Weekend Update...

Friday, William and I took advantage of our trip to the airport and went into Baltimore to the National Aquarium. I decided to do this on my own because it is REALLY expensive and I wanted to check it out before taking a full fledged family trip there. First, William and I found our way there in the pouring rain, and found parking in a garage for the bargain price of $20.00(!!) and made our way to the aquarium. It was 27.95 to get in including the dolphin show, without the show it was 24.95 so I figured I might as well go for it. Will is free until he turns 3. We went in and the first thing I find out is that they don't allow STROLLERS!!! Hello? No Strollers? They did offer backpack carriers to use in the aquarium, but honestly, my back isn't up to 29 pounds of Pudd. Thankfully, I brought along William's Monkey leash/backpack thing and a backpack diaper bag that day. We saw lots of fish, but picture taking was really not great in there since it was pretty dark. They did have sharks though, so that was fun. Will did okay walking for the most part but would occasionally throw himself to the floor and just lay down, refusing to move. We went to the dolphin show, but Will was completely not interested in it at all. You would have thought he saw Dolphins every day! We completed the whole place in 2 hours and had lunch, 2 pieces of pizza and a drink for 15 dollars! This became a very expensive day! Needless to say, I didn't buy anything in the gift shop. After we finished we went back out to the rain, and I was looking for somewhere to buy an umbrella because we were getting soaked! I stopped at the ESPN store, thinking of those huge golf umbrellas, but the were sold out. I saw a Barnes and Noble and figured at least we could get out of the rain and play with trains. I also seemed to remember they had some artsy umbrellas. They were sold out, but the had one kid sized one left, so I bought it, figuring it didn't really matter if I get wet, but I hated the idea of Pudd getting soaked. We walked to the Children's Museum and arrived for the last hour so I got in for half price. It was $7 for me, and Will is free until 2 years old. It was huge, and nice, but really geared towards the 5 and up stage. There was one small room for toddlers and it was fun, but out of 4 floors, I would say there was only about 450 sq feet for the under 3 year olds. Poop. Will loved it though! They had a ball pit, and he had never seen one before. HE LOVED IT! I got in with him at one point and became quite concerned I would never get out again! I eventually got us both out and we went downstairs to the quickie-mart area they had set up. It was cute, with a gas pump, groceries, check outs, and a VW bug that the kids could "drive". We played there for a little while and then it was time to close. We made it back to the garage, paid our 20 bucks and drove very slowly home in rush hour traffic. Normally it should take you about 1 hour to get home, it's only about 45 miles, but it took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to Jason's work! Ugh. Thankfully I had thought to bring the DVD player so the Teletubbies and Elmo kept us company on the long ride. All in all we had fun, but it would be a better trip when Will gets older, say 4 or 5.