We took a road trip to Baltimore, Maryland this past weekend.  Why, you ask?  Well, Ashley’s favorite band is The Laurie Berkner Band.  Not a day goes by when she doesn’t want to watch one of their DVDs (thanks a lot Jan ).  Or she will play The Laurie Berkner Band app on my phone.  She LOVES them!  Unfortunately, the closest they come to NC is Baltimore, MD.  So I bought tickets a while back and planned our trip!  I know it sounds crazy we drove all the way there for a children’s concert.  But hey, it was a good excuse for a road trip!  We’ve never been to Baltimore before, so it was a fun adventure.

We got there later than expected on Friday.  We ended up not leaving the house on time – Blake got sick, Jimmy scratched Ashley just above her eye, and to top it off, we had car trouble on this side of DC.  It was an exhausting day!  But we made it there safely (Ashley’s eye healed just fine and our dog sitter said Blake felt better the next day).  Phew!  Ashley is such a good traveler, too.  She was entertained by her iPad (watching Finding Nemo and playing apps) and any time we passed a big truck on the highway she would say “Whoa”.  It was really cute!

On Saturday, we went to the concert.  Our hotel was conveniently located to everything!  We stayed at the Inner Harbor so we could walk around downtown and walk to Pier 6 Pavilion, where the concert was.  Ashley liked walking around the city.  Oh, and did I mention there was a Starbucks right next door?  Perfect!  So we walked a couple blocks to the concert.  Ashley loved it!  She sang and danced and clapped.  She didn’t want to get in the aisle to dance though, so she danced in our lap.  And it was quite comical seeing all the kids there having fun.  Van took a hilarious video of one of the songs “Rocketship Run” where everyone held up their kids at the “blastoff” part.  It was really funny seeing all the babies pop up in the air at the same time!  Ashley thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m so glad we went.  We will definitely be going to another LBB concert in the future.  I was such a sap, too.  I cried when they came out on stage!  How silly is that?  I didn’t boo hoo cry, but tears did well up in my eyes.  I was just so happy for Ashley to see her favorite band!  We then went out to lunch in the harbor and walked back to our hotel for a much needed nap.  After our nap, we got ready for dinner.  We had dinner at Nick’s Fish House.  Oh my goodness, it was the best seafood I had ever eaten!  Maryland seafood is so much better than North Carolina.  It was lightly battered and just so good and fresh.  We ordered Ashley the “popcorn” shrimp but they weren’t small at all; they were huge!  I got steamed shrimp and potatoes that were to die for.  Van got a seafood platter with all sorts of goodies.  One of the best was the crab cakes.  We’re talking real crab here, none of that processed stuff.  If I could eat shrimp and crab cakes for breakfast, we would have gone back the next day!

And lastly, on Sunday, we went to the National Aquarium.  The highlight there was the dolphin show.  Ashley really enjoyed it.  Not sure if she remembered the dolphins from Sea World or not, but again she was enthralled by them.  And again, I was envious of the animal trainers in the water with the dolphins.  That was my childhood dream!

All in all, we had a wonderful family trip!  Ashley’s really at a fun age now.  She’s fun to travel with.  And I love watching her reaction to new things.  It’s so neat exposing her to different situations and people.  This year she’s been to Orlando, Asheville, and now Baltimore.  So she loves staying in hotels.  I can’t blame her though; I do too!

Here are some pictures from our trip.  Stay tuned…videos soon to follow!