Starting Location: Arlington, NC
Destination: Basking Ridge, NJ
Dining Locations: The Rusty Scupper, Baltimore, MD; The Cheesecake Factory, Willow Grove, PA
Travel Time: 5 hours
Today was a beautiful day to travel and enjoy the east coast. We started our day with another delicious breakfast at the downtown Hilton. We then quickly packed up our gear and headed out to Baltimore, but not before Hunter took a couple of rides on the luggage cart in the room. Our first stop for the day was just an hour away in Baltimore, MD. We had lunch reservations at The Rusty Scupper so we parked and walked around for about an hour before our wonderful lunch. The ratio of away fans to home fans for the Orioles game was roughly 100: 1 but we managed to stay out of any skirmishes.
I could write a few paragraphs on our not-so-fabulous dining experience at The Rusty Scupper, but I will spare you my ranting. Lets just say it was the most expensive scrambled eggs and crappy service I have ever had the pleasure of partaking in.
After lunch we headed to the local children’s museum, Port Discovery. We thought it would be nice to give Hunter a chance to stretch his legs and run around. The museum was about a mile walk and provided many great sights and sounds. The weather was also beautiful which made it quite enjoyable.
Hunter had a blast running around the three floors of the museum picking up and putting down everything he laid his eyes on. He also enjoyed his multiple trips up and down the elevator. Nothing could have made him happier than banging on the drums in the drum room. You can see him in action in the photo to the right. He banged the drums until he had no more left in him and we departed back to the car. All in all we were happy with our stay in Baltimore except for maybe lunch, but we are over that now. (Patrick is over it. Emily is still bitter. – Emily)
We quickly headed out of Baltimore in order to beat the crowds at the conclusion of the Baltimore game. We had about a three hour drive to get to Jon and Kim’s, so we stopped at Willow Grove, PA, and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. I know many of you are saying “real adventurous you guys” but at that point we just wanted a dinner we could rely on. They did not disappoint. Hunter wanted to take the wheel for the last leg of the journey to Basking Ridge. In hindsight we would have been better off letting him drive. I am not sure how a 45 minute drive could be longer than 45 minutes but this one was. I think the GPS routed us through Canada to get to New Jersey, but the drive was beautiful so we didn’t complain, much.
Hunter could not have been happier to arrive to Jon and Kim’s in NJ to meet his new best friend, Rudy. Rudy is of course one of the most amazing dogs that I know, both in size and behavior. Needless to say, Hunter was in love. He ran around the house after Rudy panting “hah hah” every step of the way. Rudy seemed to be ok with the attention, so it was a win-win. Hunter proclaimed bed time at about 9:30 which was the earliest he has gone to bed on this trip. We stayed up and visited for a bit and then called it a night ourselves.
