Baltimore - Railway Museum

It was either the Maryland Zoo or the Railway Museum. The Railway Museum won because I don't think Sonya and Clara would survive hours under the hot sun.

We have never been to a railway museum before so we didn't know what to expect. There were so many gigantic trains to see even in the parking lot. That was our rental car in the photo above - Chevy Cobalt.

The one below was Clara's favorite train :)

Besides looking from the outside, there were many trains where we could actually "board" and see what it was like when they were operational.

Outside, there was a children's playground and a display of model trains moving down the tracks and through elaborate landscaping, tunnels, etc.

There was another one housed inside an old train carriage.

Bunks in the train for soldiers.

Sonya and Clara "operating" the train :)

The museum also offers a 20 minute train ride down the first railway tracks ever laid in America. There wasn't very much to see on the ride and the train was old but I guess it was the historic significance that mattered.

It was lunch time and I decided to try the Cross Street Market in Federal Hill. It was something like a smaller version of Faneuil Hall in Boston.

We had our lunch, enjoyed some ice-cream at the playground at Federal Hill and made it in time to attend Justin's presentation at the conference. Sonya is having a tough time dealing with mistakes. She gets very upset whenever she gets something wrong. She burst into tears the other day when she made a mistake in some math problems. In case you are wondering, I am not trying to get her ahead in maths. She found these Singapore kindergarten math worksheets and really wanted to enjoyed working on them. Anyways, Justin tried explaining to Sonya that everyone makes mistakes sometimes and that he made a "big giant mistake" in his work and he will have to admit that to the audience at the presentation. Sonya and Clara got so excited about it and insisted on attending the presentation just to hear him admit his mistake :)

After the "mistake", we saw from the hotel window that the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse was open (it had been closed every time we passed by it the past few days) and we quickly went over.

From the lighthouse, we saw a pirate ship full of kids trying to squirt water at an invading pirate boat. I think it was one of those summer camps / activities for kids. Sonya really wanted to try it :)

Justin joined us at the lighthouse a while later and we went for a ride in the dragon peddle boats.

We ended the day with a crab smashing dinner at Obrycki's Crab House in Fell's Point just to see how Americans ate their crabs. The staff laid these huge brown paper on the table after you ordered your crabs. Most people ordered at least a dozen. We thought we try 6 first and it was a good thing we did because we took a long time to go through the crabs. Sonya and Clara tried a little but found it a little too peppery and had something from the Children's Menu instead. As we ate, we were wondering why everyone around us were going through the crabs so much faster than us until we realized that unlike us Singaporeans, the Americans discard the legs and yummy gooey stuff near the top shell of the crabs.

You might never see Justin wearing a bib again :)