Charm City

We had driven past Baltimore many times on the way to other places (mostly Washington DC) but had never stopped for some exploration, so a couple of weekends ago, we decided to take advantage of a hotel deal Zack found and go for it.

We stayed at the Hotel Monaco, right downtown by the Inner Harbor. It was a beautiful historic building.

Our room was nice.

Unfortunately, we realized that the air conditioner in our room wasn't working at about midnight. They moved us to a new room and gave us free breakfast, and when we checked out in the morning, they ended up not charging us anything because of the inconvenience. So that was kinda awesome, and was totally worth changing rooms in the middle of the night.

Anyway, so we drove down there on Friday afternoon/evening after work, and got there just in time for the Orioles game. One of the streets bordering the stadium is called Eutaw street. :)

There are some perks to having a crappy baseball team. We showed up at game time and bought tickets at the gate for $6 each. Then, since the park was so empty, we moved down from our cheap seats to some really great seats in the bottom section on the first base line.

Phillies games always sell out in advance, so you can't buy tickets at the gate, and the cheap tickets are more than twice what they were in Baltimore. We love that our team is doing so well, don't get me wrong. But the fact that the Orioles suck made that game more fun for us. The Orioles lost, which was fine with us. I think they played the Dodgers. Zack can correct me if I'm wrong about that. There were a ton of Mormon missionaries at the game. Apparently the whole Baltimore mission got to go, so that was pretty fun to see so many of them there. All in all, a great time.

We intended to stay in Baltimore and explore on Saturday, but I woke up feeling pretty darn yucky. We tried to go out exploring, but I just couldn't do it so we headed home and vowed to head back soon to do all the stuff we didn't get to do the first time around. I did snap this picture before we left.

So 2 weeks later (on my next weekend off), we headed back. It happened to be Labor Day weekend. I had to work on Labor Day, but my holiday was the Friday before, so I still had a 3 day weekend. So we headed down on Thursday evening and stayed in a hotel pretty much next door to the other hotel we stayed in before. It wasn't as nice but was even cheaper than the other. The room had a sleep number bed, which we learned is basically just a glorified air mattress, and my side deflated during the night. We really have good luck with hotels, eh? So we changed rooms after the first night and the bed stayed inflated for the whole second night so that was good. But I definitely never want a sleep number bed.

Anyway, so on the Friday, we started our day by hitting up the National Aquarium, which was fabulous.

They had a big pool with mostly stingrays that you could look down on as you were going throughout the aquarium.

They had lots of pretty fish of course.

There were turtles.

And sharks.

And birds.

There was even a dolphin show.

We're pretty opposed to dolphin shows since we saw The Cove, but I guess I soothed my conscience a little by reminding myself that their dolphins were reared in captivity. And dolphins are really cute. All in all, a really nice aquarium. I think we like the one close to us in Camden a little better overall, but both are really nice. Next we got crab cake sandwiches at Phillips, which is famous for its crab cakes. They were delicious. After doing some shopping and riding the free bus around just to see the city a little, we took a 90 minute evening boat tour through the harbor. That was very fun-- probably the highlight of our trip. We saw battleships

and Fort McHenry (the battle there inspired the writing of our national anthem).

There is a buoy marking the spot where Francis Scott Key is believed to have been anchored while he was penning the Star Spangled Banner.

A bit beyond that is an old fort, built before the Civil War, partially under the direction of Robert E. Lee (now abandoned).

We got some good views of the famous Domino Sugar sign.

And some nice views looking back toward the city.

What a blast! We wrapped up our day with dinner at PF Changs (yum), which we polished off by sharing dessert.

On Saturday, we started out the day by visiting Baltimore's world trade center, which has an observation deck. Those are always fun, and this was no exception. We got some great views of the harbor.

Here is the aquarium from above.

And here is one of the USS Constellation (also pictured earlier in this post), which is what we toured next.

The Constellation was one of the last sails-only ships built by the US navy.

It is best known for capturing slave ships around the time of the Civil War.

