I had an opportunity to go to a conference for work this week in Baltimore, and was very lucky to have Lee as my traveling companion. When I wasn’t in conference sessions, we did some sightseeing and good eating and had a little mini-vacation. Just the two of us.
We decided Camille was old enough and we just might be brave enough to leave her with grandparents while we took a quick trip. Grammie kept her the first day and a half, and Granddaddy spent the last day with her. I knew she’d be fine – in fact, she loves her Grammie so much that she didn’t even want to hug me good-bye. She clung to Grammie’s neck and waved at us. Like, “Get out of here already so we can play. Are you gone yet? Why are you still here? Don’t you have a plane to catch?”
It wasn’t her, it was us I worried about. Driving away, I felt like part of my soul was missing, and I guess in a way, it was. We’ve traveled a lot with her and she’s a great traveling buddy. But at the same time, I think it’s important for Lee and I to have some time as a couple too. It felt strange to walk through the airport without a stroller, and to have an actual PURSE instead of a diaper bag. I was okay as long as there weren’t babies around, but each time I saw or heard one, I missed mine even more.
But I must say, lingering over meals was nice. Sleeping in was very nice. My little early riser gets us up around 6 many mornings, so when I woke up at 8:48 I felt like I’d gotten away with something magnificent! I made some coffee and peeked out of the window. We’d somehow gotten a great room at a great rate in a hotel right on the harbor, and this was our view:

We managed to squeeze in a tour of the National Aquarium, which was awesome (although Camille would have LOVED it and it was probably the time when I missed her most). My favorite part of the aquarium was this:

National Aquarium from Ginger on Vimeo.
They have a dolphin show, and I love love love dolphins. There is just something about watching them that turns me into jelly. They are so beautiful and graceful and just amazing. In fact, I think I need to see a little more:

Dolphin Frolic from Ginger on Vimeo.
Another highlight was the Orioles game at Camden Yards. We could walk there from the hotel, and the stadium was really nice. There weren’t many people there, which was actually kind of good for us because even though we bought cheap seats, we could sit wherever we wanted. There were no lines for concessions or the bathroom, so we felt like we had the place to ourselves. And the funnel cakes.
On the way back to the hotel, we noticed the marquee outside the church that stands right beside the stadium, and had a good laugh. These people take their baseball seriously, and I guess they’re hoping God does too.

I totally wanted to ride by (stalk) Charm City Cakes, the place where they tape “Ace of Cakes” for the Food Network. I love that show. I imagined myself hanging out on the sidewalk – I didn’t plan to barge in or anything – and just happening to be there when one of my faves came out. And then I’d gush on and on about the show, and look like a total idiot. Fortunately for all the people at Charm City Cakes, we didn’t have enough time to play paparazzi.
It was a fairly quick trip, but just right for our first real outing away from Camille. We had enough time to recharge our batteries and feel like a couple, but not so long that we became miserable about being away from our sweetiepie.
I was mad at us though when I starting going through all our photos tonight. Not a single photo of the two of us. Yes, it’s hard to get a photo when you’re traveling without anyone else there to snap it, but I’m not usually shy about asking a stranger to take a photo. I meant to, but we just forgot. We did manage to get a photo of each of us separately, and I thought it was funny how well the photos captured a bit of our personalities.
Lee – next to the R2D2 Post Office box outside Camden Yards:

And me – dork of the century, totally geeking out next to the dolphins and contemplating going back to school to get my marine biology degree so I can be a dolphin trainer when I grow up. Except I’m not very good at science.