National Aquarium

We've had absolutely no reason to go to Baltimore, MD for the entire two years we've lived here, even though it's only 1.5 hours away.  So, we finally decided to make a special trip just to see the National Aquarium last Friday.

It's not the world's greatest aquarium and, after being spoiled with the free museums in DC, I thought the $35 price tag was a bit high, but it was a really great place to take Alison, who has always loved a big tank full of fish.

The major attractions are the location (right on the Inner Harbor of Baltimore - Baltimore itself reminded me a lot of Milwaukee, but the Inner Harbor seems like it might be a fun place to hang out), the dolphin exhibit/show, a jellyfish area, an Australia exhibit (which reminded me more of an aviary with fish rather than an aquarium), and what Alison calls the "Daddy Shark" exhibit.  Instead of having a big, bright cage for the sharks with corals, other fish, turtles, etc, the "Daddy Shark" exhibit was at the very bottom of a long ramp.  It was dark and the big, circular cage had nothing except some ugly rocks and a bunch of large sharks.  It's almost like they were trying to scare you as you descended into the depths of the ocean.  I was surprised that this became Alison's favorite place.  I guess there's something about human nature that makes you simultaneously scared and reverent of large sharks.  I know now that's probably just part of our DNA.

Jellyfish Exhibit Decorations

Puppet Show in the Kid's Activity Area

Dolphin Show

Australia Exhibit

Alison got an umbrella as a souvenir and decided to use it even though it wasn't raining.

I'm glad we went, especially since at age three children go from being free to paying $22.  It was a fun girl's trip and probably the last time Alison and I will travel, just the two of us, for quite some time.

A Few Big Events in April and May

Aside from our trip to Delaware, we had a couple other noteworthy events.

First, Grandpa King came to visit with his girlfriend, Kathy, at the end of April.  We all had a good time touring DC and eating delicious foods.  Alison enjoyed hanging out with Grandpa, Kathy, and Uncle Justin for that stretch of five days.

Grandpa & Alison - Old Town Alexandria Waterfront

Nathan finished painting and adding a closet in the new baby's room, so we moved the crib and got Alison to use her new "Big Girl Bed".  She was not very happy about being forced out of her crib.

Big Girl Bed

On the 19th, Alison and I went strawberry-picking at Shlagel Farms.  Last year, she ate strawberries constantly (both ripe and white ones - it didn't matter) and the outing ended in this strawberry coma:

2012 Strawberry Coma

This year, Alison was an excellent strawberry-picking machine!  She knew exactly which ones to grab and only ate a few....until the ride home where she mostly finished her small batch of about 20 that she had picked.  We also got to feed the chickens, play on the playground and dig in the sand before it started to downpour on us.  Alison asked if we could go strawberry-picking again the next day.

Great Harvest

Chicken Attack!

Delaware & Horseshoe Crabs

Last weekend we went on a mini-trip to the Delaware and Maryland beaches.  It's not prime beach time or weather, but I was interested in seeing the area and, in particular, a phenomenon that we can't see anywhere else: the annual horseshoe crab spawn.  Every year in May and June, the horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay come to shore during full and new moons to spawn.  The full moon would have been better, but it is taking place over Memorial Day this year and Nathan explained to me that he couldn't take off of work because, "Memorial Day at the Memorials is kind of a big deal".  So, we went for the new moon instead.

We have my friend, Maureen, to thank for routing us toward Cape Henlopen State Park.  They have a nice campground right on a 3.2-mile bike loop that hits all of the park's major attractions (Fort Miles, an old WWII and Cold War fort, an observation tower, some scenic points and, best of all, the beach).  The beach in the park was lovely and not very crowded.  I had attempted to convince Nathan that we should drag our tent along and camp but, being almost eight months pregnant, I'm now glad he talked me out of that. We rented this cute cabin for two nights instead and enjoyed all that the park had to offer, but got to end our days in a real bed.

Our Cute Little Two-Room Cabin

Enjoying the Top Bunk

Beach Wind

Loving the Sand & Waves

Cape Henlopen

Learning to Use the Spotting Scope

Beach Ghost

We had scoped out the above as prime horseshoe-crab-viewing real estate: a quiet beach in the park next to a section roped off to protect some endangered birds.  However, the park apparently closes that section off at night and we were forced to go to a public beach in nearby Lewes to try to find crabs.  We saw nothing and that's when I knew I needed some professional help.  After talking to the gift shop lady the next day (ok maybe she's not a professional, but she knew more than I did!), I found out that the best spot in the park is near a huge fishing pier at around 9:45pm that night.  The first horseshoe crab I saw was a real thrill.  I sat there and watched it until my flashlight scared it back into the ocean.  As I walked down the beach, farther and farther away from the lights of the fishing pier, the crabs became easier to spot.  The higher the tide, the closer they came to the edge and I got to see many, many pairs spawning and a bunch of loser crabs still looking for a date.  Mission accomplished!

Spawning!

Lone Horseshoe Crab

At the end of our trip, we ventured into the town of Rehoboth Beach, which is a crowded little area with tourists galore, a nice boardwalk, and Funland, which was a little carnival ride area that costs about 25 cents to ride the average ride.  Most of the rides were Alison-sized and she had a blast blowing right through naptime.

This was Alison's favorite ride because it went FAST!

