Baltimore-You Rock! Part 2!

And the journey continues...
My first stop on the water taxi ride was Fort McHenry or Star Fort. Francis Scott Key watched Fort McHenry come under attack while on a ship a few miles away. He witnessed as the battle ended in the dawning of a new day and the American Flag was still flying over the fort. Watching this from a distance inspired him to write the "Star Spangled Banner"!

Me inside Fort McHenry!
Some cannons set up there. They are not original cannons from the time of the battle, but they are from the mid-1800s

I saw this boat on the harbor and had to take a picture!

This is my sad attempt at getting the ship and me in the same picture. Sorry my face is so close, but I literally tried 20 times to get me and the ship in the picture and this is the only one! I was having issues!

I got done at Fort McHenry and took the water taxi back to the Inner Harbor!

I went to the National Aquarium! The first thing I saw was the stingray tank. There were 3 or 4 divers in full scuba gear in there and this guy feeding the one turtle in the tank. (I think he's feeding him romaine lettuce) It was quite fascinating to watch actually!

Then I made my way up the stairs to look at all of the amazing sea creatures! I liked this little guy! I thought he was kind of cute :)

I know this is a dark picture but I had to put it up here, because if you look hard enough you can see my 4D glasses I wore for the movie I saw there. Yeah the movie was awesome! I jumped a few times at the special effects, but it was fun and it was funny seeing and hearing everyone else's reaction :)

I went to the Dolphin Show and the dolphins did some pretty spectacular tricks! They're beautiful creatures!

Some lady who worked at the aquarium stopped and asked if I wanted to learn more about this tank. I said sure and I'm glad I did. She told me it was only one of two tanks in the whole aquarium that had live coral in it. She said that it is really difficult and expensive to grow coral outside of the ocean, but that they were able to do it for two of the tanks. Look how colorful and beautiful it is!
Me in front of the tank with the live coral! (Yeah I'm kind of shiny in this picture. I'm sunburn and the light of the tank is bright compared to the surrounding area and the flash is on;)

A jellyfish! This was the last exhibit I saw and I'm so glad that I took the time to see it, although I didn't think I had enough time.

Upsidedown jellyfish! They're so beautiful!

It's glowing!

This is me on the train home! It was a long and eventful day! It was awesome! I'm so glad I went! Baltimore-You Rock!

Baltimore-You Rock!

I went to Baltimore on Monday! And it was awesome! I got there via metro and MARC train. It provided quite the show of beautifulness :) I saw this church down one of the streets and decided to get closer.

It's super tall!
It has some pretty awesome detail!

On my way to the first church, I ran into this one. I think it's beautiful and I really like the green tint! A plaque on this church said that Francis Scott Key (the man who wrote the "Star Spangled Banner) died on the site of this building.

And the awesome red door!

I slowly made my way to the Inner Harbor where I bought a ticket for the water taxi! I really liked the water taxi! The ticket gave me unlimited use for the boats the whole day!

I like this red building! I have no idea what it is, but it's cool looking!

Some huge ships docked on the harbor. I have no idea what they're used for now or if they are even used at all.

A view of the city from the boat. I like the dock with the plants growing on it :)

Another cool view!

I believe this is an Ukrainian Orthodox Church! So of course I had to take a picture of it!
More pictures to be posted soon...

Cashiers of Safezance

I am the very model of a modern Safeway cashier,
I've information vegetable, animal, and cereal,
I know the codes of basil, and I quote the price of miracle whip,
From bakery to produce, in order alphabetical;
I'm very well acquainted too with cans that are cylindrical,
I understand produce names, both the simple and atypical,
About Angelina Jolie I'm teeming with a lot o' news -
With many cheerful facts about the state of her uterus...

Why I Like Working at Safeway

So maybe the pay isn't great and my feet get sore, but here are some reasons I like working at Safeway:

1. The small children. What can I say? They love me. I check out the candies and goodies that their parents are bribing them with and get to hand it straight to their eager hands. I'm pretty sure they think I'm the one giving it to them and they reward me with smiles, high fives, and licks of their lollipops.

2. The insider information on good deals. Milk, cereal, and pickles are all good deals this week and people think I'm cool because I know this.

3. The apples. Red, green, yellow....apples are smooth and round and shiny. I determine whether an order is good or not by the number of apples on the conveyor belt.

