It was a busy weekend even though we stayed local. Thursday night Erin had to work until after midnight for new machines
coming into her buildings. Liam and I enjoyed a nice evening. On Friday we went to the St. Mary's County Fair. It was a bit
humid but we had a good time. Liam rode on his first solo ride, enjoyed a corn dog, and rode on the carousel twice and a few
other rides. We all enjoyed looking at the fair grounds from the Ferris Wheel. We also enjoyed all the animals. Liam loved
petting the sheep and the goats.
After enjoying the fair all afternoon we decided to stop by and try and find the 2nd of 5 parts of Woody's Scramble Scramble
Too: The wrath of Scrappy geocache as well as the SOMdCacherz new Imperial Fleas cache. It took us a bit but we found it and
then found the Fleas fairly quickly. We relaxed and watched TV on Friday night and got ready to go to the Renissance Faire
on Saturday. Erin dug out all our costumes and put together some ARGGGH Matey stuff for us!
Saturday saw the day start out cloudy which was good as it held the temperatures down. We got discount tickets from the
base MWR to go to the Ren Faire. We usually go once a fall and this year was our first trip up that fell on Pirate's Invasion
weekend. We donned our gear, even Liam, and headed on the S.S. Landlubbin Jeep to Annapolis.
We walked around a bit and then grabbed a bite to eat. Love those Steaks on a Stake! Erin had a good Broccoli/Cheese
deal and Liam had some Curley Fries. We watched a Magic Act that used one of Liam's diapers as part of the act. We also watched
the Joust and our favorites Hack and Slash. We window shopped alot but actually only bought some soap. The King and his court
walked by us at one point and the King said "My there sure are a lot of Pirate's here!" The only bummer of the evening is
we did not get a chance to find a geocache on the way home because one of our local hiders caches referenced businesss and
one moved out so the equation was messed up. Not the best way to create an equation for the find!
On Sunday we caught up on the house and yard work and played with Liam. We had steaks on the grill and played the wrestling
game which we often play on Monday nights. A nice three day weekend full of a lot of activities.
Lets just say we got
Lost this weekend! On Thrusday Erin went to a Pampered Chef part at the Davises and took Liam as I worked late. She came flying
through the door at 8:50 saying Survivor was on. WOW we totally forgot!! Looks like a great cast and season are in store!
We were shocked to see Stephanie (who deserves the second chance) and Bobby Jon back. Stephanie FINALLY got to touch and win
the immunity idol! The lazy bone smashed into all of this weekend. Erin had the LOST season 1 DVDs come in and besides a few
short trips out we watched this almost the entire weekend. On Saturday morning we took Liam to Gymnastics before
running to the library to drop off books and visiting
Deck Of Cards nearby for geocache find #234.
We stopped by a pretty church on the way home to do the micro cache
Ascension Gardens. You basically walked the grounds and collected data then solved some basic math. The basic math was the problem. We did
the math over four times based on different ways to interpret a couple of answers. And to top it off neither one of us bothered
to check the clue before leaving. We ended up getting a well deserved DNF (Did Not Find) for not paying attention to
details. We did get to claim a
benchmark though pictured below in an odd spot on the side of a water building nearby.
After getting some lunch we got sucked back into Lost for the rest of the afternoon. We did our first internet order
of pizza sans the phone and were pleased with it and the service. After dinner and playing with Liam for a bit we watched
a neat documenatry called
American Beer. I enjoyed the feature on Yuengling brewery we we happened to be drinking at the time. It was just four guys traveling across
the country to investigate the exposion of micro-breweries in the past 20 years.
As part of the double feature we watched the
Ring Two! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!! We made it through it but the story was so weak and now that we were all used to seeing
slime gal crawl out of the TV from the very good original movie it just wasn't the same. The story went nowhere and the connections
to the girl were not as intense and strong as the first movie.
On Sunday Lost grabbed us again. We played with Liam and watched Lost. We are definitely getting pysched to see it! The
boy did get some sunlight later in teh afternoon as Erin played with him in the yard while I watched a NASCAR race. Erin was
going to bake a couple of pies but we were out of shortening. We grilled some burgers and got some stuff around for the week
and finished up the last LOST DVDs so now we are totally ready for the premiere of season 2 this week. We will probably get
a little caching in next weekend as we plan to archive a couple of caches and put a new one out or two. Also the County Fair
is next weekend so that is always a must to go to. It is a great time of teh year to be down here in Southern Maryland.
This was our CWS so we planned a trip up to Pennsylvania. On Thursday night I watched a movie I had been waiting a while
to see called
The Late Shift. It was all about the CBS/NBC Leno/Letterman wars and Kathy Bates was a hoot as Leno's manager. Erin started to watch it
but it didn't interest her and she nodded off.
By about noon on Friday we were ready to head to Pennsylvania. We were lucky to not hit a lot of traffic and picked Noah
up on the way into town. We went to Grandmom's and had pizza and watched television and caught up.
On Saturday we all went to the American Legion who was having a semi-annual consignment sale. We found some neat stuff
and some pants and shoes for the quickly growing Liam. After we dropped Noah off for work we all went on a marathoning yard/garage
sale hunt hitting about a dozen on a beautiful day. The weather has been so beautiful for so many days in a row. We found
some DVDs and CDs at one place and Liam got a toy Gas Pump. The $1.25 a gallon made me laugh. We stopped at the Little Store
on Cottage that I had never taken Erin to and got lunch. She enjoyed the little adventure.
On Saturday evening Liam stayed with Grandmom and Noah wanted to spend time with Liam. We headed up to see Perry and
Sue and friends. Diane, Paul, and Dave & Terri stopped by. We didn't make it a very late evening as we were going geocaching
with Perry and Sue the next day.
