Baltimore MD

bonkos6

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We are going to Ocean City, MD for vacation. We will be stopping at Baltimore, MD for 2 days. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of things to do/see?? We will be going to the aquarium and thinking about a baseball game. We have 4 kids, 6-11 yrs old. :goodvibes
 
Since you'll be visiting the aquarium, a stroll around harborplace is nice, lots of pavillions with shops and eateries. Paddleboat rentals and water taxis. The constellation is docked ther and tours are available.There is also the Science Center. Port Discovery is nearby and there is a Hard Rock Cafe and an ESPN zone. The Baltimore Zoo has a great children's area. If you are a baseball fan Camden Yards does tours and the Babe Ruth Museum is close. The B&O railroad museum is fun. Have fun!!
 
I agree with the second poster, there are lots of things to do in Baltimore. The aqaurium is awesome. Like the other poster, the Science center is something the kids will enjoy. Have fun.
 
Plan a breakfast or lunch at my favorite restaurant Cafe Hon This is not right downtown but in the Hamden area- you will find lots of quirky shops etc... around there.
 

We love the aquarium and Port Discovery. Don't do the museum of art--very un-kid friendly!!!
 
the aquarium is awesome there and I love camden yards! have a great time
 
The Harbor area is really nice-there's also an ESPN Zone that your kids could go crazy for-I know my grown up kid (DH) had lots of fun there this past April! :sunny:
 
Also the MD Science Center is at the harbor area. The aquarium is the best! You can buy your tickets ahead of time to avoid waiting in a line only to have to return later in the day to actually get to enter.
 
Baltimore is really nice around the Inner Harbor. My husband works for CSX Railroad and had to go down for some training in February. We decided that we would make a little trip out of it and I would take the kids to the Aquarium and Children's Mueseum (Port Discovery). Our kids are 2 and 4. They loved it all.

Just a word of warning!!! On the morning we were scheduled to drive home to Pittsburgh, my Husband still had another meeting to attend so that is when we loaded everything into our truck and went to Port Discovery. We got there around 10 am and looked around and then decided to have lunch at the attached McDonald's. While we were eating, we were approached by a homeless man wanting money. I just sent him away and he went to another table, there were two young women with small children who were very frightened and went to tell a manager, well the homeless man was told to leave and before he did, he was very angery and went for the two young women who had went to the manager. He did leave before they had to call the police or before he really made a scene. Needless to say, it was scary for all of the young children that were around.

I really don't think twice about going into the city, but this was kind of a scary situation. After that, we went back to Port Discovery until about 2 p.m. and decided to leave and see if my husband was finished so that we could drive home. When we got to our truck, which was parked in a parking garage near Port Discovery, we found that someone had broke out my daughters window and stole everything except for her Uno cards. They had taken her DVD player and all of her Disney movies. Now, we were in the City with a broken window in February and we still had a 4 hour ride home. The maintenace men from the garage helped me sweep out all of the glass that was everywhere. In the kids car seats and on every surface. By that time, someone had brought my husband to that garage and he was there to help me with two crying kids. My DD (4) could not understand why someone would want to do this to her. That same day, they said that atleast 5 other cars had been broken into. Like I said, we were not there for very long and I am just thankful that we did not walk up while they were still at the truck and we were able to replace everything that was stolen.

Please make sure you park in a lot that has security!!!!! That is something that I would have never thought of until now. Another tip, they had obviously looked into the window by wiping the dirt off and they could see everything in plain site, may sure you put everything in the trunk so it looks like there is nothing of value to be stolen.

Needles to say, my dd (4) doesn't have any desire to revisit Baltimore.
 
Scary!

The inner harbor area is great but do not stray out of the tourist area. Go one block too far and you are in a totally different area.
 
Yes- there are sketchy neighborhoods all over Baltimore (and adjacent to nice areas- like my3kids pointed out) but I would definately not limit my activities to the Inner Harbor. The Aquarium, Science Center, Port Discovery ... are nice but expensive- and I always found the aquarium to be so crowded that it wasn't very fun. To get a feel for the city, visit other areas- like Fells Point or Hamden, or the Mount Vernon area at the monument and Charles. At Mt. Vernon you can go into the Peabody Library for free and it is beautiful. The Babe Ruth Museum is really good. Westminster Hall- where Edgar Allen Poe's grave is (not a great neighborhood but really cool- you know the legend- that someone puts a rose and bottle of booze on his grave every year on his birthday- it still happens every year.) I love that church and graveyard.
I was born and raised in Baltimore and it is not much of a tourist town- but there are things I really love about the city.
 
