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Maryland: Baltimore, Family Vacations - Dolpin Shows, Harbor Discoveries, and Dragon Boats.  The city of Baltimore is ideal for exploring with children. World-class museums, fun eateries and friendly people, plus transportation that is easy to use combine to make a stress free city adventure. From the National Aquarium and the Port of Discovery to the Chanel ducks (not feathered) and the U.S.S. Constellation, discoveries are waiting to be made. The city is filled with fun stuff.
Ride on a duck. Called the Baltimore Adventure this is an energizing way to see the city. Guests are invited to blow whistles and just have fun making duck noises while on the tour. Sometimes that makes it hard to hear the tour director but it is one way to get tour of both the Inner Harbor and a city tour of Baltimore. It is a good way to start a visit to Baltimore with kids. The tours take about 80 minutes and depart from the intersection of Light Street and Conway in the Inner Harbor. (Discovery Channel DUCKS.1 (410) 727-DUCK or www.baltimoreducks.com)
See all the fishes. This place is located in the Inner Harbor at Pier 3 a ten-minute fast paced walk from the hotel. If a water taxi is ready to leave to Pier 3, it will save the ten minutes. Not to be missed is the dolphin show. The aquarium is one of the best in the world because it conducts rehabilitation programs and offers a variety of ways for visitors to learn about the residents that inhabit the waters of this planet. Of special interest to families the breakfast with the dolphins or breakfast with the sharks. Visitors join marine life trainers and care takers for a close-up look at a dolphin or sharks. A trainer will answer your questions after the presentation. Discovery: The aquarium also offers a unique behind the scene tour. Guests navigate around pipes, hoses, tanks, and filters, Conservation Education staff will explain the intricacies of caring for the Aquarium's more than 11,000 animals. Time necessary to see the aquarium is at least two hours. Arrive early, before 10 AM in the summer. (National Aquarium Baltimore. Pier # 3, 501 East Pratt Street. 1 (410) 576-3800 or www.aqua.org)
Make discoveries with the kids. State of the art, clever, innovative and just plain fun for families. This exceptional museum ranks among the top five children's museums in the USA and holds the number 12 spot in the world. This is the place to let the kids go crazy. It is definitely a kid-friendly museum with plenty of interaction and many places for adults to sit and observe what it means to be a child in discovery mode. Outside of the museum is a tethered hot air balloon. Visitors may take a tethered ride to view the city from about 450 feet in the air. (Port Discovery-The Kid-Powered Museum. 35 Market Place. 1 (410) 727-8120 or www.portdiscovery.org)
Space out. A terrific place for all ages, this center could be a full day outing for a family. Starting with the first floor where kids become engaged in the labyrinth game. The SpaceLink Center provides oodles of ways to involve museum visitors and ways to stay connected to news once they return to their homes or schools. The space station center has a rocket ship where kids may lay/sit down to experience what it would be like going into space. Not to be missed: BodyLink, part of the Science Center's education mission, focuses on three core subjects: Health and the Human Body; Space; and Earth Sciences. Another great exhibit is TerraLink, an Earth Sciences Center, which has a hands-on tornado vortex simulator. (Maryland Science Center. 601 Light Street. 1 (410) 685-2370 or www.mdsci.org)
Walk on a deck. Seeing the real thing beats the TV version every time and The USS Constellation Museum offers "hands-on" activities and demonstrations daily. They also have hand held tapes recorders are available for tours. The tapes describe what is at each of the stations on the ship. Children ten years and older can take part in powder monkeys living history experience.  They learn about the lives of the young boys who served as powder monkeys. In the hands-on tour, young "recruits" will find out how lads from eleven to eighteen lived in Mr. Lincoln's Navy: how they dressed, ate, where they slept and lived, and some of the things they did on and off duty each day. (U.S.S. Constellation. Pier 1, 301 E. Pratt Street or 1 (410) 539-1797 www.constellation.org)
Get in the zone. This is a great place for older children especially teens. Parents with children under the age of 18 need to purchase a card that allows their child to play games of all kind. Motor racing, basketball shooting, basically every type of sports game you could imagine. Parents can hang out in the attached bar to watch sports on TV. FYI: Next to ESPN Zone is a super-sized Borders Bookstore. (ESPN Zone. 601 E. Pratt St. 1 (410) 685-ESPN (3776) or espn.go.com)
Books for the Trip
By the Dawn's Early Light: The Story of the Star-Spangled Banner. By Steven Kroll & Dan Andreasen. Scholastic; Reprint edition (July 1, 2000). The story of Francis Scott Key and how he came to write the words for the national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner."
Behind the Attic Wall. by Sylvia Cassedy, Harper Trophy 1985. A book of suspense, satire and fantasy, it is a well-suited trip companion to any teen going to Baltimore. A story about 12-year-old Maggie, a boarding school brat that winds up in expelled from school and with her aunts in the house of her ancestors. Secrets, whispering and magic that transforms.
For fun, kid-friendly Baltimore Hotels check out Uptake.com. They search 5000 travel sites...so you don't have to!
Article compiled by FTF for Travel Communications, Inc. Images courtesy of FTF. Copyright 2009.
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