This is My Forties

This is the first time in my life that I've lived so close to the beach!  We live a short trip down the highway to the Chesapeake Bay and I've found plenty of stops along the way to enjoy.  The more public beaches like Calvert Cliffs and Flag Ponds are always great, but sometimes can get a bit crowded for this introvert's taste.  Flag Ponds Nature Park is by far the best beach experience near us.  The beach area is so huge it never really feels crowded.  The walk to the beach from the parking lot is short.  The facilities are well-maintained and conveniently located.  There is a little pond that's jellyfish free that the kids can still play in (little boys who enjoy mud and dirt especially love it).  We bring all our company out to this beach when they come to visit.  In June we've already brought my brother and his family and our friend Rudy, not to mention the few trips we've taken with the neighbors there as well... it's a fabulous pl...

I had looked at the Calvert Marine Museum online lots of times and finally on Saturday we had an opportunity to go!  It was just as awesome as I thought it would be, but better.  I had no idea this area was as rich in prehistoric fossils as it is!!  I just thought they had a plethora of colonial artifacts.  Nope! Back when the world was all one giant continent (Pangea) our present day Calvert Cliffs were touching Africa, right where modern day Morocco is.  Thanks to this and the constant changing of the water level the cliffs are packed with fossily goodness.  They have recovered everything from a huge prehistoric baleen whale skull to a prehistoric camel.  RIGHT HERE!!!  AHHHH!!!! Josh and I were so fascinated by all this.  We could have spent 3 hours in the fossil section of the museum alone. The museum also has other exhibits, mostly dealing with the Bay... maritime history.  It all really focused on the local area, which mad...

I love this time of year!  The dragonflies, cicadas & butterflies are all out in full force.  The weather is still pretty bearable and the parks aren't packed with summer crowds yet.  We've been spending most of our time outside exploring.  I've got yet another new park in Southern Maryland that is officially on my top five favorites list now: Flag Ponds Nature Park .  The beach here is amazing!!  That's not all, though.  There are the woods packed with gigantic old sweetgum, oak, pine, and maple trees that you can tell have been alive for centuries.  The trails wound their way through ponds and swamps as we crept closer towards the Chesapeake Bay.  To me, it resembled scenes from Lord of the Rings. We arrived with the intent of hiking and flying our kites, and we did that indeed.  We had such an amazing adventure!  We found a cactus that Tristan and Brennan tried to pick up and bring home, which resulted in a lot of pain ...

Grandparents!! :D  HOORAY!!!  Anytime grandparents come out you know it's going to be a fun time.  A time full of hugs, doting, and spoiling grandkids and their poor battered-down parents ;)  We had such a great time with Gpa and Gma B! Did you know the National Zoo in DC is free?  I didn't.  It's just sitting there smack dab in the middle of town like a mall, but it's a ZOO.  Awesomesauce.  It was actually a nice warm-ish day!  We saw a butt-ton of animals and the kids were so enamored with the zoo that they completely skipped lunch and hardly complained.  We were able to provide a few granola bars and cookies, but I was still pretty impressed with them.  Tristan was an absolute angel .  He's been ultra super amazing lately.  It's like a switch suddenly flipped and he's a grown child now.  I promised them we'd be back again soon with our friends to explore even more, especially considering their stellar behavior....

While looking for a good place to have a picnic me, Tristan & Brennan stumbled upon our most favorite park and museum thus far: Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum .  I have always wanted to be an archaeologist and I don't know how the awesomeness of this nearby park somehow escaped my knowledge for so long.  Mostly, it's the website's fault.  I explore in 3 phases.  Phase One: google & flickr.  Phase Two: go with as few people as possible for a preliminary check.  Phase Three: judgment, which can lead to more visits or NOTHING!  Bewaaaare, parks.  You better impress me. Right when we walked in there was a room packed from floor to ceiling with little projects... touchable ones.  Everything was tucked away in labeled drawers so it was relatively easy for me to wrestle my two non-readers away from the mammoth jawbone and antler on display.   The hallway had a ginormous map to illustrate important dig sites and an...

I've been trying to explore more of our local area.  I really love Southern Maryland... it's spread out like farm lands and parks tend to be, but still has that cozy feel.  I might be new and naive, but thus far I am thoroughly enjoying this community.  Josh and I dropped Noah off for a field trip on Friday and then we were off to explore!  The only downside was the still freezing temperatures.  We started at our local Charles County bakery and cafe in La Plata (pronounced "la play tuh" which drives me nuts) THE Charles Street Bakery  and I noticed a photo in there this time of the owner with Laura Bush and a cake that said "Happy Birthday Laura"... daaaaang!  Of course I can't find a picture of it anywhere on their site.  After our delicious pastries were safely nestled in our bellies full of caffeinated glory, we decided our next stop would be Leonardtown in nearby St. Mary's County. It was still really early so nothing was quite open ye...