Here’s a juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern – Jizo, the Japanese Buddha who watches over travelers, and Jill, our GPS. Either way, I wanted to be sure we were covered.
Unfortunately, Jill nearly let us down at the very end, on our final leg of the trip from the Townson mall to the hotel. Seems that while Google says the hotel is in Baltimore, and the hotel itself is called the Fairfield Inn at White Marsh, Jill would only show us the way here after we told her that the hotel is in Nottingham!
But other than that, the trip was blissfully uneventfull. Left this morning just at 11 – would have been 10:30 if the server hadn’t decided to puke at the last minute, so Chris had to wait and reboot it. The drive was uneventful – made stops at Corning for a quick lunch and then a super-quick stretching break just north of Harrisburg.
And then through York, right past the house where we lived when Stephen was born. We’ve driven through once before, on the way to Maryland for the renn faire there, and going past that North George exit is tough. You can just see the house at the top of the hill from the 83, just a glimpse – and that’s all I really want to see.
Made our obligatory stop to Build a Bear once we hit the Baltimore area – and of course didn’t escape without two new friends (only one of which is a bear).
Finally made it to the hotel, and met up with our old and dear friend George, who works in DC and lives about an hour away from where we are. We headed over to the Red Brick Station, a great local brew pub and eatery in the middle of the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen – a mall built like a fake main street. It looked like “downtown” NT, except with a Regal multiplex instead of our single screen, and a Starschmucks instead of a bar. And no tattoo parlors, or cheap apartments above the stores.
But the beer, the food, and the company were all top notch. ^_^
So, then back to the hotel, where we hung out in the lobby with George for a bit before he had to head back home, and now we’re just settling in for the night.
Tomorrow the plan is to get up, eat breakfast, maybe hit the pool for a bit so the kids can try out their snorkel sets, and then……11:30 the hotel’s shuttle will take us to the port!
Tags: Baltimore, Build a Bear, drive, Fairfield Inn White Marsh, Jill, Jizo, PA, York
