July 4th in Baltimore

It all started around my 28th birthday when he gave me a ticket to the National Aquarium in Baltimore because we had a conversation about how we both loved aquariums. But just ONE ticket. I couldn't figure out if he was trying to hint that we should go together, or that I should just go by myself, LOL. I thanked him for the gift and said that perhaps when the weather got warmer we can get a group of friends together to go to Baltimore. That was almost 7 months ago, can you believe it? Originally he had given me the ticket with the hope that we'd go on the trip together as friends so he can have the DTR talk with me. But since it's already 'official', the trip became our first vacation together. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about how it would turn out, but it ended up being really fun and we ate way too much (what else is new) - at the same time I think the trip helped us to get to know one another better and build a level of comfort that I don't think we had before. I guess there is significance and importance to spending some alone time away from the familiar and normal surroundings. Also, having three days where we'd have nowhere to hide or run from each other if we were angry or upset was a good test for our relationship. It's very different from a dinner and movie on a Saturday night and then going home separately or being in a bad mood but you don't want to talk about it so you just stick to text messaging or email. Interestingly, I heard on the radio this week that in a recent survey, 83% of the participants said that they go to sleep angry without resolving an issue with their spouses, and only 17% said that they stay up all night talking (or fighting) until it's resolved. I guess I'm of the opinion that if possible, to never leave a conversation angry or on bad terms - life is so unpredictable and fragile, you never know if that's the last conversation you'll have. Is that just a morbid way to think?!

Anyway, onto happier topics, here are the pictures from our trip for your viewing pleasure :)

Even though we got in at midnight and was exhausted, I could not sleep the first night, I kept waking up and finally just stayed up at 6AM - it's strange that I always wake up so early when I'm on vacation. Our first stop - the Baltimore Museum of Art - for lunch, hahaha.

This cream of crab soup was SO good

Asian style shrimp

More crab with portabello mushroom - delish!

Since we're already at the museum for lunch, we pretended to be cultural and looked at a few exhibits. This one was really interesting - displays of miniature old-fashioned houses

Views of Inner Harbor

We gravitate towards bookstores wherever we go ..... not quite sure if it's for the books, the restrooms or the Starbucks

The hotel with a balcony where he originally wanted to stay at (back in December) when he gave me the Aquarium ticket - but now there is no need for a balcony so we saved some money, haha

View of the harbor from a lighthouse

The first picture I am posting of us - this is monumental!

Another view of the harbor with little dragon boats and pedal boats

At the aquarium - we took SO many pictures of the fish, they're amazing and their colors are so beautiful! I love this fish - it looks like it's swimming around looking for someone to kiss.

The jellyfish exhibit was great - can you believe these are jellyfish??!! There are so many different species!!

The colors and the way it moves is so beautiful!

After the aquarium, we went to a really nice restaurant called Charleston (rated 28 on zagat!) so we didn't want to be rude and take pictures, although I'm sure we violated several fancy-restaurant etiquettes by passing food to each other across the table so we could try all the dishes. There was an older couple sitting at the table next to us - I don't think they said more than two sentences to each other the whole meal. I find that odd because just the food itself was worth raving and talking about - I think half of our conversations was about how great the food was. We highly recommend this place. It's funny - our reservation was for 8pm, by the time we were done eating we were one of 3 tables left in the restaurant. I guess people in Baltimore don't stay out as late as New Yorkers :)

We snuck this in at the end ... kind of a bad picture but that's all we got ...

I was so sad that there were no pictures of us at the restaurant so we played with the timer in our room - I am testing the placement of the camera :)

Breakfast in bed - literally!! Just an FYI in case there was any doubt in anyone's mind - this is HIS bed, MY bed is to the right of the picture

After a filling breakfast, we went to Fort McHenry where we fought off the British in the War of 1812 and also where the Star Bangled Banner was written. I felt so patriotic - especially since it IS the 4th of July! I love historic sites!

Huge canon

Those things are heavy!!

I like how he's totally into the camera timer too :)

It took this many people to unroll the flag - it's a replicate of the flag that was flying at the Fort during the battle - it's HUGE!

I guess this is where they put the soldiers who misbehave :(

We went exploring at a really nice hotel where we went for lunch - the food wasn't very good but the hotel was gorgeous!

Walking around the harbor - so many people out on the 4th of July!

Roy's for dinner - it's a Hawaiian restaurant chain - I had wanted to go to Roy's in NYC months ago but it closed down so we found one in Baltimore! :) The sashimi was so good - can you believe I actually eat sashimi now? He loves Japanese food so I guess I've been trying it more and really enjoying it!

My drink is on the right - it's a Hawaiian martini - one of the best drinks I've ever had. I especially like the fact that it's clear and very light tasting.

Molten chocolate cake with ice cream - one of our favorite desserts

My camera can't take pictures at night - especially of fireworks. It was hilarious - we were sitting in an area for like an hour and a half waiting for the fireworks to start. We thought it was a great spot because so many people were there. Then it's 9:30pm - we started hearing the fireworks go off but couldn't see anything. Everyone was in an uproar and walking around to try to figure out where the sound was coming from! It turned out that the fireworks were behind this building that was to our left. So then we all scrambled out of our spots and walked in and out of streets, dodging the bumper to bumper traffic to find a spot where we could actually see the fireworks. It wasn't as outrageous as the ones in NYC but it was pretty and the finale was great :)

Chaos after the fireworks - we ended up driving and stopping for like 2 hours before getting to our hotel (without traffic it would have been 15 minutes)

I was so exhausted that I slept until 10am the following morning! After checking out, we went to an Italian restaurant for brunch - I had the crab quiche (gotta have as much crab as possible in Baltimore!!) There was a tree in the middle of the restaurant and a live keyboard player.

Walking around Little Italy to digest the huge brunch we ate before having to sit in the car for 5+ hours

And that's it folks! Our drive home from Baltimore - we hit SO much traffic! But it gave us an excuse to extend our trip longer =P Who knew a long weekend trip could be so eventful! :)