Chance Encounter

The family came to Baltimore to visit this weekend, so we spent our time enjoying the Inner Harbor. Technically, though, it is more accurate to say that we spent the past two days enjoying the Maryland Science Center. I seem to recall that this happened the last time we spent more than one day in Baltimore. We presented JR with lots of options; he wanted to go to the Science Center. The next day, we presented JR with all the same options, minus the Science Center. His face crumples, tears start flowing. We end up back at the Science Center.

Today, though, while there we ran into the mother and grandmother of one of the little girls in JR's kindergarten class. She told us that H was upstairs in the Kids Room with her little sister and dad. JR's eyes light up. "Come on, Dad. Come on, Mom. Let's go to the Kids Room." We enter. H and her little sister are immediately spotted. JR looks, turns, and finds somewhere else to play. H sees us. "Hi, H," we say. "Look, JR is here." She looks, their eyes meet, they mutually decide that the encounter is out of context, and proceed to ignore each other for the rest of the visit.

The parents chatted, and since H's parents are native Baltimoreans, we pressed them for some dining options.

JR's dad is now counting this trip as a major success because, unlike his son, he loves to be recognized in out of the way places. While Baltimore doesn't top being recognized in Chicago, or in the Rome airport, it still counts.