2013 Vacation - Baltimore

Erik and I had the opportunity to stay in Baltimore for a couple of days.  Thursday we had planned to do some sight seeing but it was raining when we woke up.  It quickly passed and we were able to go to the Inner Harbor.

A cool fountain right down from our hotel.

 The USS Constitution....biggest ship docked at the Inner Harbor.

 Us with the ship in the background.

 Reminded me of first dam.

 The Baltimore skyline.  Our hotel was by the gold topped building.

 The Seadog....the speedboat the we took out to the Key Bridge.  WompWomp....we should have just taken a taxi and explore Ft. McHenry.

 My love and I waiting for the Seadog to take off.

 Mr. Navy

 A part of the World Trade Center that came down in the attack.

 The Electrical Plant with Hard Rock Cafe in it.

 Baltimore

 Domino Sugar....biggest neon sign on the East Coast.  The dot on the "i" is supposedly like 6 feet tall.

 The cranes to get the sugar off the boats.

 Two docked Navy ships.  Erik was so laughing at the tour guide because he said these ships went 47 knots.....when in all actuality they only go at most 25.

 Baltimore

 A place where there are a lot of concerts.

 A historic lighthouse.

 Right after we got off the boat it started pouring.  We decided to go to Bubba Gumps and get something to eat.  This is what it looked like from our table.

 Bubba Gumps

 The stadium where Baltimore plays baseball.

2013 Vacation - Eastern Shore

On Wednesday we headed to the Baltimore/DC area after dropping Erik's mom off at the airport.  We took the very scenic route there....through Eastern Shore.  It was such a good relaxing drive.  I love road trips with my handsome husband.  It's so good to talk and see new things with him.  LOVE him.

 See - super handsome!  Breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

 Virginia Beach where I got splashed on by that stinky water behind me.

 Still Virginia Beach in the background.

 Chesapeake Bay

 Getting ready to go over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel.  LOVE IT!!!  Two tunnels and a super long bridge over the bay.  Just getting ready to hit the Eastern Shore.

 Looking out over the Atlantic.

 Still can't believe that we got to see to raceways on our trip.  This is Dover International Speedway and we are standing in the winners circle.

 The best place to sit at the raceway.....right over the track.  There is also a corner there so there is lots of action if you sit there.

 Turn 1 and 2

 Erik became the master of self-portraits.  Thanks goodness for his long arms.

 We knew that Dover speedway had this but we couldn't find it anywhere.  As we were leaving, Erik said, "Let's go this way" and look what we found.

 Monster Mile baby!!!!

 Erik wanted to find these fire towers on the Eastern Shore.  They were on the beach in Delaware.  They were so cool.  The US used them during World War II to pinpoint where ships were so we could drop bombs on them.  We would have loved to go up inside them but the doors were cemented over.

 Perspective of how tall they were.

 Kind of a cool shot.

 Testing out the Atlantic ocean in Delaware.  Super soft sand, less people, not stinky water, but cold water.

 LOVE this man!

 Another fire tower that we couldn't figure out how to get over to.

 Evening in the country on our scenic drive.

 A cool bridge we went over before we headed into Baltimore.

Same bridge.

2013 Vacation - Norfolk

The reason we went - Amanda's graduation (Monday, June 10, 2013).

 Amanda and Erik right before graduation started.

 Amanda walking across the stage in her cowgirl boots.  She was supposed to walk across sooner, but she left her name card on her chair and had to run back to get it.

 Erik and Leigha after a long day of playing.

 Zander, Leigha, Mom Brandenburg and Jennifer

 Grandma Elaine, Amanda and Erika.  Still can't believe how tall these girls are.

 Proud dad with his daughters!

 This is basically what all the freeways look like back there.  You need to know where you are going because you just can't say that you will look for Wal-mart because you can't see anything from the freeway.

 My favorite thing to do in Norfolk....the Hampton Bridge tunnel.  The Chesapeake Bay is what you can see to the right.

The naval base from the road.