We ended our trip with a visit to Assateague Island National Seashore.  Alison's favorite thing to do the entire trip was to take off her shoes and let the waves get her feet wet.  We did that a lot.  At this beach, there were a couple random horseshoe crabs that were tossed ashore by the waves.  Nathan saved one that came in on its back and so becomes the only one of us to touch a horseshoe crab in its natural habitat.  Lucky guy!

Spring Again in DC

In my book, spring in DC officially starts when the cherry blossoms bloom.  The peak this year was 4/8-4/10 and we made a special point to go see them Tuesday after work when it was a perfect 75-80 degrees.  I've heard that in Japan they celebrate cherry blossoms because of their fleeting beauty.  It's their version of stopping to smell the roses, I guess.  Even though we've lived here three years and can easily see the tidal basin in bloom, I feel like the year we fail to make time to do so is the year we probably need to move away from DC because that means that life has become too urban or busy.  If you can't stop and appreciate those special things that come along infrequently then you're not really living, right?

 Here are some photos of the family with the trees.  We walked from Nathan's office near the Washington Monument, along the Tidal Basin to FDR, then found a much less-crowded trail along the river to the Lincoln Memorial where I decided to hop onto a Capital Bikeshare bike back to the metro (because walking that far is just not as much fun with 25 extra pounds).

 On Friday, we also took Alison to get her first haircut!  She screamed bloody murder until I pointed out the happy 5-year-old who'd just finished his haircut.  With two lollypops and a bucket of toys, the rest was easy and now Alison no longer looks like a wild child....most of the time.

Easter Weekend

Last weekend was Alison's third Easter and we began the celebration with a trip to Great Falls Park.  The last time we were there was on New Year's Day 2012, when I got a similar picture to the one below, same coat and everything!

1-1-12 - Great Falls

3-30-13 - Deja Vu

The falls, as always, are gorgeous, but the park itself can get very crowded. By the time we left, the parking lot was full and there was a line of cars waiting at the entrance gate that probably stretched half a mile back to the road.

The next day was Easter and since Park Rangers never gets any holidays off (a growing pet peeve of mine), we decorated a cake and waited for the Easter Bunny to arrive during the afternoon nap.

This is what the cake looked like before several bunnies were decapitated by the lid I placed over the cake to keep it fresh.

The egg hunt was more fun than ever this year.  The Easter Bunny hid 20 eggs in the sunroom, kitchen, dining room, and living room, plus one chocolate rabbit, and an Easter Basket filled with a Rocknoceros CD, headbands, toy cars, and stickers.  Uncle Justin and his girlfriend, Annie, came over for dinner and stayed a while playing games.

Hunting for Eggs

Showing Off Some of her Swag

The Haul & Playing with Annie

Alison has already requested that the Easter Bunny return soon.  I just told her that he'll come back after Christmas and that seemed to cheer her up.  She'd forgotten about Christmas.

Colvin Run Mill & Egg Hunt

I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone by visiting a new historic site that happened to be holding an Egg Hunt today.  So, we traveled to Great Falls, VA and visited the Colvin Run Mill, which was a state-of-the-art hydraulic mill built in 1811.  The site also has a General Store that sells items of yore.  However, the problem with my plan was the corresponding Egg Hunt and the masses of young children that kept us from doing anything except crafts and our egg hunt.  It was a cute little site, but probably best to go on a quiet day when they offer tours and plenty of picnic tables.

The Egg Hunt part made the trip completely worth it.  They offered four craft tables where Alison made a paper plate chick and two bunnies.  Then they shuttled us all outside just in time for the hunt to start.

Waiting for the hunt to begin

No skills necessary to actually find the eggs

I don't think my competitiveness was passed down to Alison.  She was supposed to grab six eggs, but she walked over to a blue one that she liked and proceeded to spend inordinate amounts of time inspecting its contents - right then and there.  I finally convinced her to find another egg and when we were all done, she had five eggs, but two from children who had gathered at least ten and were told they needed to share.  She, of course, was thrilled and spent the entire ride home eating nine jelly beans and playing with a plastic frog.

An egg in the basket is worth six on the ground surrounded by other ravenous two-year-olds

Showing off her stash

Needless to say, Alison is really excited for the Easter Bunny to come in a week.  I think I might tell him that hiding five eggs may just be the perfect amount.

Dying Eggs

I bought an egg dying kit this year so that we could re-live our childhoods and introduce Alison to the concept of edible Easter Eggs.  Yesterday, four days after the dying event, I was still finding red food coloring patches on the dining room floor to clean up.

3-13-13 - So far so good, the eggs are making it into the cups relatively unscathed.

Everything started out great.  We showed Alison how to dunk the eggs in the cups using the little wire tool thingie and she took off.  You've probably already figured out what our first mistake was: using the darn wire thing.  Because of that, we had numerous eggs endure several levels of smacking (table, then chair, then floor) on their plunge to the earth.  No eggs went undyed, but a few will certainly never be eaten.

Monitoring

Exit Strategy

Our egg exit strategy evolved over time from using the wire thing, to helping with a spoon, to just grabbing them out; which led to our second big lesson: You can never have too much newspaper on the table, chair, child, floor, etc.

It was fun!  No one has been bold enough to eat one yet, but we had a lot of fun making a mess.