February 18, 2009

This day actually begins at midnight, when Colleen's flight arrived. Chris was there and on time so he gains cool points for that, but loses those points for almost leaving his Coke bottle on the top of the ticket pay machine within the airport. Also of note was the handmade flyer pasted to Chris' truck (someone offering to tow us?) and the woman who worked for the airport parking lot though was out of her booth and talking to another ticket-taker when she told us Chris' water bottle had been left on the truck's roof and launched into some story about how she herself had once left a soda on her roof and it spilled all over. Colleen thought she was a random crazy person until Colleen noticed the uniform, meaning she wasn't random, just crazy. Overall, Chris decided to award the airport 4 out of 5 peanut bags. (He had proposed airline wings, but Colleen nixed that and came up with the more suitable peanut bag ranking system.)

The next morning, Colleen and Chris began their day of touring what the benches claim is the greatest city in the world. (Colleen tried to get pictorial evidence of this, but there was a guy sitting there, with takeout bags next to him. Not that pictorial.) As it was flurrying at the beginning day, we opted for the less-traveling, more inside museum option tour of the two "tours" Colleen had assembled ahead of time using the AAA book. Chris gained cool points for good driving, which he subsequently lost by calling a failed audible which would have involved going to the Babe Ruth Museum BEFORE the Sports Legends Museum. Sadly, although there weren't any people about, there also weren't any parking places, so we were sacked and had to punt and park in a parking garage.

Colleen was impressed by the fact the B&O Warehouse behind the Orioles stadium was so humongous (you only see about half on TV). The Sports Legends Museum itself was awesome; even superior to the great Packers Museum at Lambeau Field, with both having "Halls of Fame" set up very similarly. There was an inexplicable amount of space given to the indoor soccer team and Carmelo Anthony and Michael Phelps displays that didn't include Beijing or the pot incident. Colleen did get to see Carmelo's NCAA ring from SU, although if she was him, she would have kept it herself. Note for when she wins the Sprint Cup. The section on the Orioles was great, as was the video on umpire school in the minor league baseball section, and the "locker room," where we got to try on gear from Maryland athletes. At the end we were able to again talk to the guy who gave us the overview who talked our ear off at the outset of the tour, especially after Chris revealed he worked for a local television station. This guy directed us to the room set up in tribute of Lincoln's visit through the former train station when his handlers were concerned about an assassination attempt.

By the time we were back outside again, following the baseballs on the cement to the Babe Ruth Museum, it had started sleeting. At least we were going in a positive direction though - snow going to sleet going to rain. The Babe Ruth Museum was much smaller than the Sports Legends Museum but only $2 cheaper (we purchased a combo ticket.) Colleen learned a lot about the Babe's life (although she admits she's probably more of a novice when it comes to him than your average baseball fan) and the museum itself recently went through a remodel, but she'd say if you were only going to do one, you should do the Sports Legends one.

Colleen and Chris then took the circuitous route to the Dental Museum (ie. Colleen didn't navigate the AAA appropriately until the very end) although at least by this time it had stopped raining. Colleen didn't know there was so much to know about teeth, and certainly enough to say for two whole floors worth. There were some stomach grimacing moments, talking about ether and people purposefully yanking teeth (it probably didn't help we hadn't eaten lunch yet, although maybe in retrospect an empty stomach was a good thing), although learning how Queen Victoria was an advocate of dental health and actually showed off those chompers in pictures. George Washington's storied tooth history was also very interesting. (Marks on his face during portraits apparently showed he was in tooth pain.) Colleen was excited because her Snoopy toothbrush from childhood (well, not her EXACT toothbrush) made the toothbrush display. Both Colleen and Chris enjoyed the toothpaste and mouthwash commercials, although found the Dudley (the Dinosaur) Goes to the Dentist" short lacking. (Couldn't he have gotten a cavity or something? The $1 audio tour was definitely worth it, although the provided single ear hands-free headset type deal proved to be too big for Colleen's right earlobe. Who knew she had small ears? After struggling for a good third of the exhibit, Colleen remembered that she had her earbuds with her, making for a much nicer experience and earning Colleen 50 cool points.

Colleen and Chris left the museum at 2:50, bypassing the tooth-shaped pasta, although going with the obligatory souvenir pin. It was dry outside, but practically looked like midnight - at least twilight. They both earned 25 cool points for not hitting any of the lights on the way back to the Inner Harbor for lunch.

For lunch, we settled on a place Chris said had good crab cakes, although Colleen got a (phenomenal) upside down chicken pot pie (really no sauce, although heavy on the veggies and shiny buttery crust) and Chris got ribs. Both also got lemonade, which was fresh-squeezed, so therefore totally awesome. When Chris asked for more ketchup and lemonade, our waiter inexplicably bought ketchup for Colleen too, bringing the lemonades later - lemonades we later learned we were billed for twice. Both Colleen and Chris felt intensely ripped off and took away 600 col points from the waiter.

After that it was to the Top of the World observational tower, where our ticket taker lost 5,000 points for pocketing Chris' change, not realizing she owed us $2 since we had a AAA discount. Since it was still really foggy and not really a good day for going into an observational tower unless you only have one day in town, Colleen and Chris were pretty alone, save for the gift shop guy that we later found out was from Long Island. According to the sheet at the gift shop table, Colleen and Chris were the first visitors of the year from New York, Colorado and North Carolina.

The exhibit itself reminded Colleen of the Sears Tower, which also had colored maps pointing out what you were looking at, and displays showing moments in Baltimore history. Chris lost 500 points for getting us lost trying to get back to the ground level.

Then it was back home to find a movie. In the mood for a fluff film, we settled on "Confessions of a Shopaholic." Chris thought Colleen was given the wrong amount of change when she only received $1.50 for her $20, but nope, it was $9.25 a person! Equally astounding was the $15 popcorn and 2 drink bill. Colleen got some further reassurance that going to 50 Cent Movie Tuesdays back in Denver is the way to go. On the way to their seats (they had a private showing) Colleen noticed her Coke tasted like Root Beer. That's because both she and Chris had been given Root Beer instead of their requested Cokes. Chris returned Colleen's Coke/Root Beer, only to be told they were out of Coke and handed flat Coke Zero. Finally Colleen got Sprite that wasn't Sprite and wasn't actually Sprite. The movie itself took a bit to find it's footing - a few laugh out loud movies. 6 Reeses Cups.

With an early flight the next day, it was back to the abode for Law and Order. A good time was had by all. --POSTED BY COLLEEN