Ahoy, me hearties!!

Before I begin this blog post- a quick recap of yesterday's earthquake:

House shaking, things rattling, sounds like a strong wind outside or something...

Kaylin: [in a very worried voice] Is this an earthquake??

Me: Noooooo... it's just the wind blowing against the house or something... we don't get earthquakes in MARYLAND... sheesh, silly kids....

I look out the window to see the sun shining and air is pretty calm... odd... The shaking was pretty intense in the beginning.... I hear things rattling through the baby monitor up in Evan's room- did he wake up and is fidgeting around with something?  What in the world would he be fidgeting with up in his crib??  I go up to check on him- some things are rattling on his bookcase... I attribute it to the ceiling fan blowing but it doesn't quite add up... hmmmmm....

Later, my mom calls... "Hey, just checking to make sure everyone is ok...."

Ummmm of course we're ok... why wouldn't we be??

"Did you feel the earthquake??"

Hey Kaylin, you were right!! It WAS an earthquake!!  WOW!!

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled blog post.... :)

Last Saturday we embarked on a super fun Pirate Cruise!!  I scored discount tickets off Living Social- $11 per person, so I figured it was definitely worth a shot!  We took the Family Adventure Cruise- first they dress you up in pirate vests and sashes, then give the kids tattoos and draw scars or moustaches on their faces.... oh and give out Pirate names. ;)  Our names were Jack knife Justin, Kannonfire Kaylin, and Adventurous Amy (somehow Daddy snuck out of the dressing up and naming part, sneaky guy... and Evan enjoyed some spoiling time at home with MomMom and PopPop).

Before boarding the ship- we purchased some bandanas, eyepatch for Kaylin and plastic sword for Justin :)

The ship's captain

All dressed up and ready to set sail!  Arrrrrrrrr!!!

The ship sets sail from Fells Point in Baltimore and took an hour long cruise around the harbor- the four pirates on board were quite entertaining with their little skits and had lots of games and songs for the kids to participate in- they had a BLAST. :)

Some sights around the harbor

Love this red lighthouse!!  You can read about it's history HERE.

USCGC Taney

 The tall building on the left in the photo below is the World Trade Center in Baltimore; the triangle-shaped building is the National Aquarium.  There are also several retired military ships (one shown above) and a submarine docked here for tours. :) Fun stuff at the Baltimore Inner Harbor!

 If you look closely in this photograph you can see the USS Torsk and LV116 Chesapeake.

U.S.S. Constellation

 Another shot of the Constellation with a water taxi driving by :)

Can you tell Mommy enjoyed the sightseeing?? :)

Meanwhile, the kids enjoyed using the water cannons to fight off an evil pirate!!  Kaylin and Justin are at the far cannon at the top, Mike standing behind them.

And then celebrating that the evil pirate was defeated!!  There was much dancing... even Daddy participated in the action. ;)

Yes, he'll prolly flip when he finds out I posted these. ;) hee hee shhhhhhhhhhhh

And after this... my camera battery died.... so here ends our tour! :) We highly HIGHLY recommend going- they also have adult BYOG cruises! (Bring your own grog ;) ).  Mike and I really aren't into that sort of thing, but we absolutely recommend the family cruise. :)  Super fun day!

***Oh, and since my camera battery died, I didn't have pics to remind me about stealing the pirate booty back from the evil pirate!!  The kids were all over that action. ;) They scored two pieces of treasure each. I think I snapped some other pics on my phone but haven't gotten that far yet.  I'll add them when I get the chance!***