Baltimore

We went to Baltimore this afternoon. Steve (my brother) wanted to show Christine (my SIL) around the Inner Harbour, etc. I always forget how much I like (most of) Baltimore. Today we only really went in the touristy bits, but it was still lovely. And the weather was not too bad - not very hot, just a little hot. This is a general view of the harbour, World Trade Center, Constellation (one of the historic ships in the Baltimore Harbour)...



As we went past the Hard Rock Cafe, there was live music playing outside - not sure who all the band was, but one of the singers from Heart (the blonde one - I never remember which is Ann and which is Nancy) was singing with them outside - Heart were doing a concert tonight on the Pier 6 (or whatever) venue. We heard them later on the way back to the car...



Here's one of the dragon boats in the harbor. We didn't go in one, though the girls kept dropping hints - "Is it a pedalo? I've never been in a pedalo..."



More live music outside Harbourplace, this time a band doing a very fast (but decent) cover of Moondance. We were standing listening and chatting to my friends Margaret & Ned, who I just bumped into in Harbourplace (it was bizarre - I was walking towards the door and saw this woman and thought - wow, she looks like my friend Margaret - and it was. To be fair, Margaret lives in Catonsville (just outside Baltimore), so it wasn't as weird as it might have been, but still - on a summer Sunday in Baltimore with 153gazillion tourists...)



Here's the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse, which you can go in for free (so we did). It's cool.



This is the flag flying at Ft McHenry. [Apparently, it's not - it's Federal Hill - but I'm still leaving this bit in, because it's still interesting, even if I've got my harbour locations somewhat wrong...] For those of you not in the know about Baltimore and Fort McHenry, the flag flying there is very important historically, because that's where the flag was flying which a certain Francis Scott Key wrote about when he wrote:

Oh say can you see
By the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight's last gleaming

Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming

And the rockets' red glare
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there

Oh say does that
Star Spangled Banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave

Not to mention the other verses. He was in the harbour on a ship when he wrote it, but the flag was flying at Fort McHenry (it's not the same flag, of course - the actual flag is in the American History Museum in downtown DC - or at least it used to be).






Anyway. Another of the historic ships in the harbour is this submarine, the USS Torsk.



And there's this mock pirate ship you can ride on, for a price (we didn't).



And, one of my favourite signs for today - The Surprisingly Interesting Baltimore Public Works Museum. We didn't go in, but really, we should have, don't you think?

We finished off our lovely day with a gorgeous dinner at McCormick and Schmick's. Really nice food!

Big Yard Sale

Having been out and about a lot in the past few days, we decided to take it easier today. The girls went with Uncle Steve and Aunt Christine, who were doing a tour of Where Steve Grew Up, while Alex and Grandma Kathy and Mummy went yard-saling - a few local ones, then a big group one (tables for hire) at a local nursery (the plant kind). Here we are eating sno-cones towards the end of the morning as it was really hot. Alex may be the only one in the photo, but Grandma and Mummy were eating sno-cones as well (though not grape) as it was pretty hot out.



And here we are later back at home enjoying one of our finds - that's 75 cents well spent!

Splashdown!

Today's outing was to Splashdown Waterpark, a little over an hour's drive away (though a lot longer on the way back in rush hour) - this is a great waterpark - just the right size - we went another time we were in the US and the kids (including the larger, older, Daddy-type kid) were very keen to go back. We went with some friends who have a daughter Olivia's age - she is actually Olivia's penpal, so Olivia has been thrilled to be able to meet her in person and hang out.



Alex crossing the lily pads...



Olivia and her friend digging in the sand.

It was a lovely day (except for the traffic coming home, which was just boring) - actually almost cool out (for DC in July) - I think it was only about 83F (28C)...

Down on the Mall

As the weather for today was thunderstorms predicted, we decided to do something that was at least in part indoors - a trip to the Mall to visit the (relatively) new National Museum of the American Indian.

This was a truly gorgeous museum, both inside and out, though hard to photograph. I love the layouts of more modern museums - they really are a pleasure to be inside.

The content of the museum was excellent as well, though as I had to keep an eye on the kids and make sure they weren't getting lost or being too obnoxious, I didn't get to read quite as much of the information as some (male) members of the party. Still, I was able to read quite a bit and look at most of the items in the display cases in the three main sections of exhibits.

We did get our promised rain as well, though we managed to stay inside the museum for long enough for it to tail off to a gentle drizzle. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have cooled things down very much!

