Last Friday, on the last day of the school year, Scott and I flew out to Baltimore, Maryland with his mom's side of the family for his cousin's wedding. Scott's older sister and her family flew out on a flight two hours earlier than ours and his parents drove making stops in Cleveland and Pittsburgh for golf. While I'm not a fan of flying, it was nice to have a large group of familiar faces to fly with. The flight was a little bumpy for the first half, but I sat next to a really nice lady who made great conversation the whole flight.
We took the shuttle to the hotel, The Embassy Suites, and met up with Scott's parents. We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and made it for the end of happy hour with free drinks. We played euchre and kept up the adult beverages until after midnight. It was a really fun evening! Mindy and I dominated until we decided to switch seats and partners.
The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel (free breakfast!) and drove to downtown Baltimore to explore the Inner Harbor area for a few hours before the wedding. It was a really overcast morning, but it never rained, which was appreciated.
We did some shopping at the little gift shops and picked up some souvenirs for the boys and my parents. Scott's older sister and her family went to the National Aquarium all morning. The rest of preferred a slower-paced scheduled. We climbed up Federal Hill Park to get some great pictures of the water front.
We wanted to grab some lunch before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. Our first choice was Miss Shirley's Cafe, but with 9 people and a small restaurant, there was a 30 minute wait. We decided to eat at Phillips, which was right on the water and had patio seating. Scott tried the famous Maryland Crab Cakes and others did mini crab cakes or crab mac and cheese. Nothing sounded overly appealing on the menu and with me seeing a really nice Chick-Fil-A across the street, I decided to hold out for that after everyone ate. It was so worth it! Delicious!
Back at the hotel we rested for a bit and got ready for the wedding. It was going to be an outdoor wedding and reception and unfortunately, the humidity was out of control. Which means, my hair was going to look a hot mess no matter what I did with it. So, I dried and straightened it and hoped for the best.
And we were off! In an Uber!
We were greeted with champagne and snapped a few pictures of all of us dressed up. The ceremony was beautiful! They had some audio problems, but other than that, the rain held off and they included the Jewish tradition of breaking glass at the end.
After the ceremony, we went inside for a cocktail hour. We found the only cool room in the house that wasn't overly crowded. We enjoyed some drinks and these yummy bacon wrapped breadsticks. It rained for about 20 minutes, but afterwards it cleared up and a beautiful rainbow was stretched over where they held their ceremony! You could actually see where the rainbow ended! It was so cool...and hopefully pretty lucky for them!
The reception was gorgeous! It was out in the back of the property in a huge tent with chandeliers and a live band! The food took a while to be served, but the fillet and the mashed potatoes were delicious. I gave my crab cake to Scott, but the poor guy had an upset stomach all day since he ate the free hotel breakfast. We think he ended up having some mild food poisoning.
The band took some getting used to, especially since they played a strange variety of music. There was no typical wedding music like the Hustle or the Cha-Cha Slide and they only played one slow song to dance with Scott to, but I still danced my feet off all night. It was over by 11pm, but we went back and played euchre and ordered pizza with Scott's parents and his younger sister and her boyfriend. It was a fun night!
Sunday morning we went back to downtown Baltimore for an early lunch at a brewery before going to the Orioles game. The food was great at this restaurant! Mindy's boyfriend met up with his friend who also took us on the "pub tour" before an Orioles game for drinks. It was a pretty fun atmosphere!
The game was a crazy one! So many home runs and the Orioles won 8-6! It was so incredibly hot and humid...felt like 99 degrees. Luckily, our section was covered from the sun so we didn't have to worry about that, but man...cold beer and ice cream seemed to help us keep cool.
After the game, Scott's younger sister, Mindy and her boyfriend took an Uber to the airport to head back home. We were staying another night so we walked over to the casino with his parents. The walk was a bit longer than we anticipated and we walked through a sketchy part of town, but it was a beautiful casino! Looked brand new! And I walked out $40 richer...a first for me! The penny slots were good to me.
We went back to the hotel and ordered pizza, again. Scott enjoyed happy hour with his family while I read my book back in the room. I needed some rest and relaxation. And I might have gotten a little sunburned, despite not having seats in the sun.
Monday was an adventure. Our flight was 1:15pm. We boarded the plane, started to back up and go toward the runway, and sat for an hour waiting for the flight route to be finalized. With a huge storm coming on the East Coast, time was of the essence. Unfortunately, many other flights re-routed to avoid the storms and were causing an air "traffic jam". We had to go back to the gate and de-plane. We sat in the airport for another 4 hours on a delay and watched the storms roll through Baltimore. The food choices were limited, but snacks and drinks helped. I did "facetime" with the boys from my iPad to help pass the time. Plus, I missed their cute faces.
Finally, there was a window where the weather was clear so we re-boarded and took off! We landed around 7:30pm and were home by 8! I was so excited to be home and to see the boys. And I'm sure my parents were glad to be done with babysitting duty. It was a great trip and I enjoyed spending the time with Scott's family. I don't think we'll be back to Baltimore...it wasn't my favorite city, but I'm glad I got to check that off our travel bucket list.
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