I spent this past weekend in Baltimore, Maryland for my cousins Bat Mitzvah. I've been to Baltimore many times, and it's one of my favorite city's in the world.
The day started out early this morning, when my mother picked me up from campus around 9:15am so that I could get my haircut because she didn’t want to get yelled at for the length of my bangs. If you read that statement and thought, “Wait, why would Jaclyn’s mom get yelled at for the length of Jaclyn’s bangs and not Jaclyn” then you read that statement correctly.
So I got my haircut (Commercial: at Anna Lee’s Salon in Powell Plaza, owned by a family friend who cuts our hair for all of our special occasions, and ALWAYS does an excellent job), and then we headed home to quickly finish packing and hit the road. Now luckily my father and I had packed the night before, because clearly we are non-procrastinating good Samaritans and all that jazz. This enabled me to not get yelled at for not being ready to go at 11:30, unlike the rest of my family. However, I did get yelled at for criticizing the use of garment bags. Apparently, anytime one goes on a car trip they should pack their finest clothes in a garment bag rather than a suitcase because “clothes always look better when they don’t look like they’ve been crumpled up in a suitcase for 6 hours.” Who knew?
Eventually we finally embarked on the 7-hour road trip that would take us to Baltimore, Maryland for my cousin Johanna’s Bat Mitzvah. This is definitely the longest consecutive amount of time my family has spent together in 2010, and possibly since August of 2009. This is probably the first time we’ve had all five of us in a car together for more than 2 hours in maybe 5 years.
I spent most of the car trip writing a paper for Women’s Studies 230 on the MILF Island episode from 30 Rock season 2 and watching Community season 1 with Monica. Mom and Dad listened to music and Alexa read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for what I swear must be the 38th time. All things considered, the drive actually went pretty well. Dad only even made 2 West Virginia jokes over the course of the 5-minute crossing from Ohio to West Virginia to Pennsylvania, which is a really good ratio for him. We even got to stop at an Arby’s/Rest Stop for lunch that sold any kind of candy you could imagine and Snuggies. It’s hard to say which of those two things I was more excited to see when I walked in, but it was probably the Snuggie.That being said, I only bought a Starbucks Coffee Frappacino and some York Peppermint Patties.
Family Pictures overlooking the Inner Harbor (one of my favorite places). 
Oh, and while we were in Baltimore, we thought, why not take a pilgrimage to Charm City Cakes and worship? So we went. We weren't allowed inside (duh) and the only person we saw was Mary Alice as she was walking across the street to go eat lunch at the Dizz (not to diminish the awesomeness that is Mary Alice, because I think she is super great and I actually really want to be her, but I was just really hoping to see Duff or Geof and then maybe sit down and talk with them for a few hours and then Duff offers me a job and Geof asks me to marry him. But I guess that seems kinda far-fetched). 
And of course, one cannot visit Baltimore without eating crabs. Because they are probably the most delicious seafood on the planet, and they cannot compare anywhere else. And these crabs, from Pikes, were SOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD!!!! I ate four large, but I was rushed for my time. I probably could have eating 5 or 6. 
Wow, that was really great I even thought no one was listening to my WV jokes, teethpaste!
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