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cheesehead mom
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| Posted: Sept 25 2008 at 9:57pm | IP Logged
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My hubby has a convention on the inner harbor and we are tagging along. We are taking the kids to Gettysburg, Mother Seton's, Manassas and staying in DC for 4 days on the way out. (A HUGE trip...have been planning for a year) After all those free sites in DC, it is hard to know what to spend money on in Baltimore. I was thinking we would splurge on the Aquarium and see the Basillica. Thought a trip to see the flaghouse made sense too. So any Baltimore experts want to chime in on "must see's", free parks around the inner harbor (I will have the 6 kids solo during the day), good eats? Thank you!
Laura
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SusanJ
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| Posted: Sept 26 2008 at 7:35am | IP Logged
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The Basilica is definitely worth a trip. We thought the aquarium was fine but SO expensive. If they hadn't had a really, really cool frog exhibit at the time we might have left a bit disappointed. When I was a kid we visited Ft. McHenry across the harbor which is probably free. That's where Francis Scott Key was when he wrote the Star-Spangled Banner (or, I guess he was on a boat near there). That was really fun.
Susan
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Mary Chris
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I am not much of a Baltimore expert, I have only been there a few times, to the aquarium and baseball games. I'd say the Baltimore Aquarium is comparable to the one in Chicago. There is a museum around the corner from there called Port Discovery, my kiddos had fun there.
We might be going for an overnight in Jan. I would like to see the Basilica, little Italy, walk around the inner harbor and my kiddos would love to go to Charm City Cakes (they are huge fans of Ace of Cakes on foodnetwork).
I'm not sure how far Annapolis is from Baltimore. There are free tours of the Naval Academy and Annapolis is just a cool place.
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mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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mom3aut1not
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| Posted: Sept 26 2008 at 10:46pm | IP Logged
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I like
The Maryland Science Center
Fort McHenry
Aquarium (although it's expensive)
Port Discovery
Walters Art Gallery
in Baltimore.
Annapolis is 23 miles from Baltimore according to one online reference.
In Christ,
Deborah
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cheesehead mom
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| Posted: Sept 26 2008 at 11:57pm | IP Logged
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Thanks Susan and Mary Chris. I think we will splurge on the aquarium, visit the Basillica and see how much energy I have left! Charm City Cakes does not give tours but that would be very fun!
Laura treking out from WI
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guitarnan
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| Posted: Sept 27 2008 at 6:03am | IP Logged
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Just my two cents...
The Aquarium is really worth the money (I'm with Mary Chris, it's as good as the Shedd and better than the Boston Aquarium). Get there a little before it opens (try to go on a weekday) so you can see things before it gets (more) crowded. Team up your older kids with the littles so the younger children don't run off ahead of you (it's kind of a one-way path, but kids tend to run down the ramps at top speed!). Remember to budget for parking $$ ($10-$20 per day).
If you're driving all the way to Manassas from Baltimore, and you're also going to Gettysburg, you might want to consider Antietam (Sharpsburg, MD) instead. It's farther away but much better. Once you've done Gettysburg, though, you have done the best Civil War battlefield in the area. Manassas is smaller and possibly not worth all that driving from where you'll be staying.
Port Discovery is a giant, three-floor indoor play area - it is wonderful for younger kids - might be a good fallback if the weather is bad. In good weather, Ft. McHenry is a nice place to visit - mostly all outdoors - and has some grassy space where kids can run.
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KellyJ
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| Posted: Oct 11 2008 at 8:10am | IP Logged
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Laura, I don't know if you've gone yet, but, in my experience, there isn't a whole lot that's free in Baltimore. Depending on your dates, there might be some free/reduced admission rates. For example, there is a Free Fall Baltimore event this month that inclueds free admission to various places as dictated by the individual museums. Port Discovery is not part of this, but was listed on the Free Fall Baltimore website in late summer (I haven't checked it since, but they told me they're not participating), but the B&O Railroad Museum does have free admission one Tuesday this month in conjunction with the event. If I remember correctly, that museum also has reduced admission price on a certain day(s) of the month regularly.
With the number of kids you'll have with you, you may find that your best bet is to buy memberships to each place you visit. Memberships may be less than individual passes. Sure, you're not likely to visit again within the year (though if you really like one place, you might visit more than once while you're in town), but it may be less, and often there are are affilate programs with other museums throughout the country.
Watch out though, as some of the places have changed their definition of family to limit the number of kids (extra charge for each additional child). The Aquarium used to include all minor children, but I think they changed it to be up to four children. If you get the membership there, you can just go up the stairs to the membership desk and by-pass the regular ticket lines to buy the membership and any additional tickets.
There is also a zoo in the city, though it's been a few years since we went to it, and it has been going through hard times financially, so I don't know what's there to see now.
Also, if you do go to the Basilica, you might stop at St. Alphonsus, which is quite close by. At both, daily Mass is offered at a number of time as well as confessions heard. You can go to the TLM at St. Alphonsus on Sundays if you're interested and in town. Also, across the street from the Basilica is the main branch of the city's library system. It has an extensive collection of books if you're interested in just sitting down with a book for a bit.
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KellyJ
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: Baltimore--What is worth $ to see
