Ripley's Believe It Or Not

On Saturday, Leah took me out on a date. She's great at finding deals and got a great discount on a pair of tickets to the Baltimore Ripley's Believe It Or Not! museum.

Back when Leah and I first started dating, we went to Atlantic City. While we were walking around the boardwalk, I saw a Ripley's museum there and mentioned how much I loved reading the newspaper features as a kid and that I had a couple of books that collected many of said features. She listened and when she came across a sale on tickets, she asked if I wanted to go. It was sweet of her to remember something so trivial, so of course I said "yes."

The museum was filled with artifacts and reproductions of amazing things. Some were based on people, like the tallest man in recorded history, while others were works of art using unusual media, like giant portraits of Bill and Hillary Clinton made out of hamburger grease. One thing I liked was how there were several displays that focused on Baltimore, like Chessie, Charm City's version of Nessie.

Me standing next to a life-sized animatronic of Robert Wadlow, the tallest man the world has ever known

A(n admittedly creepy) mannequin or Robert Ripley

Ants painted like basketball players (for some reason)

There were also interactive exhibits, like funhouse mirrors, a mirror maze, what was called a "kaleidoscope room," and other attractions, some of which that didn't involve mirrors.

Inside the mirror maze -- finding our way out was much harder than I expected

The kaleidoscope room was pretty disorienting and I didn't stay in it long

We also got to see a "4-D" movie, which was a couple of short cartoons -- one staring the Angry Birds, the other staring the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote (we enjoyed the second one more, probably because we were familiar with the characters) -- that were in 3-D and required glasses and had chairs that shook. It was... okay, but I'm glad that we got to try it out.

We didn't take any pictures of the movie, so here's one of us having fun in the gift shop

After the fun of the museum, we went to a Japanese restaurant that was right on the Chesapeake Bay. Once again, Leah had a coupon. To save on parking, we walked from Ripley's to the restaurant, which was about a mile and a half away. In the rain. We both had umbrellas, so the walk just meant that we were really hungry when we sat down. Luckily, the food was pretty good.

This was Leah's first time trying unagi (eel)

Overall, it was a really fun day and further solidified the fact that Leah's a keeper.