George Washington's Estate - Mount Vernon
Hampton Inn across the street from Camden Yards
View from our hotel room window
Pretty festive atmosphere with the Yankees in town
Me giving Adam a lift so he can see the action
It's sad that the Orioles have such a proud history and used to be such a successful team and now they just can't compete with the big money teams
View of our hotel from the ball park
Beautiful
Ha! - the hated Yankees were vanquished
Relaxing back at the hotel
We had a great time in DC and it's always nice to stay in the same hotel for more than just one night. On the way out of DC we backtracked about half an hour south to see Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate.
We were surprised at how crowded Mount Vernon was - evidently it's pretty popular. After waiting in line for tickets we walked around the beautiful grounds and toured the house. George Washington was obviously a well loved and respected man.
Like many of the places we visited there was much more to see and do than we had the time for. I usually go in thinking every place will only take a couple of hours, but when we get there we find there's so much more to the place. It's good on the one hand, especially if the place charges admission and you want the place to be worth the price, but it's a pain on the other hand when you have limited time.
After spending more time than we had planned, we gave up on trying to swing by Annapolis, which is where the Naval Academy is located, on the way to Baltimore where we were planning to catch the Orioles take on the Yankees.
I knew it was the right decision to skip Annapolis, but I still almost tried for it. I'm late for everything because I'm always trying to squeeze one more thing in or check one more "todo" off my list. I didn't like letting Annapolis go, but I figured it would be nice to get into Baltimore early and maybe even get a quick swim in at the hotel before the game.
Unfortunately, traffic getting out of DC and into Baltimore was really bad. It seemed like it was bumper to bumper the entire way. But, it confirmed my decision to skip Annapolis and I figured we left plenty of time so I wasn't to worried - until Derek puked in the back seat as we were entering the outskirts of Baltimore.
We were on I-95 and Helen was driving. She pulled the van over to the shoulder and immediately went about addressing the situation. She comforted Derek, got a change of clothes for him, and cleaned up the mess. I was paralyzed. I had my head in my hands with my eyes closed and I was cycling on these thoughts over and over: How can you throw up in the car and not be prepared? How do you not know you don't feel well? What a pain this is going to be! We're going to have to deal with the smell for the rest of the trip! The number one rule of travelling is DON'T THROW UP IN THE CAR!
We all bring strengths and weaknesses to our relationships and it was Helen's strength and ability to overlook personal failure without judging that pulled us through this setback.
Our hotel was located across the street from the ballpark and since we were so late we were caught in the middle of game time traffic. We squeezed through, checked into the hotel, and made it to the game just as it was starting. I hate to be rushed. I hate to miss the start of things.
It took a little while, but we all settled down. I began to recover and Helen began to forgive me for my reaction to the situation. And even Derek's appetite recovered.
It was a beautiful night and a great atmosphere. It was annoying that there seemed to be more Yankee fans than Oriole fans, but when the Yankees lost it just meant more of their fans were there to see them lose.
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