Dollar Days

This weekend is known as Dollar Days in Baltimore. Many of their big tourist attractions only cost $1 to see. This included the National Aquarium, which normally runs about $35 per person in admission. We just couldn't pass it up. So, we loaded up at 7:45 this morning and drove for an hour to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.

It was a pretty rainy day, but we were prepared. We dropped Chris off at the main entrance to wait in line for tickets while we parked. (We were expecting crazy crowds). Thankfully we got there at the magic time. Not much of a line, and it moved along nicely. Even parking was easy.  The kids and I walked over to a McD's to wait and have some breakfast.

The Inner Harbor is a really fun area. Lots of piers with all kinds of restaurants and boats. The aquarium itself sat at the end of one pier. We were inside by 10am and immediately checked out a fun 4-D movie of The Polar Express. It had fun effects like smell, splashing water, and even snow. Afterwards, it was off to see all of the fish. Lots of fish, fish, fish. Grace even got bored of looking at fish by the end. 

They had all kinds of fish, turtles, jelly fish, sharks, rays, and even a big dolphin area. The dolphins didn't perform or anything, but it was fun to watch them play amongst themselves. We saw a few jumps and got to hear them "talking" with their trainer. 

The girls were mostly interested in checking out the souvenir area. They had each brought along their own money and were eager to spend it on a stuffed dolphin.

Across the water from the aquarium was this restaurant. We would have eaten there, but at $40/pp it wasn't really the place for our crowd. Maybe if they would have given us the family discount. 

Once we had some food in our bellies (Hard Rock Cafe), we did another $1 activity and toured the Historic Ships of Baltimore. We got to walk though this retired submarine, as well as the big Coast Guard Cutter ship that is known as the last survivor of Pearl Harbor. It was cool to be on a ship that actually participated in that major battle.

View of the rainy harbor from the sub.

Even though it was a wet and chilly day I'm so glad that we took a chance and explored a new city. It turned out to be so fun! I'm also soooooo glad that I didn't pay full price to visit!! We'll have to go back sometime to see the other sights.