On Christmas Eve this year, my Dad surprised my Brothers and me with a trip to Baltimore, Maryland. I mean, what better way to spend New Years weekend than walking the city streets of beautiful Baltimore? Now, I’ve never been to Baltimore so I had no clue what to expect. Would it be more like Boston or Hollywood? Will I even enjoy that city? Well, I did more than anything.

Our journey started off with an eight-hour ride on a train. For my Brothers, the trip didn’t feel like a long journey; but for me, it felt more like a whole day sitting in a seat doing nothing but watch YouTube videos on conspiracy theories. But I can’t complain because I love YouTube and I love conspiracy videos. But let me just tell you this: When you are on a train ride and the cafe cart employee asks if you want your sandwich heated, say yes. One of my brothers and I went to get a sandwich, and the lady asked if wanted the sandwich heated and we both said no. When we got back to our semi cushioned seats, I took a bite of the turkey and brie and found the meat and cheese was almost fully frozen. To prove my point to my Dad, I slammed the turkey against the tray, and without a doubt, the turkey stayed in its frozen form. But, like the champ I am, I ate three-quarters of the sandwich before realizing it probably isn’t the best idea to eat a frozen sandwich. When we arrived in Baltimore, it was around nine in the night.

The next day came in seconds. I woke up in my hotel bed to the sound of my brothers and Dad talking about the long and eventful day ahead of us. I was so excited at this point so I hopped out of bed and got ready. Here is what we did throughout the day.

First off we went to breakfast. The hotel had a restaurant with a name I don’t remember, so we ate the buffet there. It was really good as far as hotel food goes.

Then we hopped right into the activities and went to the Baltimore aquarium. I was highly impressed with the whole set up and would go there again if the opportunity arose. We saw jellyfish, sharks, fish of many sizes, and my favorite thing of all, the dolphins. The Dolphins did an occasional show at the aquarium, and we got to sit down and witness the creatures do flips, tricks and just swim. They are such amazing animals when you see them up close and personal.

After that, we had the opportunity to go into a real old time ship and submarine. Now I’ve never been in a submarine (that I remember of) so this was really exciting for me. Inside the enormous submarine was all the things you would normally see. But it was so cool. We got to see where the captain ate slept and coordinated where to go, where the crew ate and all the cool torpedoes and gadgets. In the ship, my favorite part was the operating room where they would do surgical operations on the crew. It is crazy to think they only used knives and a saw for amputation!

Later that night we went ice skating at Baltimore’s beautiful outdoor skating rink. We all spend at least an hour skating and had so much fun in the process. Though, I am not the best when it comes to skating. I made no falls this time, which is progress, but I can not go fast or do any tricks. Music blasted in the background which made skating a great time to unwind and relax. Then the time came to go to sleep for the next day.

The morning came easily and calmly. We ate breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel and made our way outside for a walk. We walked all the way to Federal Hill and back. We concluded our journey in Baltimore with an Uber ride to the train station.

Now, here I am. Sitting on the train, almost home, remembering all the great memories I’ve made in Baltimore.