It was fun to tour, although I am glad I did not have to live on a ship like that. After grabbing a quick lunch, we went on a walking tour. The guide talked a lot about the revitalization of Baltimore, and the architecture and such. One random thing we saw on our tour-- we passed a hotel that was once a Masonic lodge. Our tour guide informed us that there was a very nice women's restroom in that hotel. Just at the moment, the doorman of the hotel waved us over and ushered us all in the door, and then we took us all into the restroom. In 2009, it was in the Hall of Fame for the America's Best Restroom award. Funny, huh? Well it was very nice, with several different kinds of marble and crushed pearl on the walls.

And it was spotless of course. That was a fun little detour. Here's Zack with a library that we saw on our tour.

Here's me with the original Washington Monument.

This was a cool looking church.

We were sad because the library at the Peabody Institute was closed on the day of our tour, but someone happened to be in there and let us in to have a look. It was very pretty. I did not take any pictures, but here's what it looks like.

After our walking tour, we decided to head home. On the way out of town, we made one more stop. Here's me looking somber at Edgar Allen Poe's grave.

All in all, we found Baltimore to be a beautiful city. It reminded us of Philly in some ways, which is definitely a good thing. Maybe we'll get the chance to go back and explore even more some time.

Ho Hum

An update is coming on our recent trip(s) to Baltimore, but lest you think all we do is travel, I thought I'd take a minute and write an update about some of the more normal stuff we've been doing.

I think I've mentioned it in passing but I never really just flat out said that I switched to the day shift at work. I put in my request to be switched to days as soon as I was done with my internship at work and then I started waiting patiently for a day shift slot to open. It was probably only 4 or 5 months later when I was informed that a slot had opened up for me. They would move me there as soon as they hired an RN to replace me. Since I was working on a skilled unit, they wanted an RN instead of an LPN. So I waited.... and waited... and waited. A couple of weeks later, they told me they had someone in the pipelines. A few days after that, they informed me that the person they were going to hire had decided not to accept the position. So I waited... and waited. A couple weeks later, they told me they had hired someone and she was supposed to start orientation. Then she had child care issues and her orientation was pushed back for another 2 weeks. So by the time all of this happened, it had been about 3 months since they told me I was going to switch to the day shift. I had to stay on afternoons for 2 more weeks to orient the new girl and then, at long last, I switched to days at the beginning on August. I am thrilled to be on this schedule. Okay, I absolutely hate getting up at 5:45 every morning. But it makes it all worth it when I get home before 4 in the afternoon. I do miss some things about the afternoon shift-- I used to get all my shopping done during the day. The stores were a lot less crowded at that time. And I learned yesterday that it's a lot easier to work a double shift when the second 8 hours is the night shift, which has a lighter work load. But I love actually getting to see/hang out with my husband every day, and being able to attend things that happen in the evening. So woo hoo!

Zack just finished his latest school term last week. Drexel is on a quarterly schedule instead of semesters. He is now enjoying a couple of weeks off before diving into the next term. I don't think he has registered yet so no word on what classes he will be taking. He has 3 terms remaining. He will finish next June. Beyond that, we have no particular plans.

We have now been in this apartment for a couple months and we still adore it. We are also thrilled that a new couple that just moved into our ward has moved into our building. They contacted us before moving out here to have us look at some apartments for them, which we did. We decided to also look at a unit in our building for them even though they didn't ask us to. We have seen literally dozens and dozens of apartments in this area and we know that this building is pretty great so we thought it couldn't hurt. Well, I guess they liked it because they moved in. They have a darling little 1 and a half year old boy. And we are thrilled to not be the only couple in this part of the city again. We were getting lonely.

And some current events I am interested in (perhaps for posterity):

The Phillies just pulled into 1st place in the division last night. C'mon boys!

A minister in Florida is threatening to burn the Qur'an on September 11. I guess he has the right to do so, but I still think it's wrong. Lots of terrible things have been done in the name of lots of religions throughout history. It's sad to define an entire religion and everyone who is a part of it by the actions of some extremists. I personally know several Muslims, and I am tired of all the bigotry against Islam.

The investigation into the BP oil spill that happened in April is ongoing. Now seems like the time when everyone blames everyone else for what happened. Or maybe that's what has been happening all along.

Did you hear about those miners in Chile? 33 of them have been trapped underground since a mine collapse on August 5. They are able to get supplies through a hole drilled down to them, but they will probably not be rescued until December. Can you even imagine?

