Day 3--Off to the Harbor

Today we made our way to Baltimore's Inner Harbor. And what fun we had.

We started our day by driving to downtown Baltimore to see the attractions of the Inner Harbor. We spent a good chunk of our day at the National Aquarium

where we checked out the marine wildlife

watched a fun dolphin show

and experienced a 4D movie about our Planet Earth. It was a blast {literally--we were snowed on, rained on, and splashed by a great white shark eating a seal! So fun and the kids loved it.}

After the aquarium, we checked out some ships in the harbor

before heading to Fort McHenry to learn about the history surrounding the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. I have heard fragments of the story before, but it means so much more hearing it as we stood at the actual site of the battle. It really makes the story stick. I just hope it stays with the kids too.

Then we made our way back to our hotel for a quick swim and off to bed. Another full and fun day on our family road trip.

TRIP TIP #4 When planning the best time of your life, remember to plan in downtime. We had a great time today, but the kids were exhausted by the end of the day. Tomorrow we will head back early enough to relax and get a good swim in before hitting it hard the rest of the week.

TRIP TIP #5 Stay at Homewood Suites if you are traveling with a family. We happened upon this hotel chain and have found it quite a score. With some great on-line deals, not only do we have beds for all our kids in one contained unit, but we have a nice complementary breakfast every morning from 6-9. And the bonus: complementary dinner from 5-7:30 every night. So if we time things right, we get some good down time in the evenings and we only have to buy one meal a day! What could be better than that?

Off to bed for another full day tomorrow!