Mary had a little land, but fortunately for us, it wasn’t white as snow while we were there! Maryland is small enough that we were able to see the coast, Baltimore, and the Patuxent River Naval Base. A friend on Facebook graciously set up a speaking opportunity for us about organ donation at a Cub Scout pack meeting on the Naval base. We performed a superhero skit to explain to the scouts how being an organ donor is like being a superhero, and Chloe went all out getting a Wonder Woman costume and dressing her part. Usually a Donor Awareness Patch is awarded the first time a scout is successful in getting an adult to become an organ donor. We hope that we not only entertained the scouts but also assisted them in earning their Donor Awareness Patch.
Here are some highlights from our week in Maryland:
Best Meal: Pasta Mista in the Baltimore suburb of Timonium. Their tomato basil bisque was excellent, my favorite soup on the trip! It had tortellini and red pepper flakes for a bit of a kick. I actually asked for the recipe - it was that good, but that’s a family secret. Best of all, it was a real pleaser for all of us, which is highly unusual that a restaurant is a home run for all four of us. Here Levi discovered ranch dressing on a pizza and thought it was a match made in heaven, on the level of peanut butter and jelly for most kids.
Worst Meal: Fractured Prune, a donut shop in Ocean City. I wrote in Delaware's blog how disappointed we were that we couldn’t eat at Fractured Prune, so we were excited to find one open in Ocean City. For the first time, not only on the trip but probably in our children’s lives, we actually went out for donuts for breakfast! You’d think this would be the best meal in Maryland, especially since they have different glaze flavors, like caramel, peanut butter, chocolate…oh my! Unfortunately, we were disappointed in the donuts themselves. Even warm, the cake donut didn’t compare to Krispy Kreme’s warm, melty goodness. In addition, the flavors of the cake donut with the glaze and toppings just didn’t gel together for us.
Biggest Surprise: The horses really are wild! We went to Assateague Island National Seashore to see the infamous wild horses. As usual, we made our first stop at the visitor’s center. Newly constructed, it has a touch tank where the kids were happy to stay all day. Eventually, we pulled them away from the crabs and drug them to the movie. We learned the horses receive no food, water, or even healthcare, other than a birth control vaccination. In order to control the horse population, the park ranger shoots the mare in the rump with an injection to allow her to birth only once in her lifetime.
Biggest Disappointment: Not being able to stay longer on the beach in Ocean City!
Biggest Twinge of Homesickness: Nothing. We had gotten a free upgrade to a corner suite on the top floor of the ocean front hotel - and was it nice…Off-season has its perks! How could we be homesick falling asleep while listening to the sound of the waves?!?
Worst Closure: The flight simulators at Patuxent River Naval Air Museum. Unfortunately, the simulators were only open on the weekends. Levi was pretty bummed. Chloe, however, was excited just to be able to sit in an airplane since she’s the only one of us that qualified by being lighter than 100 pounds.
Most Beautiful Spot: Sunrise at Ocean City. We wanted to awaken in time for sunrise, so I set my alarm; however, I awoke with a startle, thinking we had missed the sunrise because it was so light in our room. Discovering we hadn’t missed it, it was just very bright already, we sat on the balcony enjoying the beautiful sunrise. Once again, I couldn’t stop taking pictures. Don’t worry, though, I didn’t put them ALL on the website.
Best Tour: Patuxent River Naval Air Station. We were so thankful to receive a tour! We were able to see where they test new planes and even go inside a plane from the 50’s, which was actually used in Vietnam - and they still fly it! Seriously, it looked like the airplanes we see in museums, but they still use this one. How scary is that? While we were inside the cockpit, the flight engineer came in for a preflight so that they could take it up and refuel a plane in mid-air.
Biggest Revelation: In the Navy they still fly planes used in Vietnam?!? We can’t cut anymore Defense spending because they need planes that aren’t like the ones displayed in museums!
Best Tourist Spot: Inner Harbor, Baltimore. They’ve done a commendable job of making the Inner Harbor a great place to eat, shop, sight-see, and relax. We walked around, and Levi picked the food court for lunch. We sat outside overlooking the harbor while eating, so I couldn’t complain.
Best Memory: Fort McHenry, where the battle took place that inspired the Star Spangled Banner. Much to our surprise, it wasn’t a Revolutionary War battle but rather the War of 1812: a war we almost lost. Washington, DC was already captured when the battle at Fort McHenry took place.
Francis Scott Key was watching the battle from onboard a truce boat and later wrote about it. It was pretty moving when the 15 minute movie in the Visitor’s Center was over, and the curtains parted, displaying the American flag waving in the breeze while the Star Spangled Banner blared from the speakers. A true American moment.
Funniest Memory: We rented a surrey (4 person bike) to ride down the Ocean City boardwalk. Stopping for some Thrasher’s infamous French fries, I’m sure we consumed more calories than we burned! Levi was quite a ham by hopping off the surrey to jog alongside it and hand me a fry - if that’s any indication of how slow we were going and how few calories we were burning.
Worst Memory: Almost getting in an accident on the interstate near Baltimore. A car just stopped in the left hand lane. The car behind him swerved into my lane to avoid him. Luckily, I had room to swerve on the shoulder. It was our closest near collision on the trip, and it had my heart racing. I’m not sure if it caused a pile-up or not, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t.
Best Drive: The one in Assateague Island National Seashore. I prayed God would let us see wild horses. We were barely over the bridge onto the island when we saw two horses in the marsh. We kept driving and saw two more right beside the road, feeding on the grass. It was reminiscent of Yellowstone with the buffalo right there on the side of the road, stopping traffic in both directions.
Chloe had gotten a 100% on a quiz and turned in her reward to ride in the front seat all that day. Since she was in the passenger seat, she was in charge of taking pictures. Most of her pictures focused on getting a pile of horse poo in the shot. Since it was literally all over the park, it wasn’t too difficult.
Worst Drive: The one to Baltimore where we almost were in an accident on the highway as I mentioned in my “Worst Memory.” In addition, we saw multiple highway signs that said to report suspicious terrorist activity to a hotline. How much scarier can the drive get?!?
My MD Hike: Ocean City Boardwalk. It’s not every day that we Midwesterners get to walk on a beach boardwalk, so it was a fun “hike” for me.
What We Did Miss: Crab pretzel from Nick’s, Annapolis, the Naval Academy, Baltimore Aquarium, Babe Ruth Museum, Camden Yard, and much more all recommended to us.
In Summary: Maryland, you may have a little land, but we thoroughly enjoyed our week there and hope your Cub Scouts are still signing up organ donors!
-The Mom
for their famous grilled cheese. My problem with the grilled cheese became how much stuff they added to the grilled cheese. When you eat a grilled cheese, you should taste grilled bread and cheese, not bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, BBQ sauce, or onions. It should have cheese and bread, nothing else. In my opinion, after we compared the sandwiches, Pop Shop should have won instead of Bobby Flay. 
,” the guide molded a musket ball from melted lead - except our tour guide was no Mel Gibson. When the older gentleman finished making the musket ball, he passed it around for everyone to examine. Levi was the last of the line. When he went to return it, the guide said that he could keep it. (I had read on TripAdvisor that they always give it away to someone on the tour.) That was really cool, except it caused problems in the Greiner family as to whose musket ball it was. Is it Levi’s because the man said he could keep it? Is it Chloe’s because she prodded Levi to return it? Is it the family’s musket ball? For days, the musket ball caused grief amongst the children. I almost wish we hadn’t received it. My only solution was to cut the baby, er ball, in half…