Mickey and Allie Wedding
Mickey, Sandy and the Travelociraptor at the preparty
Mickey and Allie have been together since 2015. At that time Mickey was still in the US Army and they were living in Sommerville, South Carolina, just outside of Charleston. Since then they moved to Lincoln, Nebraska for a few years, then on to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Then two and a half years ago they moved to Baltimore and bought a house. They've lived there ever since with their family (three dogs and five cats by my last count).
Late last year Mickey called and said that they were getting married. They were going to do it privately, but wanted to have a small celebration some time afterwards. Not your traditional big wedding, like the Polish weddings that I was used to while I was growing up in Wisconsin. Just a small event for a few close family and friends. Checking with people on availability, they settled on the first weekend in February. That worked for us, although Sandy figured that she would be busy, since her daughter Shannon was due the following week. She expected that she would be flying back to Illinois to play grandma almost as soon as she got back from Baltimore. She was even a little nervous that the baby might come early.
Fish and reef in one of the huge tanks at the National Aquarium
Well, Baby Brooklyn had different ideas. She surprised everyone by coming a month early. Instead of conflicting with the wedding celebration, Sandy did a ten day trip to visit the baby and was back for over a week before our trip to Baltimore.
My family is pretty spread out across the country so it doesn't get together that often. Mickey has stayed in close contact with some of his cousins so he sent invites to them. To make sure no one felt slighted he sent invites to most of my family. He was surprised when quite a few people responded that they were coming, even though they had to travel a long way for just a weekend. Two of my siblings and several of his cousins said they would come. Besides a party to celebrate Mickey and Allie's wedding, now we were going to have a miniature Lieske Family Reunion. We were going to cram a lot into only two days in Baltimore - leaving on Friday and flying home on Sunday.
Colorful (and very poisonous) frogs at the National Aquarium
We had pretty good arrangements for flying to Baltimore on United. An early flight out of Boise at 6:40 am and an hour and twenty minute connection in Denver got us into BWI at 3 pm. Getting up for that early flight wasn't fun but at least we didn't have to worry about getting a parking spot at the Boise airport. While they are doing construction on a new parking structure, space is very limited. There were plenty of spots when we got there around five in the morning though. Still it was surprising when we got inside to see how crowded the airport was. There are a lot of flights that leave very early.
We boarded and everyone was ready to go early. And then we waited. The pilot explained that they needed to de-ice the wings. Apparently the Boise Airport only has one truck and there were several flights that wanted to leave at the same time. So we waited, using up some of our connection margin. Finally we were done and went to the end of the runway to take off. And waited again. This time the pilot announced that there was a maintenance issue and we had to go back to the gate to try to get it fixed.
USS Torsk
Not again!!! I had the same thing happen on two out of my last four flights while I was returning from Miami in December, pulling out from the gate and having to go back with a problem. Now I was three for my last five (attempted) flights. It doesn't give me a lot of confidence in United's maintenance procedures.
On my Miami trip, both times there was a problem the flight was cancelled. This time they were able to fix the problem and take off - an hour and forty five minutes late. It seemed that we were busted. The pilot did announce that people on board would make their connections. While I was skeptical, I waited to see before I panicked. Turns out they allow almost two hours for the flight in the schedule and it only takes about an hour and forty five minutes. Plus they poured on the throttle and ended up cutting off some more time. When we landed and pulled into the gate, it was ten minutes till our flight was due to leave. We did our best O.J. Simpson imitation racing through the airport (you have to be pretty old to understand that reference). Surprisingly, we actually made our flight.
Steve and Sandy on Federal Hill on a cold, sunny day
When we got to our hotel, my brother Mike and my sister Diane were in the lobby. I was flattered by the reception committee until I found out Diane was waiting for her kids, who were arriving a little later on their flight from Seattle. We had several hours before everyone was getting together later that evening. We went out for linner (late lunch/early dinner) with Diane and her kids: David, Alex and Sarah. Mike's wife Kathy was on a phone call for work so her and Mike planned to meet us later that night.
Maryland of course is famous for crab cakes and everyone wanted to try them. We went to Jimmy's Famous Seafood, a well known restaurant only about a mile from the hotel - just a short (but crowded) Uber ride for the six of us. I'm not a big seafood fan but everyone else raved about the food so it was a good choice. When we got there at 4 pm it was mostly empty but by the time we finished it was jammed. It was clearly popular with the locals.
