Baltimore

If you're not a mom who has a job that takes her outside of the home, I'm not sure you'll understand the guilt mixed with relief of getting sent on a business trip. Especially one that takes you across the country the week of your daughter's 6th birthday and during your husband's most busy time of the month for work. We were just lucky this time no one got sick; like every other time I've had to go to this conference and left Jeff with sick kids.

I might have had a slight panic attack before leaving... begging my sister and in-laws to help with the kids in an attempt to make up for being gone that long. And praying my dog doesn't do anything too stupid.

But... business trips also mean a week of not having to fight two little pipsqueaks to get ready for school in the morning, not cooking dinner for anyone, not having to make my bed, staying up until ridiculous hours of the night {a two hour time difference really messes with you} watching cable T.V. shows like Duck Dynasty, and playing tourist. It's admittedly, kind of awesome. Oh, and you get to eat at fancy, expensive restaurants that you'd never eat at while at home... or with kids.

Since I've been to Baltimore before {ironically, also the week of Pearl's 2nd birthday}, I knew the tourist attractions I wanted to see this time around. I had three things on my Baltimore "bucket list," Fort McHenry, birthplace of the Star Spangled Banner; the National Aquarium; and the National Lacrosse Museum. The last bucket list item is in honor of my little brother. I figured visiting the mecca of lacrosse in this country - John Hopkins University - since he probably won't ever get the chance was the least I could do to up my favorite sister status. 

Fort McHenry. With a packed week of meetings and looming potential rain{and fine... sleeping in because I stayed up until 2 a.m. the first night}, I decided to switch up my original plans to visit Fort McHenry first and instead headed down to Inner Harbor to go to the National Aquarium. My plan, while giving me a really cool aquarium experience, sort of back fired on me when I missed the last water taxi to the fort and instead had to enjoy Fort McHenry from the view of a dinner cruise ship. I was totally bummed.

National Aquarium. My favorite part of the aquarium was the jellyfish exhibit. I so wish I had packed my nice camera because the jellyfish were gorgeous. And there was an unbelievably gorgeous jellyfish art piece hanging from the ceiling. They had a three story shark exhibit, amazon rainforest fish and turtles, frogs, giant sting rays, and this super cute jellyfish purse that I just bear to spend the money on after buying my kids some souvenirs.

Did you know an octopus can squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter?

The peacock mantis shrimp.

 Feeding frenzy!

National Lacrosse Museum. This attraction has a funny story with it. At least I think it's funny. When I was Googling stuff to do in Baltimore, I stumbled across the National Lacrosse Museum and Hall of Fame on the John Hopkins University campus. I told my lacrosse stud brother about it and he insisted I go there. So I did... mostly to rub it in his face and to gain favorite sister status forever. I skipped out on a couple of my meetings, forked out $40 in taxis fees, acted like I knew what this old lacrosse dinosaur guy who runs the place was talking about, sent him a postcard that said guess where I am and you're not!? he he he, and bought Kurtis a $5 shirt! Oh, and myself a $5 shirt which Kurtis said he wanted more than the one I got for him. A $40 taxi ride for a $5 shirt, awesome! I learned an awful lot about lacrosse, maybe now I'll be able to teach my brother a thing or two!

Lacrosse was born of the North American Indian, christened by the French, and adopted and raised by the Canadians. A uniform code of playing rules was instituted in 1867. Lacrosse was coined, "the fastest game on two feet," by W. Wilson Wingate in 1922.

Pro football hall of famer, Jim Brown, may have been the finest athlete to ever play lacrosse.

Carlton Ferris was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1971 and played for one of the greatest teams of all time.

Women's lacrosse. I still don't get why the girls can't hit each other?

The evolution of lacrosse sticks.  The first plastic lacrosse stick was invented by STX in 1964 and patented in 1970.

American Indian lacrosse sticks. A few tribes still make these by hand today.

Hall of Famer William "Dinty" Moore in 1936. He was a player at John Hopkins and then coached at St. John's College from 1927-1935 and the United States Navel Academy from 1936-1958. He captured two national championships in 1930 and 1943 and led eight undefeated teams. Dinty was elected the first president of the Lacrosse Hall of Fame Foundation in 1959.  

Exhibition games were held between the U.S. and Canada during the Los Angeles, CA summer Olympics in 1932. The total attendance for three days of competition was an astounding 145,000. John Hopkins University defeated the University of Maryland for the opportunity to represent the United States in the Olympic games. Shown here is 1932 Olympic memorabilia from goalie and Hall of Famer Fritz Stude.

Evolution of helmets.

Jay Silverheels (top row, third from right), who played "Tonto" in the "Lone Ranger" television series was a member of the North American Amateur Lacrosse Association team from 1938-1939.

Evolution of the lacrosse ball. From solid rock to woven reeds to rubber.

Inner Harbor. Inner Harbor was a relatively short walk from the hotel so every chance I got, I headed down to the harbor. And Little Italy for delicious pasta... yum. The harbor is gorgeous at night! Such a different landscape from the mountains out west.

I also consoled myself for not being able to get to Fort McHenry with a tour of two of the historic ships docked at Inner Harbor. I toured the USS Constellation (aka, "Old Iron Sides") and the USS Torsk. The USS Constellation was a Civil War ship built in 1854 and used to stop slave ships. It is a beautiful, old, wooden ship. It was hard for me to imagine sailing on this ship because it was so old. They are still restoring the deepest hull and it was really cool to see all the old wooden beams and floors. The hammocks for the crew to sleep on hung down from the ceiling while the officers had individual rooms tucked in nooks and crannies on the ship.

I also toured the USS Torsk, which was a World War II submarine that sank the last enemy ship of the war in 1945. The submarine is the length of three football fields but man is it claustrophobic. I don't know how any grown man ran up and down that thing, ducking in the doors to each compartment, and dodging all the pipes, knobs, buttons, wheels, and levers. The bunks were stacked three or four high on the sides of the submarine, with some sitting on top of bombs! I was fascinated with all the mechanical equipment and it was so cool to see handwriting from the crew still visible on stickers and checklists. I am definitely land-locked and not cut out for sea legs, especially not submarine life!

Now before you start thinking that all I did for a week was enjoy myself, I have photographic proof that I sat on my butt for far too long in meetings, won an award for my poster presentation {although the poster session was really a food-filled, party reception the Safe States Alliance throws every year... those injury prevention folks like to have a good time at these conferences!}, and still got to do the "mom thing" almost everyday... even if it was via text messaging.

I sent the kids a post card from every place I visited and tried to mail them so they'd get one every day. I hope they liked it. I know they were looking forward to the souvenirs. They survived just fine without me and Jeff has once again asserted himself as favorite parent with a birthday trip to Chuck-E-Cheese, arranging a sleepover and zoo visit with Aunt Kimmy, and two days of spoils from Grandpa and Grandma. Bringing home a bucket of Popeye's chicken from the airport was the least I could do for the man.

A long post for a long week.