Pen station is way up town. A good 35 to 40 minute drive at least. It is in the bowels of Madison square garden and many subways converge as well as Amtrak. There is a waiting area cordoned off for ticketed passengers in the center area. Around the outside of the circular concourse are lots of tourist shops to spend money. We are an hour early and there is no security check for luggage so I take the boys browsing the shops. Tom sits with the luggage content now that we are here and not late. We buy snacks. The shirts that say I heart New York on the street are only $3. At Pen station they are $12. But we have to get them, its our last chance this trip. We are now intrepid tourists and liking spending our money on souvenirs. The boys have had a blast.
I have been giving them $20 a day to spend, then I supplement if I think the item they want is really cool also. Half the souvenir T-shirts are presents I purchased for the boys. I brought $1000. Tom brought $1000. Between us I think we have it all covered. We did the credit card for the big dinners out with Jen, but even that was reasonable with so many people.
I bought with Trevor's help at least 5 t-shirts from New York.
After Ellis Island we had been walking through Battery Park when, the boys spotted a fountain. Tom was stuck in the crowd on the boat unloading still. I told Jen to take the kids to go check out the fountain. I forgot to tell the boys not to get wet. I swear it was less than two minutes before we joined them, the boys were soaked. They had gone through the spray of the fountain to cool off and were wet through. Jen says they will dry quickly so we continue on with out too much reprimand.
I read a street artist sign that said $5 cartoon facial drawings. $5 is a small amount. I paid $15 for Trevor's at our local fair at home last year. I have all the kids done. Cole Sebastian Trevor and Riley. Two artists do it, each doing a different child. The woman that did Sebastian and Riley was pretty good, Riley looked older with his mustache. He loved it. The man who did Trevor made him a good 45 pounds lighter, with a narrow face and caught a wicked gleam in Trevor's eyes I have not seen before. Jen said Cole's picture was of a cute baby but not hers. It was fun though.
While they were getting the drawings done I went up to the t shirt vendor and bought them all dry shirts. We were definitely into the tourist thing. At least the top half of the boys were dry. Trevor's new shoes were soaked and would take days to dry. Riley was in rubber flip flops and quite comfortable. Jen had looked a little sheepish when she saw we had not wanted the boys to get wet. but barring any verbal words to not get wet, the boys had been fast to take advantage. Albert had had to work that day so he missed out entirely on our adventures. We had gone out to the Indian restaurant from Battery Street.
Here we were at the train depot with more souvenir shops. We wondered around. Trevor wanted a shot glass as he is now collecting them, he tells me. He says when he is 21 he will throw a big party using them. I think he took Animal House too much to heart. I do find a wheeled pull cart for $25 that will allow us to stack all the duffels and pull them rather than carry them everywhere. Tom says that was a great buy, brilliant in fact. If only we had listened to him in the first place and done our wheeled luggage..
Our train number is called and we join the masses waiting to take the escalator down to the designated track. We get separated from Tom in the crowd since he is pulling the stack of duffels on our new wheeled carrier. Once on the platform I walk all the way down looking for the Cafe car. A little trick I have learned is the best car is the one right next to the Cafe car. I see everyone else getting aboard all the cars as we pass them. Tom is soon visible to me through the crowds. He signals for me to get on but I wave back and keep walking. towards the front of the train I finally see the cafe. A train conductor is standing there. I check with him about coach cars ahead. He says there are two more. That is where I jump on. Just in front of the cafe car. Leaves all the plebeians behind us and the comfort of snacks conveniently located.
Tom thinks it is fantastic that they serve beer. He spends most of the trip in the Cafe car at a table looking out the window. The train seats are spacious and have power plugs for computers and cell phones. I did make the mistake of choosing seats with a partial wall so our view was somewhat obstructed out the windows. But between the cafe car and our seat and just being able to get up and walk around, everyone agreed this is the way to travel. Riley wants us to take the train to Utah to visit friends. I'll check it out. He also wants us to take the train home but we explained a couple of hours is fun, days, not so fun.
$284 was the cost. It was $50 more than I originally thought, because I waited to book until the week we left for New York. A car would have taken us three times longer 6 hours instead of 2. It was also almost $100 a day. Tom would have not been able to enjoy it, having to drive. It was one of the best decisions we made, taking the train out of New York.
We got off in Baltimore. Tom said he wanted to take the boys to the water front. That it was supposed to be really cool. A glitch occurred in that our car reservations were not for this train station, but the one at the airport. It is a problem when booking with 1-800, they often don't know the area and give wrong information. I get mad at the Hertz company. tom gets us a cab to go in to a Hertz office nearby and just get it done. Turns out the office is only two blocks from the wharf. We rent the car and leave it there so we don't have to pay for parking while we see the sights of Baltimore. I shouldn't have even lost my temper as it turned out all that much easier.
There are several historic ships and a sub moored in the inner bay for visitors. We toured the USS Constellation. That was really fascinating. It was both a lot bigger and then smaller than I thought a revolutionary ship would be. it fought both in the war and the slave trade. Three decks, we were able to see every inch of it. I had to duck for the ceilings which were about 6 feet. But I reminded the boys 5 foot 6 was a man's normal height.
Only the captain had his own bathroom which was a wooden board with a hole in it in his closet. Everyone else just had to hang out over the ocean or use a bucket that got dumped later.
We had dinner on the second story of the mall. On a deck overlooking the inner bay. Across from us was the dirt fort that would have defended Baltimore if Fort McDonald had not held against the British. It was a delightful blend of history and the modern age with the ships the fort and the shopping mall. I asked what else there was to see,. Tom said that's about all Baltimore has to offer. The navel base and school is outside of town.
We got the car and headed to Hagerstown where we had reservations at a holiday inn express. They give children under 12 free meals. Turns out it was complimentary for all of us. The hot tub was not hot but other than that we loved the accommodations. Trevor even had a hide a bed so the boys didn't fight over sleeping together. It was no problem finding the place either and there was a restaurant with a sports bar across the parking lot for Tom to unwind.
Tomorrow will be the battle of Antietam after a complimentary breakfast from the hotel. We had even seen the signs on the freeway so we knew where we would be going.
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