Grand Prix of Baltimore 2013

The summer ended with a bang, some crashes, and a lot of LOUD roars. I am by no means a racing fan — all I know about racing, I learned from Vin Diesel — but watching cars race through the city of Baltimore sounded like a fun way to end the summer, so we headed up 95 for a few adrenaline-filled days of fast cars and and fast food. The Grand Prix of Baltimore took over the streets surrounding the Inner Harbor, and we had front row seats in our hotel. This article may not be too pop-culture specific, but it will have its moments, so bear with me as I flip through some slides of what I did on my summer vacation…

You really couldn’t go ten feet without spotting some aspect of the race around the Inner harbor. This was the sight that greeted us as we arrived at the hotel.

This was our view out of the two walls of windows in our room at the Hyatt. We sat and cheered in the air conditioned comfort of the hotel and didn’t even need to wear our earplugs. It was awesome, but those 8:00AM wakeup races were a little startling that first day. Did I mention that these cars are loud?

Oooh, it’s McDreamy! Grey’s Anatomy star, Patrick Dempsey, raced this weekend, but he didn’t perform nearly as well as he does on TV.

The kids were thrilled to see Turbo as an official sponsor of the race. I’m glad we went to see the movie earlier this summer — lump that in with Lightning McQueen’s tutelage, and my kids now know more about racing than me!

NanananananananaBatman! The 1966 Batmobile will always be my favorite. This beauty was just sitting in a tent, asking me to sneak her out when no one was looking.

I wonder if I could get this dashboard installed in the minivan.

The National Aquarium is always on the top of our list of places to visit in Baltimore. The new Black Tip Reef exhibit is a James Bond movie just waiting to be made.

I wanted to.

When I become an evil villain mastermind, this is going to be my lair.

We didn’t eat at the Hard Rock Cafe this time around, but I do love that building, and it looks even better at night time.

The Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum  is a lot of fun.

This giant Bumblebee Transformer greets visitors to the museum. It’s got to be at least 12 feet tall.

We ate at this place a LOT. Bubba Gump’s is a fun, casual restaurant that goes over the top with the Bubba Gump nostalgia. My mama always says, stupid is as stupid does.

I was hoping to visit Geppi’s Entertainment Museum which is in this building next to Camden Yards, but there were so many barricades, I couldn’t find a way in and I think it was closed anyway. Bummed — I love that place.

Overall, we had an amazing weekend and Baltimore grows on me more and more with each visit. It’s a great place to take the family and there’s always something fun going on at the Inner Harbor. I might even be going back next weekend for the Baltimore Comic-Con. Anyone else planning on being there next weekend?