Baltimore Grand Prix Race

For those of you reading this that don't know my Uncle Bud works for Penske Racing and is kinda of a big wig in the business. Well he got Chelsea and I tickets to the first annual Grand Prix race in Baltimore. YAY for FREE!!! 

Baltimore Inner Harbor pointing at the Aquarium  

I thought of my sailboat loving family when I saw this beautiful boat

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3 Naval Boats that were docked up to avoid the hurricane

The above photos are from our first trip to Baltimore when I bought my dress but I thought I would save them for the Baltimore race :)

Uncle Bud here out referred to as UB, received Chelsea's and I's information that he requested and then his secretary sent us our credentials via e-mail that we printed off. Looking at it I realized that only Chelsea's was actually there but luckily I saw that the number I needed was on it so it worked out well.

Not mine obviously 

Chelsea had to work treatments Sunday morning so we couldn't leave until 11 o'clock and the last time I talked to UB he said that we should leave at 9am because there was so much traffic and a lot more people than they originally thought there would be. Knowing this I was a little concerned that we would run into some problems but there wasn't anything I could do besides go with the flow. So I threw on my dress and tried to look presentable for UB and his crowd. Chelsea also sported a dress when she finished working.

The Pit area is right outside the Warehouse which is park of the Oriole's Park 

Another concern with the increased traffic was where we were going to park. We first tried the lots where you park for the Raven's football games/Orioles's games. Those were special parking but they directed us to another lot. SCORE! We found a lot quickly and paid our $30 for it. Then we started our walk to the Marriott hotel where we received our passes. It was a fun walk past a lot of bars but it was hot.

On the streets of Baltimore

We got our passes and headed to the area where Penske's hospitality tent was located and let me tell you it was pretty darn nice. Granted it was hot and there was no AC or airflow but other wise it was great. We walked into the tent and I was looking for my aunt and her two boys. They were no where to be found so we were standing in the middle of the room looking silly. We asked to ladies if we could sit with them and I don't know if that is not common because they looked at us a little funny before saying yes. Well I can tell ya that's the best I'll probably ever eat down here. They had chicken, steak with crab meat, salad, fruit, potatoes, veggies, lots of desserts, soup, hot dogs (haha ya I had one) and FREE BEER! along with water and pop. The beer was Miller Lite because that is there sponsor, and me being a Bud Light fan drank it anyways because it was FREE and I'm poor. Don't get excited we drank two and then guzzled water because it was so hot.  

The outside of the tent

The inside

Our sweet TV set up, two TVs on both sides on with no commercials. Notice the HUGE pictures of the drivers

We were eating our food and then UB showed up. He said one of the boys had an ear infection and couldn't fly thats why there weren't there. He sat and chatted with us then we had to go talked to some people. Once he left our table Mr. Roger Penske got up and introduced his drivers. This is them below in front of their pictures. Will Power (haha thats his name!) didn't have his suit on which Mr. Penske heckled him about since the other two had there's one.

Ya we were about 10 ft away from them

Mr. Penske and one of the guys

I though these were interesting because it used  a leaf 

After the introduction of the driver's we didn't know what else to do, UB was off schmoozing some big wigs but he said he could get into the pits so that might be fun. We took a beer for the walk to the pits but we couldn't get in because they were putting fuel in and guess what its not regular gas that you get at the gas station this is a little more flammable. So we decided to walk down to the inner harbor. This proved to be much more difficult than it was last time since the track is the streets of Baltimore. You have to find a bridge to cross over if you need to get to the other side of the track. Well, we made it down there but it was so crowded that it just a huge pain so we walked back. As we were walking back we passed the start/finish line and noticed that there was a lady up on the stand and the people were getting really excited. We watched the drop of the green flag! It was pretty exciting! Lots of noise that's for sure. It took like 30 seconds for them to go around the track.

We didn't have anything else to do so we went back to the comfort of the tent and watched the race there. The really neat thing about the tent is that the track is probably 20 yards away from where we were sitting. COMPLETE SURROUND SOUND haha.

