Baltimore and D.C. 2001

This summer my wife and I decided to take the kids (ages 3, 5, and 7) on a cruise for our family vacation. They love beaches and water, so we figured that stopping at a few Caribbean islands would be the perfect thing to do. Neither of us had been on a cruise before so we had two surprises. First, off-season for the Caribbean is summer time, unless you plan on seeing it by boat. In that event expect to pay heavily. Second, cruises, unlike airlines, sell out pretty far in advance. We figured we would have had to pay $4000+ (most likely $5000 once everything was said and done) and that was too much for one week of vacation.

Well, no problem, we thought. To the kids, one island will look like another. We'll just fly down and stay at a resort. The Caribbean has really changed in the past few years, with several top quality resorts catering to families. Staying at one of those should be just as good as a cruise, we thought, and we'll get some great off- season deals.

And if we only had two kids that would be the end of the story. It seems that very few hotels have rooms that let 3 children stay with 2 adults, and those are usually the larger suites. Once we added up all of the costs, we were back at the price of the cruise.

That's when we decided to take three "mini" family vacations instead of one "large" vacation - one every month of the summer. Also, we would drive to each destination, thereby saving airfare.

This trip report is about our first mini-vacation: Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

A little background first. I am 35 and my wife is 37. As previously mentioned, we have three children: a boy age 3 and two girls 5 and 7. We had actually taken our children for 2 days to D.C. before (seeing the Smithsonian and the Capital Children's Museum) and they had enjoyed it. Also, I grew up in Baltimore (my father and two brothers live there now) and my wife lived in Baltimore for 5 years. Currently we live in northeast Ohio.

We planned to spend 4 days in Baltimore and D.C., staying at the Marriott Towne Place Suites in Ft. Meade (which is roughly halfway between Baltimore and D.C.). We wanted a hotel that gave us connecting rooms (I personally can't share a bathroom with my kids on vacation) and a kitchen so we could cook our own meals. Also, my wife's sister-in-law works for Marriott so we can stay at any Marriott very inexpensively (e.g., for here, each room was $29/night). This is something I suggest looking into if you have relatives who work at hotels. I think Marriott also does it for friends of their employees (although a slightly higher rate).

When we got to the hotel we found that they were fully booked. Apparently in Maryland if a hotel guest decides not to check out, you have to let them stay. We were one of six guests that night who were being "walked" because the hotel was full. The manager, however, was really nice about it and called several hotels trying to get us rooms. None, however, had both the kitchen and connecting rooms. We decided to give up on the kitchen and asked to be put up at the Marriott in downtown Baltimore on Pratt and Eutaw streets, just a couple of blocks from the Inner Harbor. The manager did this for us and paid for the difference in cost. This worked out well since it put us within walking distance of where we wanted to be for half of our trip. Also, the hotel has an indoor pool and for our kids, it isn't a vacation if they don't get to swim. In retrospect, we should have booked this hotel from the beginning. The first day in Baltimore was hot. Had we known how hot is was going to be the rest of the week we wouldn't have complained about the first day, but, being forced to travel only forwards in time we were not yet aware of that fact. Each day was 95+ degrees and the heat index (what it felt like) was over 100. Luckily, the first day we were mostly inside. The plan had originally called for spending two days in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, seeing the National Aquarium, Port Discovery, and walking around. Eating lots of crabs, getting some paddle boats for the harbor, and touring the ships docked in the harbor. Also, we would spend two days in D.C., seeing the National Zoo one day and the Smithsonian the other. The heat cancelled the National Zoo, however, and we saw the Capital Children's Museum instead.

Baltimore's Inner Harbor - This is a great place to stroll around. It is flanked by two mini-malls (single corridor, two storied buildings, mostly food court places in one and clothing and restaurants in the other). In between the malls is a large open area where street performers are present all day and night. In the harbor, several ships are permanently docked: a submarine and "tall" ship, being the most impressive. You can tour these and other ships. You can also rent paddleboats (or electric motor ones) and go out onto the water. Surrounding the harbor are Port Discovery (see below), the National Aquarium (see below), the Science Center, and ESPN Zone (see below). Here we rented paddle boats ($7-$10/30min. depending on the number of people in the boat...each can hold up to four people), toured the docked ships, and watched some street performers (one was the Unicycle Lady, where both of my girls got a chance to perform with her. Sierra, the youngest, actually got to ride a unicycle and Alyssa, the oldest, was in a "skit" where the Unicycle lady chased her). We also walked through the malls, eating and people watching.

By the way, if you rent a paddle boat, be sure to paddle over to the submarine and touch its hull.

Port Discovery - Although Port Discovery isn't owned by Disney, it was designed in part by Disney's Imagineers. It doesn't show. In fact, this place was the only disappointment to me on the trip. The kids had fun, but I found it not to be a "Kid Powered Museum" as they claim to be. Don't get me wrong...it's a pretty fun place...but it's expensive and more of a play area than a learning area.

