Stony Brook

We went to Stony Brook State Park today (yesterday we spent the day driving, so altough I have a few photos, they aren't very interesting!) and the kids had fun wading in the brook and going in the pools under the waterfalls, etc. They normally have a swimming pool made by damming the bottom of the brook, but this year it's not in operation - perhaps because of budget cuts? The kids were disappointed, as I had told them about the pool (and how cold it was to swim in) but they still had a good time mucking about in the brook and hiking to the top of the gorge.

Zoo...

Went to the zoo today, met up with some friends. I like the zoo, but of course it was hot out, and humid, and all the animals, including the humans, simply felt like slumping around napping. The humans couldn't really do this as well as the animals, of course! Here's one of the pandas.




And a dozing tiger.



This guy was up and alert, though he didn't move much...




And this chap, well, I think he'll look great when they finish redoing the whole elephant enclosure and area...

Happy birthday!

Not to any of my kids - today we went to celebrate a friend's son's 2nd birthday - a nice coincidence, as the last time we were in the US (4 years ago) it was her other son's 2nd birthday. She made this great cake - the "sand" is made from crushed Nilla Wafers with some cake sparkles thrown in.

The whole party had a beach theme, which was somewhat ironic as it was one of the first days we've been here when it wasn't a billion degrees out, plus it was raining!



Here are my girls helping out with a limbo game for the kids...



Here's the birthday boy with his daddy...



Here's Alex about to scoop the grand musical chairs prize (which was the same as all the other prizes, actually, but he was pleased to win, nonetheless).

Duck tape strikes again

So apparently, one of the new crazes here is for coloured duck tape, which you can use for normal duck tape purposes, or, if you are a pre-teen girl, to make lots of bags and purses. Olivia's friend Katy made duck tape bags for both her and Sarah using duck tape which looked kind of tie-dyed; Olivia and Sarah went out and bought coloured duck tape to make their own bags and purses. Olivia is really keen on doing purses and she has made them quite elaborate -



separate pockets for change (where my two middle fingers are) and pockets for cards (index finger).



Sarah has made a wallet, but seems to be sticking mostly to bags - these are big enough for purse and a phone and some keys - just little bags - though she has put pockets on the inside and back as well.

It's keeping them busy - and keeping the tape industry afloat!

Aviation Museum

Today's adventure began with another hookup with a long-lost friend, once again thanks to Facebook. Stephanie is a friend from high school, who I completely lost touch with until recently, but as she's still in the DC area we managed to meet up, which was great (we did not, however, manage to take a photo of the two of us together, of course!). We went first to Noodles & Co for lunch (here's Sarah with a blue drink - yeah, I know, food just isn't blue!) which was great fun - a neat concept for a restaurant and the food was yummy and the service very quick, which is great when you have hungry kids with you.



We then took a trip to the College Park Aviation Museum, which is a little gem of a museum in College Park (surprise, surprise) next to the airfield. I've been to the airfield before - I think I even once went on a date in high school where we went and watched the planes take off and land, though I could be confusing that memory (I'm sure I did this; I'm sure it was with a guy; I'm not sure it was a date, though, it might have just been hanging out with a friend...) - but I'd never been to the museum (ok, just checked and it only opened in 1998, which explains why!). Anyway, it's great. It's one of those museums you could go to with husband (mine wasn't there, as it happens), kids AND a girlfriend - the husband could read every word on the history bits without you dying of boredom (because it's fairly small), the kids could play with all the interactive stuff, dressing up and activities (because it's very child friendly) and you could have a nice chat with your girlfriend at the same time (because the kids can't really get into too much trouble while you are chatting...) And very reasonably priced as well!

Plus, the building is lovely, like a hangar, only with a great big glass front where, in principal, you can watch the little planes take off and land - though there weren't any doing that while we were there.











Upstairs, the kids were able to make their own paper airplanes then use this turbo launcher to try to hit the bull's eye - that was great fun. Definitely the type of museum I wish I'd had local to me when I was home with small kids... If you are in the College Park, MD area, do check it out!

Southern Maryland

Trip down to Southern Maryland today - first stop was in Lusby (just north of Solomon's Island) to see my mother's friend Deb, who lives down there. We met up at her house, and went for a walk on her local beach, which is just south of Calvert Cliffs.





There were tons of shells, especially these conical ones, which apparently are fossil ones which have fallen out of the clay cliffs as they erode and which have washed onto the beach in thousands.





The chalk cliffs are very similar to those at Calvert Cliffs; I imagine the whole coastline there is like that.





After some lunch with Deb at a cafe inside a gourmet supermarket & cafe in Solomon's (yeah, I know - gourmet supermarket in Southern Maryland!) we went down to the campus (St Mary's College of Maryland), which is literally twice the size (if not bigger) it was when I went there (admittedly, I did graduate 20 years ago) and had a poke around. It was really really hot, so we didn't go look at the Living History, instead just poked around campus, going in and out of a few buildings, as well as spending a little time in the new St John's Museum, which I liked a lot (and not just because it was air-conditioned, though that didn't hurt any). The view above is looking out across the pond (St John's Pond) & Rt 5 to the River. I was standing (and I'm sure all you alumni can picture this perfectly) where the paths come together as you come down the hill from the Bell Tower. If only I'd had a frisbee in my hand...

We then drove down to Point Lookout, where we looked at the lighthouse and the view from the end of the land across all that water - and even better than that (the lighthouse being, admittedly, not all that exciting) on the way down through the park to the Lighthouse, we spotted this guy. Luckily, there was no one behind us on the road, so we just stopped the car and watched until he flew away. We saw him again later, on the way back, mostly in flight. Wow.



One of my kids read some trivia fact the other day that Bald Eagles live in every one of the 50 states except Hawaii, but somehow you don't expect to see one quite so casually. As it happens, we saw another one later at Calvert Cliffs, but only briefly, and in flight. This guy had been on the grass by the side of the road when we drove up, startling him (or her, who knows) up into the tree - and although he flew off after a while he was back at the same spot later, so there was obviously something in the way of dinner down there on the ground that he was trying to get at (if only all these stupid cars would stop coming through!)...

On the way back north, we stopped at Calvert Cliffs, as the kids wanted to try to find some fossil shark teeth on the beach there. We didn't find any, unfortunately, though we did find some nice shells and rocks, and of course, we saw another bald eagle.





You aren't allowed to walk along the cliff bottom any more, so unfortunately, that makes it a bit harder to find good fossils.



Given the precariousness of some of the trees at the cliff top, it's probably just as well that you aren't allowed to walk along the cliff bottom. Though I admit, I did walk a little way along, as I like looking at the cliffs. I did stay right at the water's edge, though, rather than directly up next to the cliffs!





Gotta dig all the barnacles on this log!

Howard County Fair

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this post is nearly a novel. But as I'm tired and want to go to bed, I think we'll just present a mostly visual tour of the Howard County Fair - I went with three different old friends and their respective kids, so we had one 17 year old boy, one nearly 13 year old girl, three 10 & 11 YO girls, three 7&8 YO boys and one 6 YO girl... And of course a handful of adults (5).















There were rides.



There was junk food (no one actually ate one of these, though between us we did eat hot dogs, pizza, bratwurst, chicken nuggets, funnel cakes, popcorn, caramel apples, candy floss, lemonade and a Philly cheese steak).





There were mutant vegetables.





There were handcrafts, including quilts.

















There were more rides.



No one got lost or sick; no one won a giant stuffed Spongebob or a goldfish; no one ended up having to wear a Republican election campaign sticker; it was, all in all, a successful outing.