Are you bored yet? That's okay because that's about all I have to say for now. Pictures coming.

Anniversary

Yep, our anniversary went by almost a month ago. I really do plan on getting caught up on here sometime soon.

We have been married 3 wonderful years. Our anniversary happened to hit on my Saturday off (since I switched weekends when I switched to days), so that was really nice. We started the day by heading to the apple store since Zack's computer decided it did not want to turn on anymore the night before. I should just mention that I was a total brat about this. But we went anyway and the problem has been resolved enough to get Zack through the rest of this term. He will add some RAM and probably back everything up and wipe his hard drive and things should be mega dandy again. Anyway, after taking care of the computer, we were able to get to the festivities, which began with a boat tour of the Schuylkill River.

There are those of you who may not be entirely familiar with Philadelphia geography, so let me just give you a little rundown. Downtown Philadelphia is basically sandwiched between 2 rivers-- the Delaware River on the east, and the Schuylkill River on the west. On the other side of the Delaware River is New Jersey. On the other side of the Schuylkill River is University City, with both the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University being not too many blocks away from the river. I have included a map courtesy of google maps so you can see what I mean. You should be able to click on it to enlarge it if you want.

Anyway, the point is that the Delaware is the bigger of the 2 rivers and a lot of shipping and stuff goes on there. The Schuylkill is smaller, but basically goes right through the middle of things. It is very scenic and much less crowded. So our tour started basically downtown and we first headed north toward the art museum and Waterworks.

We turned around there because there's a dam. We enjoyed this little statue that was in that area.

Once upon a time, this guy was a fisherman with a fishing pole. He disappeared during a big storm (hurricane?). A few years later, when people were dredging the river, they came upon this guy and pulled him out of the water and put him back in his original place. Unfortunately, his fishing rod was never found.

After that, we headed south on the river, ending up at Bartram's garden, a beautiful botanical garden in southwest Philadelphia. All along the route, we got the hear about what they are doing to clean up the river, make the banks more walkable, etc. Finally, we headed back up to where we started. It was delightful and relaxing and the views were fabulous. I am glad we did that.

Next on our agenda was dinner at the Waterworks restaurant. It is located-- you guessed it-- on the Waterworks. The food was amazing, the service was excellent, and the view was killer. We got to sit on the outside patio looking out toward the river and the setting sun. Since the Waterworks is so gorgeous, it is a popular place for wedding photos. We saw a few wedding parties out and about getting their pictures done. I guess we share an anniversary with those people. How fun.

Finally, we wrapped up our evening with a Phillies game.

Very unfortunately we had to watch the Phillies lose. Not only did they lose, but they lost to the Mets. That was a bummer. But it was still fun. Except for the nasty Mets fans sitting nearby. Oh well, what can you do?

All in all, a pretty fabulous anniversary. Here's to many more to come.

Utah-- Noyce edition

I am finally getting around to posting about the rest of our Utah trip.

After our delightful picnic with my family in the mountains on the 24th of July, we headed to the Noyces' for some more fun. Zack's sister Amy just moved into an apartment up by the University of Utah and we got to go see it. It is old and charming, which we just loved it. I forgot to mention in the previous post that we also got to see my brother and sister-in-law's apartment while we were in Utah. We hadn't seen it yet, and we thought it was really nice. After Amy's apartment, we headed up the canyon again for some delicious dinner. I can't remember what the place was called that we ate at, but we ate outside, and the whole family was there, and it was fun and delicious.

Sunday was the whole reason for our visit. Sam got to speak in church and we also played his clarinet. He did an excellent job on both. After that, we went back to the Noyces' and a ton of people showed up for food and chatting and to say bye to Sam. It was loads of fun. We even got to see our dear friend Adam. We also got some photos of the family, since it was the last time everyone will be together again until Sam gets back in 2 years.

On Monday, we started out with breakfast at a little place near downtown Salt Lake,

then we walked around downtown.

Last time we saw downtown Salt Lake, it was pretty much a gaping hole in the ground. It has really come along since then, and it starting to look pretty good.

We checked out the fancy new Deseret Book store (and bought some undies while we were there). And of course we saw Temple Square, which was beautiful as always.

