Baltimore, MD

Our 7-year-old had been asking for weeks now to go on a train ride. We're not sure where that sudden interest came from, but we thought "why not?". So we decided to take Amtrak to Baltimore and spend Memorial Day weekend there in 2009. He was so excited when he found out that morning what we were doing. He stared out the window in fascination during the entire 2-hour ride. It was very cute to see. This was a nice little weekend getaway.

~ HOTEL: I used Priceline and bid for a hotel in the Inner Harbor area. I won the InterContinental Harbor Court at a great rate. The hotel's decor is not quite our style. We prefer modern. That's of course a personal preference. Last year, I stayed at the nearby Renaissance hotel which I much preferred. It was more our style and a bit more centrally located to the Inner Harbor. Overall, this hotel was just okay.

Check-in was an easy affair. We were able to get into our room early (1:30pm). We got the King bed we asked for. We did not request a specific view but we were given one with a nice view of the Inner Harbor. Our room was on the 8th floor (top floor). The walls are a little thin (we could hear a baby crying next door). Our son loved the small flat screen television in the bathroom.

We had breakfast at the hotel once. The dining room is small. There weren't that many people there but the waitresses seemed overwhelmed. We skipped the buffet and ordered from the menu. Our son had the scrambled eggs, my husband and I had eggs sunny side up. It took awhile for our food to come, but it was good. It took a couple of requests to get a refill of apple juice. Our bill came to $43. My husband gave $60. The waitress came back and said "Can I just give you $6 back? If not, I have to go downstairs to get change." My husband said "Um.. no.. I gave you $60." She apologized profusely. So we had to wait for the change. We were not impressed.

We also ordered room service once and a part of the order was wrong. Our son had the peanut butter and jelly sandwich with fries. He seemed to like it. My husband had the chicken sandwich (overcooked) and the chocolate mousse (just okay). I only had the cheesecake (very blah).

My husband and our son spent a couple of hours at the pool. It is not that big and if a lot of people are there, it could easily get crowded.

~ RESTAURANTS: For this trip, we wanted to eat at casual restaurants. We tried Amicci's (in Little Italy) and Regi's American Bistro (in Federal Hill).

At Amicci's ($8 cab ride from our hotel), my husband and I had the lasagna and our son had the penne with meat sauce. The food was very good and the portions were plentiful. I recommend going there on an empty stomach. Our waitress was lovely.

I was the only one who went to Regi's (a 5-block walk from our hotel). Our son passed out in the room and my husband stayed with him (they had room service later on). I unfortunately got to Regi's before they were serving dinner.. so I couldn't have a "real" meal. I settled on a cheeseburger and fries and it was very good. You can eat outside and people watch (one of my favorite things to do). The waitress there was also very nice.

 

We had lunch on our 1st day at J. Paul's in the Inner Harbor. Lunch was fine, nothing to write home about.

On our last morning, we had breakfast at Spoons in Federal Hill (a 10-block walk from our hotel). A front desk employee at our hotel made the suggestion. We really liked that little place. My husband had pancakes and our son had scrambled eggs. Take a look at my yummy spoon omelette! :-)

~ ACTIVITIES: We walked around the Inner Harbor (nice), checked out some of the ships (fun), and visited the aquarium (impressive - but yikes the lines to get in!). We had planned to go to Ft. McHenry and the Science Center but we didn't quite make it there.