Originally posted on DeviantArt.
Aloha!
Friday morning, bright and early, 
and I piled into her crimson red Jetta, and headed south on 83.
The sun was bright and warm, and the air crisp and clean, and as the tires whistled down the highway we popped in Tamika’s new CDs 
(starting with hers).
Tamika was a little annoyed at getting up so early and feeling rushed at first, but the music soon washed over the both of us, and after a while we subsided into quiet happy talk with me humming along as she recognized the songs and remebered us.
We got to Baltimore nice and early, and pulled into the parking garage near the harbour. I had downloaded a coupon that gave us some money off the fare. We were still a half an hour early from when we we’re supposed to pick up the tickets I’d ordered, so we moseyed around and went over to the gigantic Barnes & Nobles that towered next to the Aquarium.
Tamika was able to get some coffee, and we sat for a while looking at books, and at the Cold Cut Subs I’d brought. The day before, one of the pressmen at work asked around at work if anyone wanted to order any subs. I ordered 4, ate one for lunch that day, and packed the other 3 with some chips Tamika had bought me and brought them along for lunch.
We went to pick up the tickets after lunch, and walked around the Aquarium. The place was packed with school trips, of course, which I didn’t mind so much, but I realized shortly that it bugged Tamika. She only comes up to my bicep, you see, and so when a flock of about 50 kids comes thundering around the corner to press their snot-nosed faces against the glass of the octopus tank, they nearly sweep her away.
I quickly learned to be a large rock in their way, and waded through the throng and literally formed a bubble around her so she could see the exhibits. We also discovered that due to the rather exhausting task of actually overseeing and keeping in line 50 yelling kids, the chaperones were often quite sick of their jobs by the first 3 minutes of the tour, and worked to herd the kids out as soon as possible. So, if you played your cards right, and waited just a few minutes, you could actually get time in which there were NO kids in sight, and thoughrougly enjoy the sights.
I think one of my favourite parts was the rainforest, and we probably spent half an hour chasing around a tiny orange monkey that lived in the treetops of the biodome; trying to get picture of her when she poked her head out of the leaves.
Tamikas favourite part, though, was the Dolphin Show. She had never been to an Aquarium, let alone a dolphin show. Honestly speaking, it wasn’t the best one I’d see them do, because they used some of the younger dolphins who were still being trained, but she was entranced. I got a kick out of just watching her. That was by far the best part about bringing her.
After we left the Aquarium, we were going to walk over to the African American History Museum that had opened up recently. I had tried to order tickets online for that too, but was unable, but it proved to be the best.
A man dressed in a thick down coat clutching a plastic shopping bad and cradling a bandaged hand approached us and asked us for some change. I quickly dug for my wallet and gave him some bills, and we got to talking. It turns out he was an out-of-work civil engineer and CAD designer, but had been put out of the job when 9/11 had cut money for public works and placed it into “national defence” budgets.
We spent the next hour and half just talking with him, and got to exchange contact information. He feels like God’s been on his back for a while to make some changes and has been pushing him in the direction of ministry. We promised to write to him (I did) and after we said goodbye, Tamika and I talked about maybe sending him a package sometime. He wears about the same size clothes I do, and I’m thinking about giving some things away anyways.
If anyone of you would like to send him something too, or would like to write to him, send me a note.
We had some time to kill after that, so we walked around taking pictures, and visited some of the harbour shops.
We went to see the Cirque du Soleil IMAX movie at the Science Center after that, which was cool. It was done in 3D, so we wore these ridiculous glasses that looked like something Ray Charles would wear. It was really neat especially when a couple pretended to be statues and lifted each other off the ground (or in their cases, a lilypad in the middle of a pond that they were standing on. The storyline was quite random, as is characteristic of most Cirque du Soleil performances are, but then that’s not really the point of the show…
After that, we walked down the harbour to the Rusty Scupper, a classy seafood restaurant I had picked out. The waiter led us to a table I’d picked in the corner of the windows that gave us a spectacular view of the water.
I’ll admit, our dinner wasn’t the best, because I began to talk too much. I’m still not completely comfortable with being in “classy” places, I guess. Part of me feel like it’s forsaking the undomesticated vagabondishness I was raised around. Tamika was very gracious, and listened to me, and then in her own quiet way told me to hush up and stop thinking so much. She questioned me with logic, until she made me realize she was happy no matter how rich or poor we were, and would follow me anywhere.
sigh
The food itself wasn’t that great (at least mine wasn’t, hers was awesome). Mine was basically a very limp noodle stuffed with blended seafood that tasted waaay to much like tunafish for me. The only redeeming part about it was that it was accompanied by some extremely well cooked asparagus. Tamika was gracious once more and fed me some of the seafood delicacies that her dish came with.
I really don’t deserve a girl like her.
After dinner, we went back to the Science Center, because they had had free astronomy. Mars is at one of closest points it’s ever been and we got to look at it through the massive telescope they have housed in the observatory on their roof. It actually had a good deal of detail for a telescope, and you could actually see some of the dark spots and a bit of an icecap on the planet. I’d been teaching Tamika some of the astronomy my father had taught me, and she’s been taking quite an intrest in it.
It was the perfect ending to an awesome day. Tamika drove the way back and sang me to sleep with the music from the second part of the album.
And that was our Anniversary.
~Orion
Please buy my prints: www.deviantprints.com/~dragono… They’re cheap! Let me know if you buy them too, DA doesn’t tell me.