Aw, shucks...

First, there was the shucking of the corn...




...later, there was the eating of the corn. Mmm.

Seal enclosure

Part of project on animal habitats. Alex did most of his project as a powerpoint presentation, but he also built a model of a seal enclosure like in zoo or animal park. The pool part was easy - the hard part was the ramp and steps on the upper level. He did spend a lot of time working on this, though of course Mummy, Big Sis, Medium Sis and Friend of Sis also helped out.

Guide Sports Night

Nothing serious, just some races in the park.... And a whole lot of goofind around and being silly... Here's the sprint being set up - one girl from each patrol nominated, and of course, both of mine have to compete - to be fair, they are both fairly fast. The girl in the middle is also fast, but is still recovering from a dislocated knee, so is a little handicapped (but not much, as you can see below!)...



Sarah wins it, but only just. And they were both on the last leg of the relay, but Olivia just pipped Sarah to the post on that one, getting her toe over the finish line just a tiny bit first...




Olivia also placed well in the long distance (once around the park - approx 1700 metres - 3 times around the park is about 5K) - she was the second runner in, but she was a fun runner rather than one actually competing - her patrol's chosen long distance runner beat Olivia by about 10 seconds...

Scouts' day in the park

This afternoon, the local Scout group had an afternoon in our park, as a pre-cursor to their AGM. We couldn't make the AGM, but did manage to pop along to the park for some (free to scouts) mini-golf. This park is very local to us - in fact, you can just see our house to the right of the tree - it's the one with the small dormer windows poking out of the roof!

Crafty kids

Some model making - I keep forgetting to blog as it often seems our lives are busy but nothing interesting to show. Olivia made this model Punch & Judy show (the box is a single-serving size cereal box) for part of a project on Victorian inventions.




Alex made his own mummy from a kit, with a bit of help from his other Mummy...

Tower of London

We have our nephew Dave with us from Australia for a few days before he heads off elsewhere in England and beyond, so we decided to play tourist yesterday and do something in central London. After some discussion, we decided on the Tower of London - Geoff and I and the kids have, both separately and together, done lots of London sightseeing, so we wanted something which wasn't too much of a repeat for some of us. The Tower fit the bill as neither our kids nor Dave had been there and Geoff and I hadn't been in probably 15 years or so. We also took an extra 12 year old (as one does), Sarah's friend Katharine - Kath and her dad take Sarah (and sometimes Olivia) lots of places, so it was nice to be able to return the favour.

So, here's the crew waiting outside the Tower for me to come back with tickets... They were demonstrating a Perrier (not sure that's spelled right) which is a type of catapult, essentially, specifically for throwing stones. I actually helped demonstrate it, as Olivia forced me to volunteer, but it was kind of fun - there were four people working it at a time, so I wasn't really that much on the spot...



Here's Tower Bridge, always a nice view.




Alex and Olivia with a large themed teddy bear.



This is the trial of Anne Boleyn, who later had her head chopped off (not really) - that's Thomas Cromwell there questioning her about her alleged treason and adultery.




And here's Dave and Sarah on a boat on the way home - we decided to do a little of the trip by boat as it wasn't very expensive and it was very scenic.

It was a good day out - the Tower is not a cheap attraction, but there's a lot to see - you can have a free guided tour if you want (we didn't because of the kids) and there are lots of re-enactments through the day - we watched part of another besides the Anne Boleyn one - so you do get your money's worth. We were all completely shattered by the end of the day, though - all that standing and walking really does you in after a while!

Brownie-base cheesecake

Olivia chose this as the dessert of choice to make from a new book - and it was nice. The cheesecake topping wasn't quite as good as my normal cheesecake, but the combination of the brownie base and the cheesecake topping was a nice idea.



And this one, I just couldn't resist - my nephew Dave has a good excuse for sitting down to play as he'd been awake for something like 28 out of the last 30 hours at this point in the day (having arrived this morning from Australia) - the others, well, it's just laziness! Except for Olivia, who has just finished all the sweeping up and is looking for something with which to scrub the pathway (I told her that her energy was better spent elsewhere!)

Photo Shoot

Recently I took the kids in to have some photos taken - we had won an hour's free studio time, plus a voucher which would pay part of the cost of the photos, so I thought it would be a nice thing to do. Some of the photos were great (she took hundreds - the wonders of digital photography!) - and in addition to some prints and a nice canvas, we got some digitally, so I'll be able to print them out for various relatives, and blog them, etc.