Sunday was yet another 4 star weather day. We started at a very hard micro in the woods a little after ten named Floccinaucinihilphication
whatever that means. We looked for 50 minutes as Perry had already been there twice before. We were beat. It was a day of
Micro's as How did I get Here had carpet bombed Doylestown with over a dozen micro hides this year. A lot of them are a Bike
& Hike series as Doylestown as recently paved many trails around town to bike and hike on. We ended up getting 10
of 11 finds before the day was done and having lunch together at Capri's in town. It was great to have Noah back out on the
trails too as he was the finder of a few of the caches including a great micro find on Bike and Hike #4. Alas at 4 we dropped
Noah off and had a great ride home arriving a shade under 4 hours which hardly ever happens anymore.
On Tuesday Erin had her Babywearing class. I was very proud of her. She invested a lot of time in something she loves
and considers a bonding hobby with her child. I think she gave the basic facts and allowed a very participatory and friendly
environment to allow moms and moms-to-be to try a variety of various babywearing items. A very nice crowd of moms, babies,
and even some dads showed up and were very active in trying various wraps on. The mei-tai seems to be the hit. Way to go Erin!
Nice JOB!
The week always seems to drag on mercilously when the weekend brings fun... and visitors! We'd been looking forward
to Mom & Dad's visit for about 3 weeks. We were worried that their trip South would be nixed due to threatening
gas prices, but they seemed to find a way to fill up the tank and head on down, much to our delight.
Friday evening Russ and I worked hard to get the house in order. We mopped and dusted and made ready the guest
room.
Saturday morning, I woke up and finished up some laundry and got a shower just in time for Mom and Dad to pull in.
I'd hoped to surprise Dad with a freshly baked Peach Pie, but they made such good time, that I'd barely gotten the peaches
peeled! No matter, it was waiting for him when he woke up from his nap.
After Mom and Dad had had some rest and a little lunch, we thought it'd be fun to bang out a geocache find at the nearby
Cecil's Old Mill. This is a neat spot that hosts a variety of nicknacks, antiques, and crafts from local sellers.
Not to mention the interesting reconstruction of the mill itself which Dad thoroughly enjoyed while Mom and I perused the
goods.
After we'd shopped enough, and Dad had gotten a through history lesson we scoured the historical signs for clues to the
Geocache Puzzle put forth that would eventually lead us to the actual cache container nearby. It was a fun hunt, and
we had a great time exploring the mill, church and country store.
We even got the added bonus of a little preshow from the Blue Angels who were performing Saturday's airshow overhead.
It was a nice appetizer for our planned viewing the following day.
That evening we grilled some Salmon and settled in to watch a movie together after Mom and Dad had the adventure of giving
Liam a bath!
Sunday morning we got up and around and prepared ourselves for our day long visit to the navy base to watch the 2005
Air Expo. Our company (among many others) rents out a chalet (a tent, really) that includes shaded seating, breakfast
and lunch. We got on base at a great time and had a bit of breakfast before sauntering around to look at all the static
displays. Dad seemed to really enjoy looking at all the old planes, and Russ was all ears with the impromtu education.
Mom and I just had fun being together with Liam on such a beautiful day.
As lunchtime approached, we headed back to the chalet for a bite to eat, just in time to welcome our friend Jodi with
her son, Caleb, who is just over a year old. Her husband, Karl, would join us later. We all enjoyed watching the
babies and the show over head. We saw skytypers, model planes, paratroopers, a hanglider, a jet propelled truck, and
even a jet fueld outhouse! All was in prelude to the Blue Angels precision flying demonstration. After the day
went on Liam finally began calling them planes instead of "cars!"
Upon our return home we threw some steaks on the grill and had another really nice dinner together before finishing off
the movie we'd started the evening before.
We decided that on Monday we'd travel up to DC for a little sightseeing. This time, we thought we'd start out with
some of the monuments - the WWII one in particular - instead of the usual museums. The memorial truly is awe-inspiring.
The fountains give a peacefullness, which is ironic given it is a war memorial. Liam enjoyed watching the ducks
on the reflecting pool, and we enjoyed watching Liam watch the ducks!
We journied along the reflecting pool underneath the shady trees to the Korean memorial. This is just a thought provoking
memorial because the statues are all so lifelike, and give an accurate portrayal into the window of that time. After
our visit we got a bit to eat at one of the vendors and sat in the grass. Liam was thrilled to watch the birds go after
our breadcrumbs.
We walked over to the Viet Nam Memorial where Mom found the name of a friend's son who had perished. While she
and Dad spent some time there, Russ, Liam and I sat in the shade and entered a few quick virtual Geocache finds that we could
hit nearby. Our caching made us retrace our steps a little back to the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean Memorial, and the
WWII Memorial.
By this time, we'd come back to our vehicle and had some remaining time to kill. I suggested we see how busy the
new Native American Indian Museum was. Fortunately, much like the rest of the city, it was fairly vacant, so we
jumped on the opportunity to get a little education. The museum was great. I could have spent a lot more time
in there, but Liam was in a rather rambunctious mood, so I spent a lot of my "reading" time as "corralling" time. Nonetheless,
it really is a beautiful museum and we all had fun checking out the exhibits.
We left as the museum was closing and headed back home. We stopped in Waldorf at the "Old Country Buffet" restaurant,
and were fed decently, but it really wasn't as nice as I'd remembered it to be. But hey, we'd had steaks and salmon
the nights before, so 2/3 ain't bad, right?
We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in front of the tv. It was sad to see the visit come to an end, as Mom
and Dad were heading out the following morning. It sure was good to see them, and Liam really is so comfortable around
them which is a nice feeling all around. We had some great times and did a lot of walking, which probably did us all
good. Such a nice Labor Day weekend, but it still wasn't long enough!
