Friday I wasn't feeling so good, but Saturday I felt better. Good enough, in fact to drive into downtown Baltimore in an attempt to visit the Aquarium. Talk about a shock. In DC, nearly everything is free as far as public attractions go. Metro is convenient and inexpensive, and the place is generally visitor-friendly. Not so Baltimore. No metro service to/from relevant places. Traffic at noon on Saturday was horrendous. The lights aren't even vaguely synchronized to help traffic flow. Some red lights NEVER CHANGED, and people were just blowing through them once they got tired of waiting. Now these were not blinking red, they were solid red. Parking was difficult to find, difficult to enter, and $11 for just under 3 hrs.

Then once we got to the Aquarium, there was a line outside that was easily over 75' long. And a big sign saying tickets now selling for 1:45 pm. A quick glance at my watch showed me that it was 12:30pm. Add this to the long line that was barely moving, and we would be lucky to get inside before 2:30, and the place closes at 5pm. We bailed out of the line. Did I mention that the ticket price was $17.50 per adult? I had printed off coupons from the web site for $2.00 off each ticket, and we gave these tickets to another couple in the line, far in front of the line, where they were least likely to bail out. We ended up walking along the Inner Harbor, shopping a little, then we ate at the Capitol Brewery and went home.