I've only chosen three of them for the blog entry, as I didn't want it to be too photo heavy, but I did upload them all to my flickr album, so do go have a look!



The kids even convinced me to be in a few, though mostly, it was just them - in various combinations and singly...

S'mores

Hard to believe now, with the raining tipping down outside, that we spent most of the evening lounging on the patio with the barbecue going (and then with the barbecue dying down and the sky growing slowly darker). Aah, "summer" evenings - bliss!

Haircuts

Zoo

Off today for a trip to the zoo - Sarah elected not to come, but Olivia (who requested the zoo) and Alex and I had a lovely day - sun was shining, birds were singing, zoo wasn't very crowded (especially considering it was a sunny day in the half-term holiday)... Here are the two kiddies at the start of the visit inside a giant termite mound model.




Billions of photos were taken (especially since Olivia kept grabbing the camera from me), but the beauty of digital photography is that it doesn't matter - your kids can take billions of photos of animals at the zoo and it doesn't really waste anything, except a little battery life. I've picked a small selection of photos to share - this penguin being a particularly cute example of the ones with sticky-up feathers on their heads. He stood like this for so long without moving, I was beginning to think he was a statue...




We watched one of their animal shows, and this parrot was doing tricks - here he is hanging upside down by one claw. He later hung by his beak alone, but I missed that photo.





The zoo is full of signs - informational, instructive, etc - this was one of my favourites. Not sure what you are doing, but stop it. Or else, maybe it means to stop doing nothing and start doing something?





Probably the best photo of the day here - the heron who wanted to be a pelican.





Alex the meercat...







versus an actual meerkat (if you are in the UK, you will appreciate I have resisted making a "compare the meerkat" joke here. If you are not in the UK, don't ask, it's an ad on telly...).





And here we are at the end of the day, getting ready to take our tired feet home - still sunny, birds still singing (actually, this is right by the big aviary, so many of them were actually squawking), kids still getting along, more or less. Sunny tomorrow too - hurrah!

New horse

Our walk to school passes between two fields where there are usually horses. Lately, there's been a new little horse. About two weeks old in this picture. Right before I took this, she was standing up and I wanted to show her all gangly-legged, the way foals are, but she decided to sit down, and we couldn't hang around...

To photograph or not to photograph...

Well, I somehow failed to take photos of either of the main things I did this weekend - school Spring Fair on Saturday (completely rubbish weather), where I do have the good excuse of spending most of the afternoon talking - on the PA, making announcements, etc - so no time to take pictures even if I HAD remembered my camera.  And today, the Girl Guiding Mother/Daughter picnic (completely rubbish weather), where even if I had taken my camera, and been willing to expose my hands (as opposed to keeping them under my legs for warmth) long enough to take photos, you wouldn't have wanted to see them - can you just imagine a handful of photos of cold people sitting around eating picnic food in the grey drizzle? Not really blogworthy, I fear.

So, you get supper. Dinner. Tea. Whatever you like to call it - an evening meal. In this instance, potato, cheese & onion pie. We also had salad. The pie was excellent. There are leftovers. Mmm, lunch tomorrow...

A walk in the bluebell woods

We had arranged to meet up today with friends, originally for a picnic and walk in our favourite woods (good for bluebells - normally it might be a little late for them by the May Bank Holiday, but everything is late this year due to the dire winter). As the weekend approached and the weather forecast got increasingly yuck, plans were changed from picnicking to a pub lunch, with the walk to follow unless there was a real deluge. Which, happily, there was not.




Here's the view from the pub window - nice view of the South Downs. So, we ate, and in due course, walked, with only a small drizzle of rain. The walking is fairly dry underfoot, despite the rain, due to the chalk hills, so at least it wasn't at all muddy.

Bluebells were indeed spotted, as can be seen in the top photo - they never look quite as magnificent in photos as they do in person in the woods, I think, but you get the general idea.




Here's one chap a bit closer up,



and another thing I love this time of year, ferns, bracken and other plants just unfurling.



And a snail - Helix pomatia, the Roman or edible snail. Apparently the Romans brought them over (a staple food) and now, they roam the South Downs. In as much as a snail roams.... One of our friends is a biologist with a PhD in snails (not this snail, as it happens, a different type) so we had fun searching for them in the undergrowth. There was a lot of turning rotting logs over to examine the bugs underneath, as well, which is good fun. It would have been nice if it had been nice enough to picnic, but after all, you can't have everything --where would you put it?