Not mine 

Not mine either

In the end WILL POWER our driver won the race and that was amazing to be a part of. For as much as I don't like NASCAR or racing this was a great experience and I really enjoyed it. Getting to be so close to the drivers at the start really helped us become more interested in the race. Would I go back? SURE! If I don't have to pay :)

Part of the track AKA a road 

Walking back to the car

People were picking up parts of rubber than had  burned off the tires 

I'm not sure what was going on down there but there's a lot of vehicles 

A great experience and I'm very thankful for my Uncle Bud inviting us. I would love to do it again, and it looks like I might be able to. UB is heading up the Detroit Grand Prix race that will take place in the coming year.

Quick Update Since Football Camp is now over (ok so its long)

Well Football camp is all over and we had our first game this afternoon. Chelsea and I saw the other team (Otterbein from Ohio) practicing on the field last night and there were LOTS of them and they looked pretty big. I was really worried about our guys, we have smaller numbers and they are not that big. Needless to say our boys did pretty darn well. The final seconds of the game our guys block a field goal for the win so we went into overtime. The first drive for the other team was a pass to the end zone that our guy tipped up to be recovered by the other team for a touchdown with the extra point. Our drive was not pretty and on 4th down the ball was fumbled and we lost.

Other interesting facts from the game:

There was an elbow dislocation on the other team (didn't get to see it) and our Doc relocated it on the field.

The cheerleaders SIGN the national anthem

Its really weird to not have a lot of cheering behind you all the time.  But when the crowd gets excited they can get pretty loud.

Watching the cheerleaders cheer is very interesting because they dont CHEER they SIGN

There was some great plays! and some ugly plays. I look forward to watching the rest of the season.




So a review of the past 2 weeks are so:

Last week Chelsea's Sisters came to town to visit. Wednesday (August 24) night I went with them for a night tour of the monuments. For 20 bucks it wasn't that bad because I just got to sit back and watch. But it wasn't that great.

Downtown DC

Union Station - I love this picture!

WWII Memorial with Lincoln in the back

Red Cross Building (Not sure what its about, but it looked cool)

On the bus

August 26 - I go to the hospital for food poisoning at 10 pm after fighting it all evening. I was SOOOOO dehydrated. I took 3 bags of fluid there and was still dehydrated for days. Needless to say it took me several days to get back up to eating normal. I have never lost so many fluids at one time, it was so disgusting

August 28

Chelsea and I went to Baltimore! I was in desperate need to find a dress to wear to my high school friend Meghan's wedding that is next weekend. I was freaking about getting a dress and having less than 2 weeks to find one. So we decided to go to Baltimore and shop and watch the Yankees play the Orioles. Chelsea LOVES the Yankees! and we got amazing cheap tickets thanks to Hurrican Irene cancelling the original game. We got tickets 3 rows off the field next to the bullpen for 25 bucks it was great.

My beverage of choice at the game still recovering from food poisoning 

There's a walkway between the Orioles park and the Raven's Stadium

My favorite - this one is for Big Mack

First view of the park

Chelsea getting another pressed penny for her mom  - AWWW

Our Seats

Our Old Tiger Granderson

Granderson hit 2 home runs this game and the Yankees hit 5 total. All 5 were hit within a section of our seats with 2 going over our heads. The Yankees won


Luckily I'm a smart cookie and I looked online at the stores in the Inner Harbor and then checked out their dress selection so I got my dress at the first store and it was the first one I tried on. HAHA YES I"M AWESOME!

Yesterday September 2:

We had extra time on our hands because it was pregame walk throughs so we got out really early (6 pm ) I had heard about a great place to get chili in DC on travel channel's man vs. food, Ben's Chili Bowl on U street. We were feeling adventurous and want food outside of our dorm so we decided to give it a shot. We took the Metro all the way there and you get out right across the street from Ben's. 

I got Chili Cheese Fries

The chili is nice and spicy, spicy enough that I couldn't finish mine because it was so spicy. Although the fries were nothing special it was pretty yummy

thank you travel channel for your recommendation

After we ate we decided to walk around a little bit because the neighbor hood looked pretty safe. There are lots of different ethnic foods in this area. As we were walking we passed a bar that you walk down into. The bar is really neat, they don't allow standing at the bar or anywhere you have to have a seat, no cell phones at the bar, they encourage talking to your neighbor (they have good insurance coverage) No TV in the bar, No Martinis, and they raise money to help build schools. They are working building number 16.

Our bartenders version of a "Light Beer"