on this trip.  We would either pick the Orioles or the Nationals.  As we got more into our planning we realized that we really didn't have time to go to an actual game.  Plus we went to spring training earlier in the season and a Dodger game, so Sean said it was ok if we didn't do an actual game.  When he visited me in Boston we did a tour of Fenway so I looked it up to see if they offered a tour of Camden Yards.  They did!  When I went to buy tickets online it would have cost a bunch of extra money for their "convenience" fees so I decided to just buy them at the stadium on the day.

We drove up to Baltimore with my sister and her kids.  We found the stadium and went to buy tickets.  They were sold out.  I was heartbroken!  It was the ONE thing Sean really wanted to do on this trip.  I felt so bad that I actually started to cry!  The cool thing about Camden Yards is that they have a pedestrian street that borders the stadium so you can get to look inside.  Sean said this was the next best thing and he was ok.  

It was a really cool stadium.  I believe it was a more modern stadium that was built to look older.  There is an old warehouse right next to the stadium and Sean said that when they built the stadium they were wondering if they should tear it down.  They decided to convert the space into office space for the team which I think is really cool and adds to the atmosphere.  

Out on the pedestrian street bordering the stadium are little baseball plaques that mark where out-of-the-park balls landed.  They have the player, team, date and distance on them.  This one was the farthest that we saw.  It was the only one that was on the wall.

Since we had extra time (by not going on the Camden Yards tour) we decided to head over to the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum.  They had large baseballs spray painted on the sidewalk that led you to the museum (just a 10 minute walk from the stadium).  That was fun for the kids to follow and especially on corners where we had to cross the street when they had to figure out where they went.  It reminded me of Boston and their Freedom Trail, which is a red line on the sidewalk leading you to many historical buildings and places in downtown Boston.

I learned a couple of really cool tidbits about Babe Ruth.  Many historians incorrectly labeled him as an orphan because he went to a school that was mainly attended by orphans.  It was a religious school specifically for badly behaved children.  Babe was such a handful that as a last resort his parents sent him there.  It was a boarding school so he only saw his family occasionally on holidays and such.  When he finally graduated he was a well liked and behaved young man so I guess they did something right at that school.  He was born at his grandparents home which is where  the museum is.  His house was actually over his family owned salon which I learned from the museum, was located where centerfield now lays.  I was impressed with his record.  They had a wall to show players' home runs and Babe had the most HR until decades later (I think it was maybe the 70s when someone finally hit more than him).  Still today I think its only a dozen who have hit more than him.  When I mentioned this to Sean he also stated that bats were different then they are today so it's even more impressive.  Bottom line, he was a phenomenal player.  

The neighborhood had cobblestone streets and row houses.  Very quaint!

We had lunch at Potbelly's.  We went right at lunch time so it was very crowded but the food was great!  After lunch we headed to the Inner Harbor which was a lot bigger than I imagined.  It was super crowded indicating it was a popular hangout.  They had a tall ship, submarine, and a couple of other boats that you could tour.  The one boat I was interested in was the submarine but that ended up being at a pier that was further than I wanted to walk.  We just hung out until the humidity got to us and then we left.  Baltimore was a fun city to just visit for a couple of hours.

It wasn't as comfortable as it looks.