Friday, May 8, 2009

Days Out

With our condo constantly being shown to potential buyers, we’ve decided to spend as much time as possible away from the house. Fortunately, the weather has been improving, and we’ve had some wonderful weekend and day trips this spring.

Baltimore Children’s Museum:

During our first open house, we returned to Baltimore to visit the Port Discovery children’s museum. Covering three levels and with numerous exhibits, the museum is one of the best kid-friendly venues in the area. On the ground level, there's a mock convenience store where children can shop for groceries and pump gas for an actual VW Beetle. Henry could have spent all day packing and unpacking his grocery cart. He particularly liked pulling items out of the refrigerated cabinets and climbing around in the backseat of the car. On the same level, they have a life-sized cow for the children to milk and a patch where they can dig for potatoes. On the top level there's a train, a 1950s retro diner, and Henry's favorite exhibit: the Wonders of Water (WOW). The museum has raincoats and crocs for the children to wear and numerous water exhibits. Henry had great fun putting together water pipes and splashing around in the various streams and canals. Afterward they have a huge hot air fan to dry off. Once again, Henry had so much fun that he was asleep before we left the building. That gave Bryant and Elise the chance to enjoy a long walk around the Inner Harbor.



Fredrick, Maryland:

During the next open house, we headed to Fredrick, Maryland (about one hour from DC), walked around the old town, and played in the city’s enormous Baker Park where Henry tried his first seesaw.

Williamsburg:

On the third open house weekend, we left town early and drove to Williamsburg, Virginia for a quick getaway. Once again, we stayed at a Homewood Suites hotel with a pool. On Saturday we visited Colonial Williamsburg and walked around the historic area. Although much of the history was lost on Henry, he enjoyed seeing the carriages and watching the blacksmiths and wheelwrights at work. In the stationary store, one of the historical interpreters showed Elise how to write with a quill pen and made a souvenir parchment engraving for Henry. While touring the historic area, we ran into Elise’s cousin Nathan Mortier and his wife. Nathan is in law school at William & Mary, so it’s not surprising that we saw them. However, this was the second time we have met them unexpectedly. The last time was several years ago in Rothenburg, Germany when we spotted Nathan and his parents in a restored medieval house. We can't help but wonder where we will see them next!

After a long day in Colonial Williamsburg, we headed back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. On Sunday, we made the short drive to Jamestown and visited the site of America’s first permanent English settlement. It was another full day, but Henry proved to be a tropper. It wasn’t until we got back to the car that he finally closed his eyes...and slept most of the ride home.


No comments: