Virginia Beach

Yesterday (Thursday) we headed down to Virginia Beach to have a look at the ocean - it was really, really hot - 100 degrees F - so those of us who weren't in the water the whole hour we were at the beach were really hot and got tired of being at the beach quite quickly. The kids (including the big male ones we had with us) had a good time, though!



As you can tell, the beach was fairly packed.



Given the heat, we had arranged to meet Susan and the kids at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach - which is a great museum. Here's Kevin admiring some seals in the tank outside...




Sarah and Kevin are checking out the long pointy fish (some sort of gar?)



Olivia, Brenda and Alex popped up into the viewing place to look for the Komodo dragon, which was off in a corner digging...



There was one of those tunnels you could walk through where the fish all swim around and above.



And a big tank where you could pet the rays - here's Brenda trying to reach one.



A big shark tank - and a sea turtle one as well, though no photo of that!



There's also a second pavillion to look at, which is great, although walking from one to the other in the (still almost 100 degree) heat was a bit awful. There were some nice seahorses, though.



After all that tourist stuff, we had one last dinner with Grandpa Andy before heading for home (in a thunderstorm). A really nice road trip!

Busch Gardens

Even from the carpark we knew it was going to be a fun day.. I gotta say, the ideal way to go to a big themepark is to a)be related to someone who works there so you can get free tickets in the first place and then b)go on a day where it's a little rainy in the morning, so lots of day trippers decide to do something else...



My brother and SIL took the girls off with them to ride big rides and do stuff (easier than trying to keep a party of 9 people together anyway) while Geoff, Mom, Andy and I took Alex around and went on some smaller rides - though Andy and I (and sometimes Geoff) went on some roller coasters. Andy used to work on this train, not driving it, but doing the loading and unloading of the passengers, etc, though now he works elsewhere in the park.



This is two different roller coasters, crossing each other. The Alpengeist, which is a hanging coaster, which I loved (my favourite kind of coaster) and the Gryphon, which I chickened out of because it had a 90 degree drop on it. My girls went on, though - twice!



Alex went on an airplane ride...



We watched a wolf show.

And there were lots other things that we did, too, of course. We topped the day off by going over to my (other) SIL's house to visit - she cooked ribs and corn on the cob, potato salad, etc - yum! Unfortunately, my stepbrother wasn't home as he's still out at sea for a few more weeks (he's in the Navy) but we did visit with Susan and the kids, which was great.

Road trip!

On Tuesday (blogging several days after the fact, as we had no internet connection while away - though my SIL did offer to let me check email at her place - if we'd been there another day, I think I would have had to succumb) we drove down to Hampton, Virginia, which is where my stepdad (technically my former stepdad, which is why he doesn't live in the same place as my mother - I know it's confusing) lives, as well as my stepbrother and his family. Andy (my stepdad) has a friend with a beach house, who kindly let us use it for free, which was great as there were quite a few of us and Andy's house isn't that big. Here are the kids on the beach which was 3 minutes walk from the house - this beach is on the Chesapeake Bay, not the ocean, but it was a lovely beach, so who's counting!









The house also had one of those great screen porches - although it wasn't really cool enough to be out there all the time - but at least we got to use it in the morning and the evening...

More DC

My sister-in-law, Christine (second from right), has never been to DC before, so we all trouped down to have a look at monuments and stuff. Obviously, we didn't see it all, but we did look at a lot of monuments. And stuff.



This is the World War II monument, which I'd never seen in person before,



And of course the Lincoln Memorial, which I had seen...





And the Korean War memorial, which I hadn't.



We also popped into the American history museum briefly, to check out the flag, and a few other important cultural items like the Big Dollhouse,



The Ruby Slippers,



and Kermit the Frog.



And here are Sarah and Alex on an old El (Chicago) train. Cool beans.

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...