4. The uniforms. Black and gray. What's not to love? The black slims my hips and thighs and the gray offsets the black with a cheerful, yet subdued tone.

5. The commute. 10-15 minute walk, all the while talking on the phone. Sure beats Metro riding any day!

6. The gossip. I hear good gossip from total strangers every day AND get to keep up with all the celebrities as well by reading magazine covers all day. I could practically write a book on Sandra Bullock now.

7. The number retention. Ask me the code numbers for any item of produce and I can rattle off the four digit code in 1.6 seconds. I figure I have approximately 754 strings of numbers memorized now. I'm sure that this kind of skill will prove highly useful to me when I am a spy.

8. The cute guys. I not only get to ogle over them, but I also get to see what they buy.

I Want to be a Billionaire so Frickin' Bad!

"Buy all of the things I never had. I want to be on the cover of Forbes Magazine smiling next to Oprah and the Queen. Every time I close my eyes, I see my name in shining lights... The world better prepare for when I'm a billionaire." Travis McCoy

I just thought you would get a kick out of the lyrics to this song. I think it's humorous and I keep on listening to it :)

Old Town Alexandria!

Today was a lovely day! I had the day off and decided to go to Old Town Alexandria via the metro. I loved it! I walked towards the waterfront from King St. metro and window shopped, (I did go in a few stores, though.) Here are most of my photos from today! Enjoy!

I really like this door! It was part of a church.

This was my first destination! It's called the Lyceum. It was built in 1839. It first started as an educational building, a place to study and to do scientific experiments. In later years, it was used as a hospital, a private residence, and an office building (not at the same time;). Honestly I found this little museum a bit boring. There were two small exhibits, but nothing exciting, in my opinion.

My next stop was the Torpedo Factory! I loved this place! It was awesome! It was first used to build torpedoes during WWI and WWII. Now it is an art studio. A bunch of different artists, photographers, weavers, jewelry makers, potters etc. have their studios here. They have all their supplies they need for their art and you can watch them as they work. They all have little exhibits showcasing their work. Any of the pieces are for sale. And it was just plain awesome!

After the awesome Torpedo Factory. I sat by the water and ate my small lunch and enjoyed the beautiful view! I contemplated going on a water taxi ride, but decided against it.

I made my way down Cameron St. away from the waterfront to the Carlyle House! I decided to take a tour. It cost a few dollars and it was worth it. I first watched a short video about John Carlyle, the original owner and builder of the house. (He was a rich merchant from England, who was one of the founders of Alexandria. He came to America in 1741. You can click here to learn more about this cool man:) A lady came in and gave me a tour of the house. I was the only one on the tour. It was a little weird, but I'm glad that I did the tour. It was very informational.

This is the full view of the house without me in it :) The house has been restored. Most of the items inside the house are duplicates, but there are still a few original things from the time of John Carlyle. It's beautiful on the inside and the outside!

After the Carlyle House, I was getting tired. But I remembered seeing this on my way to the waterfront and I decided I must stop there on my way home:) And I did.


These were the cupcakes. They were yummy! Honestly I think the frosting was the best part, though :) I don't even remember what kinds they were, but they were good!

I don't know why but I really liked this pillar of spiralness!


I didn't go here today, but this is the George Washington Masonic Memorial as seen from the King St. Metro stop. This will have to be a field trip for another day:)

This is me on the metro on my way home! It was a tiring, but an awesome and educational day!

Gratitude Journal!

So recently as most of you have probably noticed, I have had a bad attitude. I've realized this and I want to change it. But I don't know how to go about doing that exactly. I've been praying for help to change my attitude. I realize that it will not happen all at once and that I must work for it. I've heard about people keeping gratitude journals and Mom mentioned it to me one day. I decided that I should start one. One day I was at Michael's craft store and found a cute, little notebook for $1 to use as my gratitude journal.

I've been writing in it everyday for ten days now. Although I must say that I still have a bad attitude, I have definitely started noticing little things that happen throughout the day that I think "oh I should put that in my gratitude journal at the end of the day." Although some days have been really hard, I still find at least one thing that I can write about at the end of the day. I like the idea.

I do realize that I must do more than what I am doing to truly change my attitude, but it's a good start for me. Thanks for reading!