We just visited the inner harbor the end of June. I was not very impressed. Camden Yards was clean and a lot of fun but other than that I have no desire to go back. There are quite a few homeless people around. Also, I found that there was quite a bit of trash around the paddle boats. My daughters (9 and 4) and I went to the aquarium. We saw the whole thing in an hour and 20 minutes. They didn't have a dolphin show since the mother just had a baby. I'm sorry if I sound so down on Baltimore but, I was. I was not impressed.
 
We're from a smaller suburban area-we went to Baltimore for the Miss USA pageant in April (my sister is Miss VT USA- :flower: ) and stayed at the Wyndham. We were surprised by the amount of homeless people and often times were approached for money. One evening (9pm) while walking back to the hotel from the Harbor area, one man followed us for about 4 blocks, going on & on-my DH is 6'4" 225 lbs. and DBIL is a bulky 5'10", but it didn't matter, this guy kept following us...my sister and I were so nervous-we also had homeless people wandering into the hotel lobby and they were also very present in the harbor area. All of that being said...it still was pretty nice (the restaurants are great-yummy crab cakes :sunny: )and we had fun

If you have AAA, check to see if there are any discounts-also look around for the free tourist phamplets-they may have coupons or offer other discounts.
 
we went to Baltimore for the Miss USA pageant in April (my sister is Miss VT USA- )
Wow- that is neat. Did you like the Hippodrome? I was just there on Sunday to see Lion King. (which was SOOOOO good BTW) That neighborhood is very sketchy right around the Hippo. They are trying to revitalize it but they have a long road ahead.
As far as the homeless in Baltimore- it is such a problem. My church which is in the Bolton Hill area has a good program, food kitchen, community center that serves anyone who comes to the door homeless included. It is so sad because so many homeless won't come to the center for help. They will refuse shelter even on sub-zero nights.
When we took our Disney Cruise I was reading up on the cruise boards about how Nassau is an unpleasant place- you will be bombarded by people trying to beg money or they will aggresively try to get you to buy something from them (cab servie, hair braiding) I was ready for the worst. IMO- it was nothing compared to Baltimore.
 
And I love it. I am only about an hour away and I love going down to the Harbor.

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Here are some must do's in my opinion. Go in and expolore the shops at Marketplace and Harborplace. THey have a fudge stand that makes fudge in front of you and they sing and do an act. It is not to be missed and then they give free samples yummy. They have many unique stores that are fun to browse.

I think the Science Center is a must do!!!! It is pricey but well worth it. I took DD in the spring and she is only 2.5 and she loved it. They have a section thst is just for toddlers on the top floor but I must admit that I loved playing with the water boats too. Here are some pictures from that experience.

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digging for fossils

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in a dinasour footprint

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the water play area

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playing in the interactive boat exhibit

Sorry to bore you with all the pics but I hope this helps. Also the paddleboats are great and I love going to Ft McHenry. You can also do tours on the hostoric ships that the harbor and that is fun too. There is a large grassy area that is great to play frisbee or have a picinic. Going to an o's game is fun too. I have to say the fans at Baltimore are great!! The park is beautiful!!!!! Here is a pic from the game on Mother's day.

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I hope you have a great time. Please PM me if you have any questions or want more advice. What can I say, I love my hometown!!!! :love:
 
Well, I'm so sorry to hear that. Baltimore is a BEAUTIFUL town. It easy to really be negative about a city, but all cities have some difficulties. Baltimore has some great places. Here are some to try:

Fells Point
Harbour Place
Cheese CAke Factory Restaurant
G & M Restaurant (the BEST Crab Cakes in the world and HUGE TOO!)
Hyatt Regency Harbour Place Happy Hour or Lunch, Very affordable
Philips Crab House
Marriott Harbour Place Drinks, Dinner
AQUARIAME
Paddle Boats
Little Italy (great restaurants)

I LOVE BALTIMORE!

brunette
 
CheapMom-The Hippodrome was beautiful and it was a really cool experience-we went to a party afterwards and hung out with all of the contestants.

The whole homeless thing made us wonder what programs were available and also we were surprised by the fact that the whole panhandling thing was very much tolerated.

But again, the Harbor area is beautiful and I'm glad we went! :flower:
 


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