Baltimore, MD (USA)

[Mollie and I left Alexandria around 0730 this morning - we drove towards Baltimore, stopping for some breakfast at Burger King just before we reached I-695 - back on the road, headed to Pimlico - I had heard about parking at Sinai Hospital and we tried the back side (no luck) - we drove around Pimlico (0915) and saw lots of places to park, but I had heard some nasty stories about parking, so we doubled back to the hospital - we found the right place on the front side of the building and parked right inside - it wasn't too long of a walk to the backstretch entrance to the infield and we bought our tickets easily (pricey, though) - I was a little worried about what they might let us bring inside, but everything worked out well - we looked around the edge of the infield and located a quiet place (behind some porto-Johns) where no one else had set up for the day (0950) - Mollie was very excited to be at the race, and her mood improved even more when I got her a copy of the program (live bands she recognized were playing!) - after we watched our first race of the day, I found her some lemonade and ice cream - the infield got very rowdy ($20 bought an "all you can drink" mug for beer) - we had brought snacks and folding chairs and we enjoyed several races with partly sunny weather - we explored a little around 1100 (tunnel to the grandstand, where I bought a Black Eyed Susan drink - with souvenir cup) - it was already pretty crazy - a little after noon we walked down to the Jagermeister stage to see the Eli Young Band - Mollie told me they were play "too rock" so we didn't stay long - at the main stage, the entertainers were much louder (obnoxious, actually): NAS and Lorde - we could hear them but stayed away from the mass of crazy kids that got drunker and drunker - Mollie rested comfortably with a nice blanket and we endjoyed our great view of the 11 races that preceded the main event - ultimately, we stayed longer than I might have if I had been alone - the drunk girls and rowdy guys largely stayed away from us, but they seemed to get closer by the hour - when the Preakness race began (1820), we had front row seats - we cheered loudly as California Chrome raced to victory - right after the end of the race, we immediately headed for the backstretch exit (muddy) and had no problem getting back to our car - we made it out to I-83 with no problem (much quicker than I expected, actually) - made good time back to Alexandria - it was a great day]