Thanks for the love, Charm City!

Holy moly! It's been a long and fun 8 days since I last posted. Our vacation was awesome! We got to sleep in on Wednesday before packing and heading to the airport. We were delayed over an hour but the flight was short, putting us into BWI just in time to find that every bar and restaurant in the state had just closed.

On Thursday, we slept in - no surprise. Not purposely, but just because their 11am is our 8am. Oops. My sister-in-law-to-be, Alex, had to work, so Dan, my brother-in-law, David, and I ventured out to get a few things at Target and for lunch at a brewery. Thanks to The Twitter, I learned that my tattooed girl crush, Kat von D, was at Barnes & Noble in their town. That day. So needless to say, we went to see her. Sort of. I'm a big fan, but apparently not a big enough fan to actually stand in line to have her book (which I'm also not a big enough fan to have bought yet) signed. So my wonderful BIL, David, took pictures over the bookshelves for me. Here's Kat with a random fan, which I invite you to pretend for a moment is me:

After "meeting" Kat, we had lunch at this cute brewery in Ellicott City. The whole town was cute and the the trees are just gorgeous. It's not often - or ever, really - that we get to experience fall, so it was really cool to walk along and see leaves falling all around us. We spent the rest of the day hanging out and then went out for dinner.

Friday night was the big meet-up with Salt! I was wicked excited, people! She came over to David and Alex's and then I got to ride in her itty bitty smart car to the restaurant. She's so much fun. She's funny, sweet, charming, and nice touch of silly. It was awesome to finally get to meet her. Another knottie, who's pregnant with twins, met up with us as well.

On Saturday, we got up bright and early for our trip to the aquarium. The National Aquarium in Baltimore is really incredible, and I highly recommend it. David and Alex treated us to the whole experience, including the dolphin show and the 4D movie experience.

After a late lunch (mmmmm, craaaab cakes!) we went to find my other favorite celebrity, Chef Jeffrey Adam "Duff" Goldman at Charm City Cakes.

We went to the bar, Dizzy Izzie's, across the street so we could observe for a bit. While we were there, not less than 5 other geeky tourists got their picture taken in front of the building. We even saw the delivery guy load a cake for a delivery. Dan, David and Alex were not impressed.

Dan noticed that the bar had a sign stating they sell Charm City Cakes shirts, and he knew I'd want one. So I nervously (and maybe tipsilly, after 2 drinks) walked up to the bartender and asked for a "Charm Shitty Cakes shirt." Doh!! I got one though!

Sunday, we went for a walk in this beautiful park near David and Alex's home. Afterward, I got myself a good solid pre-flight nap. I should have known then I was starting to not feel so hot. The flight home was loooong. Dan and I thought we'd be smart and go to the very back of the plane and hope no one sat with us. Just our luck, the flight was completely full and I ended up crammed between a rather large woman on one side and Dan (who's not a small person either) for 5 and a half hours.

All in all, the trip was amazing and much-needed. We missed our pups and were happy to have them back home Monday night. Much thanks to my parents for the trip (graduation gift), to David and Alex for the hospitality, and to Salt for a fun night out. I'm back to the grind and not feeling so hot.