Port Discovery is a huge three-story building. The center is dominated by one of those rope net and tubes structures that kids can climb through. It is actually better than most I've seen. Around the center are several rooms on each floor. Each room has a different activity for kids. About half are places where kids can build things. Most of these are pretty lame (e.g., making a "hot air" balloon out of tissue paper for the balloon part and cardboard for the "basket" part), but a couple are cool. The coolest is a place where kids get to make their own gum and let me just say this is all that my kids remember about this place.

The other types of rooms are places where kids can explore and figure out things. For instance, there is a "room" where four people disappeared (the "room" is actually a series of rooms making up a house). You pick a person and then go through the house to get clues about what happened to them.

This is a good example of what is wrong with Port Discovery. Kids who are old enough (say 10+) to do something like this will be bored by it and most of what else is here. Kids who are young enough not to be bored won't be able to complete the tasks.

All in all, I would suggest skipping Port Discovery. It costs $11/adult and $8.50/child, takes about 3 hours to see everything (although the kids can play longer in the rope net part in the middle), and really isn't that educational. Instead of Port Discovery, I would recommend...

The Capital Children's Museum - CCM is only $6/pp and is head and shoulders above Port Discovery. This was the second time we had taken our kids here, and the third time we had been here ourselves (we took our nieces and nephews once). There are three floors to this place. The upper two floors are fairly constant and the first floor has some permanent displays and some rotating ones. When we were there this time, they had a Brain Teaser room with puzzles of varying complexity so kids of all ages (5-adult) could try them. I'm a Brain Teaser maniac, and this is the best display I've seen anywhere.

The other floors pack a dizzying array of displays for kids. There are two areas dedicated to different cultures. There is a Mexican room with play clothes, a pyramid for kids to climb in, and an arts and crafts area (where they can make traditional Mexican hot chocolate, flowers for girls' hair, and wax necklaces). Additionally there are life size "toys" like a motorcycle, post office, phone booth, etc. The other cultural area is Japanese, and they have similar things but without the arts and crafts.

There is a maze room which leads into a bubble room where kids can make soap bubbles of all shapes and sizes and even enclose their entire bodies in a bubble. There is an animation area which teaches everything about movies and animation from about the turn of the century (1900's) through today. Here kids can also insert themselves into a cartoon using blue screen technology. There is a cave where kids can explore, a chemistry experiment area (with about 6 different experiments for kids to perform w/their parents' supervision), and a "city" area that has the front part of a bus, the back part of a fire truck, a kitchen, a fire pole, a sewer system, and lots of dress up clothes.

I've maybe listed half of the things that are here. Believe me, this is the best place in the area to take your kids for learning and fun. Kids from 3-12 will have fun here. You can spend as little as 2 hours here or as much as the entire day if you try to see it all.

Smithsonian - Of course no place in the country has as much educational value as the Smithsonian. There is so much information on the web about this, that there is little I can add to it. Let me just say that if you have limited time see the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History (this will take a full day). With more time, add on additional museums.

The National Aquarium - Probably the best in the country. Here is their web site. Along with all of the "traditional" aquarium stuff, they have an amazing dolphin show (done with three sets of dolphins so all seats get a good view) and a touch and learning area for kids. Admission is $15/adult and $8.50/child and you can spend about 4 hours in here.

ESPN Zone - The last night we were here, my wife and I dumped the kids with my mother (she was in town visiting one of my brothers) and went into the Inner Harbor. We briefly went into here. It's a pretty cool place. You get a "credit card" with points on it ($10 buys 40 and you get a better deal the more points you buy). They have all sorts of games here from traditional (e.g., pinball) to sports (basketball courts, rock climbing walls, football passing games, etc...even a jockey game). I have always wanted to take a few swings in a batting cage and that's why we went in. You go into an area and face a huge (about 12' x 12') screen about 30ft away. On the screen you see a real pitcher (you can pick any of about 12) and he winds up and throws a ball at you. They line his image (it's actual film from an actual game...he'll even sometime stop and throw to try and catch the "runner" at first!) up with a small hole in the screen that fires the actual ball. All in all it's pretty damn realistic. I took 8 90+ mph balls, missed all of them (although I did tip a couple), and had a blast. If there is any type of sport you like (even if you aren't good at it), this is a great place to go. And the "credit card" system means you don't need to worry about coins or tokens. FYI, most games are 6-8 points. The batting cage was 12 points.

Summary - The Baltimore/Washington area is a great and inexpensive place to go on a family trip. There are many fun places that are educational too. In addition to what I've listed above there is a Six Flags amusement Park, Fort McHenry (where the National Anthem was written) a great zoo, and much more in Baltimore. D.C. has, of course, all of the U.S. government, the National Zoo, Union Station (a very cool mall built on top of a train station) and much more. Nearby you'll find Hershey Park in PA, Lurray Caverns in VA, etc.