Downtown Baltimore at sunset from our hotel room
For the evening, Mickey had reserved a room on the top floor of a bar in Canton. Everyone who had come in from out of town was invited. My brother Mike and his wife Kathy were there. My sister Diane was there. Her sons David and Alex and her daughter Sarah were there. A few of Mickey's buddies from the army who had also come in for the weekend were there as well as some of Allie's friends. Tim was there and the Travelociraptor came with him, of course. Mickey's mom was there as well, probably the first time in decades we had been at the same event. Her sister and sister's husband were there as well. As I said before, it functioned as a mini Lieske Family Reunion. Since I was the only one who had been to Baltimore before, I introduced everyone at our table to National Bohemian. Referred to locally as Natty Boh, it has been a Baltimore tradition for well over a hundred years. It was a fun evening.
Mickey springs the surprise
The next day we were free until the evening. After breakfast we met up with Mike and Kathy. My brother had figured out that the hotel ran a free shuttle down to the Inner Harbor area every two hours. Since they weren't busy, he even arranged a special shuttle trip just for the four of us. We were dropped off at the National Aquarium and spent about two hours there. They had some amazing exhibits. There were huge tanks with large fish like sharks, rays and even my favorite fish, a tarpon. There were a lot of colorful reef fish and lots of coral and sponges too. It was interesting to see because even though I'm a scuba diver and have seen similar things while diving, here it was in good light and everything was much more colorful. When you're diving, the water filters out some colors of light as you go deeper so while it is cool to see marine life in the wild, the colors are often drab. Here you could see them in full color. Very cool. The only problem was that the place was packed with people. After this I wasn't worried about Covid at the party. If we were going to catch anything, it would be here.
Mickey and Allie taking their vows
Outside the aquarium were several historic ships on display. The LV116 Chesapeake is an old US Lighthouse Service ship. I didn't even know there was such a thing. The USCG Cutter 37 is a Coast Guard cutter that survived the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The USS Torsk, is a late-WWII American submarine. I thought it was pretty cool and was surprised at how big it was. We thought about taking the tour through it but decided we didn't want to pay another $20 since the aquarium had been expensive. Finally the USS Constellation is the last sail-only warship built by the US Navy.
For lunch we went right past the Hard Rock Cafe and instead went to Phillips Seafood. Since we were landlocked types from the Midwest and the Intermountain West, we wanted to enjoy the seafood restaurants while we were on the coast. I had really good fish & chips. Besides, the Hard Rock Cafe had replaced a Barnes & Noble bookstore, which is not cool. I couldn't bring myself to patronize them.
Our new family portrait
Although we had a long, leisurly lunch, we still had some time afterwards. It was bright and sunny but cold, with the temperature only in the mid-twenties. It was windy too so it was quite chilly when we were heading into the wind. We were tough though. We walked around the Inner Harbor area and climbed to the top of Federal Hill. It features a great view of the Inner Harbor area. During the Civil War it was the site of a Union fort (hence the name), it's garrison there to keep southern sympathizers in Baltimore under control.
Then it was time to head back to the hotel to get ready for the Main Event. It was casual dress and I had special permission from Allie to wear a Hawaiian shirt. When I had mentioned it the night before and said I brought one along but wasn't sure if I was going to wear it or not, the Mineraths insisted. Now I was committed. I also bought a Natty Boh baseball cap in a souvenir shop while we were walking around the Inner Harbor that afternoon. Just what I needed to complete my outfit.
No, I didn't provide the napkins, but I could have
The celebration was at the Polish-American club, just off Canton Square. There was food catered by a local Italian Deli. It was excellent and there was way too much of it. There was also an open bar for beer and wine. I took advantage and had several Natty Bohs.
Mickey and Allie had been very vague about exactly when they had gotten married. We learned that was because they had a surprise. A friend of theirs was a minister and they actually got married right there on the spot. It was short and simple but very cool. All the ladies in attendance were crying.
It was a very nice evening and everyone had a lot of fun. We left about eleven but I heard that the younger people stayed till four in the morning. A very nice occasion.
Next day it was time to head back to Boise already. For a change, the trip home was uneventful.
