The Last Great Adventure

As the Baysox season wound down, and we geared up for the playoffs, I was ecstatic to find out that my friend Mindy B was going to come visit. She came over Labor Day weekend, over the last weekend of the season.

The timing wound up being kind of brutal, I had gone from home stand to Minnesota for Draft Weekend back for home stand and then Mindy B arrived. I hadn't slept much in the last couple of weeks. Fortunately the office closed a couple hours early the day Mindy B flew in, so I took a nap in the office before going to pick her up at the airport.

I got a sweet tip for a back road to take into the airport, and it was super convenient. I tired to take that same road back to Bowie after picking up Mindy B. Problem was, I didn't know the roads name. So I did the only logical thing in the world, I guessed.

Turns out, I was less than correct.

When we reached Ellicott City, I revealed that we were lost, and it turns out we had gone a decent way across Maryland to the northwest. When we should have been heading to the southwest. Well, at least we kind of went west. Eventually we got back to Bowie, had a burrito, I gave Mindy the tour of the stadium and then we went to Baltimore and went to a couple of bars in the neighborhood. Oh yeah, and we stopped at the liquor store and loaded up too, just in case.

On Saturday we went to DC to do some sightseeing. I had to stop at work and grab something, so we were going to go to the metro station by my work. Except I kind of forgot the name of the city it was in, so we blew right by the exit. About 10 minutes later, I realized my mistake and we turned around and eventually got on the train.

After a stop at the National Archives (waaaaay overrated), we got back on the metro and went the wrong way. Only for a stop, but STILL. It was starting to get ridiculous. We went to the Spy Museum (wicked awesome) and wandered around on the street and the National Mall for a while. Then it was back on the metro, and out to Georgetown to meet a friend for dinner.

When we got off the train in Georgetown, we had the address for the place we were going to. But we didn't know which direction it was. We guessed, and after two blocks we realized we were going the wrong direction. Eventually we found the place, but we had turned a 10-12 block walk into a 20-some block walk.

After dinner, we went to see the monuments at night. We took a bus back to the metro and went back into D.C. We picked a path that took us to the Washington, WWII, Lincoln, Korean War, FDR and Jefferson Monuments. It was a pretty awesome tour. After Jefferson, we headed back for the metro to head home. All we had to do was walk until we hit the National Mall, turn right, go a few blocks, and we were there.

Well, we didn't intersect the Mall where I thought we would. Instead of hitting it in the middle somewhere, we hit it at the very end. I didn't know it was the mall (GD thing ends with a hill, I thought it was flat....forEVER) and we kept going straight. We wound up somewhere near the White House. Ugh.

So after another couple of wrong turns, we eventually wound up back at the metro. We had been walking for roughly 12 hours, it had been hot out, and we were SPENT. We both nodded off on the metro a couple of times (creeeeeeeeeeepy) and eventually got back to the car. I didn't know the most efficient way to get back to Baltimore from that particular metro, so I played it safe. I went the long way home, back to my work and up from there. No way to make a mistake.

Except there are two exits to Bowie from the interstate. I should have taken the second one, but it was late, I was tired, and without thinking I took the first exit. So now I'm trying to play it cool while I try to figure out where the hell we are. I find a familiar road and breath a little sigh of relief. We gas up, get back on track, and FINALLY make it back to Baltimore around 3, maybe 3:30 a.m.

So we do the only logical thing in the world, we have a beer and chat for a while. I forget when we finally went to bed, but it was 4 a.m., maybe 5.

We got up the next morning and went out for some seafood. I hate the stuff, but Mindy B likes it, so we went and got some steamed shrimp, a crab cake and some sushi. I like sushi, and I set a new personal best by eating three shrimp. We went from the seafood to a bar, and then off to the Aquarium (where Mindy B fed her lens cover to the stingrays). The aquarium was awesome, except for a bunch of jerk little kids running all over the place, and then we were off to a co-workers place for a party.

We didn't bring our booze with us to the party, so we had to pass my buddies place to pick up some beer. Then we missed it on the way back. Then I turned (against Mindy B's judgement) down a road. The wrong road, as it were. We walked up to a house with the right address, and the front door was open, but the living room didn't look right. So we circled around back, and I realized the people were speaking Spanish. This was NOT the right house.

So we went a couple of blocks over, and BAM, we were there. YAY!

After two games of beer pong at a VERY small party, we headed back to Baltimore. My sister was at an 80's party up the block, so after a quick change of clothes we went up there. After a beer, we headed back to the house. To discover that my roommate had drank most of a bottle of wine we bought. My natural intolerance for alcohol barony kicked in, but I played it cool. We split about a glass of wine between us, and then we had a couple more beers and then we went to sleep.

The next day I drug Mindy B up to Harrisburg PA for the Baysox final game of the regular season. I was recording a chunk of the game to create a better demo CD, and unfortunately the only weekend I could do it was the weekend Mindy B was in town. It had to be done.

We borrowed my sister's Miata, and it was a PERFECT day for a convertible. It was a great drive, a little under two hours, and as we pulled up to the stadium, I missed the turn for the parking lot. Then we got sucked into some one way streets and wound up with about an eight block detour.

Sigh.

Somehow, we made it back from Harrisburg, to the Maryland State Fair and back to Baltimore without getting lost again. YAY!

The next day, Mindy B came to work with me in the morning, and I dropped her off at the airport on my lunch break. I'm not going to lie, I was really sad to see her go. Mindy's visit was EPIC. It started with a burrito, we ran around two different states, we drank a lot in a number of different locations and just had a BLAST.

Funny end note for the story...my sister got me a Garmin for my birthday. I don't know why she thought I needed one...