Later in the day on Monday, we went up to Park City. Megan had left to go back to Kentucky by that time so she didn't get to go with us but the rest of us went and walked around the shops on Main Street and then we got some dinner. Then we went to the outlet stores, then headed home.

Tuesday morning we went and got some TCBY frozen yogurt and picked up some final stuff for Sam. Then we had to hop on a plane and come back to Philly. Our flight was uneventful again (yay!) and we were happy to be back to our delightful city.

Thanks to all who hosted us, fed us, and generally put up with us while we were in Utah. We really enjoyed our time there.

Utah-- Woolley edition

Zack's brother, Sam, got his mission call to the France Toulouse mission. We were thrilled that we got to use that as an excuse to go visit our families in Utah. In order to maximize our time there (and minimize our days off work), we left super early on a Thursday morning. We left for the airport around 5 AM. Our flight to Utah was uneventful, and we even arrived a few minutes early. My mom came to pick us up and we headed straight up to Layton to visit my Grandma Crawford. She had her knees replaced and was staying in a rehab center for a few days for some therapy and recovery.

So, let me tell you, I work in a publicly funded nursing home, and it's not the latest and greatest in terms of how nice it is. It looks old, residents live 3 to a room, sometimes supplies are not available when needed, and budget cuts are always on the agenda. It houses people who just cannot afford to get care elsewhere. This creates a diverse and challenging population. Now don't get me wrong. A lot of quality care is provided within those walls. Lots of good things happen there. I'm just saying that it's not the nicest place ever. So when I walked into the rehab center where my Grandma was staying, I swear I about fell over. It was so nice. The floors were carpet and wood laminate instead of linoleum tile. The paint looked nice instead of old and chipped. There were tasteful paintings on the walls throughout the center instead of puzzles that people had assembled and then tacky glued together. Faux flowers abounded. The whole place just looked fancy. I couldn't resist snapping a picture of the medication cart on my cell phone because I just got such a kick out of it.

I left there with mixed feelings-- happy that my Gram could stay in such a nice place (fyi-- the staff seemed nice and pretty good), but sad that there is such inequality in the healthcare system.

Wow, that was kind of a long tangent. After that visit, we got to go to lunch with some more of my family who live (or were vacationing) in the Layton area. Fun to see people I haven't seen in a while. Then we headed to my parents' house and I got to hang with all my siblings and their spouses. That evening, despite that we had been up since 3-something AM, we hit up the drive-in movies with my family, where we watched (and stayed awake through the entirety of!) Despicable Me. My very brief review-- cuteish and okay. We didn't stay for the 2nd movie because we were just too tired so we went home and crashed.

After a refreshing night's sleep, we got up the next day at headed out to Boondock's Family Fun Center with my family. There we rode go-karts,

played laser tag and arcade games, mini golfed, rode bumper boats, and just basically had a blast.

I should note that our camera had already died by this point in the trip and we did not pack the charger, thus the lack of pictures-- the ones we do have are from other people. It's kinda sad. That evening, my Woolley grandparents drove up from St. George so we got to spend a great evening with them. We played croquet (except we played with Ben and Tosca's weird rules-- still fun). I won! That pretty much never happens so I wanted to note it. Also of note-- Grandma Carol came in 2nd place. Grandma has the reputation of always losing at games, so it was very exciting that she did so well. Way to go Grandma! We polished off the evening with some cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory-- mmmmmm.

Saturday was the 24th of July, which is actually a holiday in Utah commemorating the day that the main body of Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. We started the day off with breakfast and we sorta watched the parade on tv while we ate and chatted. After that, we went up one of the canyons and had a picnic and walked around a lake.

It was beautiful up there. I really love the mountains and that's one of the things I miss the most when I am in Philly so it was fun to get to enjoy them and also enjoy the company of my parents, siblings, and grandparents.

We spent most of the rest of our time in Utah with the Noyces, which will be its own post, but we did get the fabulous opportunity to be there on Sunday afternoon when my little bro Matthew was ordained to be an elder. Lots of extended family was there, so we got to see them for a minute. We also snapped the picture with my family. Thanks to my fam for making the time to see us and have some fun. We love you guys.

3 years

Here's to 3 fabulous years. I love you Zack. Happy anniversary.