Local time 7.30 pm

Well, we took Geoff to the airport yesterday, so now he's back home again and here we are without him. It's not that strange yet, but I'm sure it will be before long. Now that he's gone, we won't be so frantically doing things all the time - we tried to do lots of things and see everyone before he left, so we were always on the go.

We went to Splash Down on Thursday, which was a huge success, for adult and child alike. I think we'll try to go again before we leave, perhaps taking my friend Barbara along as well. Excellent fun (www.splashdownwaterpark.com). Friday we met Barbara for lunch and hung around Beltway Plaza, a sort of lower scale mall, which was kind of strange for me as growing up, that was the number one place for hanging out with my friends (there was - in fact, still is, although it's a lot nicer these days -a movie theatre there) when I was in high school. Nowadays they have one of those kids play places there, the kind with the soft climbing areas and lots of rides and games to spend money on. We just used the climbing/soft play area, which is free. Saturday, we met friends for lunch again, and then took Geoff to the airport. Today we went to Columbia and walked around one of the lakes there, which has a nice path all the way around it. Then had a bite to eat at the mall and a brief look in the shops. Nothing too exciting, though we did hit Target again (my favourite) on the way home.

I'm sure we'll do some stuff this week, but not out and about every day, or at least, not all day stuff. The girls need some kind of activity, or they tend to go mad. It's not quite like being at home, where they have all their stuff and all their friends, though luckily there are some kids to play with in the neighbourhood. Not all of them are home during the day, though, as in some cases, both parents work. Or the kids are doing other kinds of summer activities. Both girls have made friends with a little girl called Tiffany, who is exactly between them in age, which works nicely. And they like the kids next door, although they are boys, so perhaps not quite as interesting.