Summer Vacation 2013: Best Maritime Museum ever!

You really must go to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  It's amazing.

The kids were ready to become lighthousekeepers and never leave.

"Doing our homework."

 Shaving practice

 NOM!

Oh, captains, my captains.

There are exhibits from ship repair to the oyster industry to crabbing to all sorts of boating and sailing.

We had lunch at another seafood restaurant, where the twins were desperate to crack their own crab. (I'll spare you all the video.)

I had the veggie plate and tried to be supportive.

Then, we had a ferry nice ride home.  What a day!

Summer Vacation 2013: Life's a Beach

We spent a few days in Maryland with Grammie and Dado, who suggested we go to the beach.  We were not expecting there to be jellyfish.  Especially those of us that really, really don't like jellyfish.

 All these people wouldn't be frolicking and swimming if there were jellyfish, right?

Beckie overcame her fear of the squishy creatures, and Lil' Guy never had any fear. Here is his flying fish impression.

Lil' Gal was all set to go swimming until we saw some of the aforementioned squishy creatures and that was about it for her.  She did some wading, but spent the rest of the time working on her sandcastle skills.

Also important are ship captaining skills.

All this fun in the sun made us quite hungry, so we went to a fine waterfront establishment, where we learned that Lil' Guy is a big seafood fan!

 Thanks to Grammie and Dado for sharing their home and their seafood!

Twins on the rocks...  Least relaxing drink ever.

 Everybody loves a sunset.  Ahhhhh.

(Grammie's photo!  Thank you!)

6/19 - Super Samurai is upside down

Or is it the ship that's upside down?  It's all a matter of perspective.

5/16 - Plate of Carrots has an exciting day

First, we learned not to play with electricity.

Then, POC went for a sail on a pirate ship.  They tried to tell us it was art, but if it sails, we’re outta here.

4/29 - CowCow sets sail

Here’s what CowCow and I saw during our lunchtime wander:
A cute little doggie that tried to say “Mooo,” but it came out “Bawooo” instead.

And!  A pirate ship!

11/01 - Red Dragon tells Shy Guy to do his best

Red Dragon says, “Be extraordinary in everything you do.”  This means to do a good job whenever you can.

Shy Guy finds fabulous fall flowers.  Look at the pretty pots of flowers Shy Guy and I found.  They smelled pretty, too!

I am using last year's tall ship calendar with an overlay of this year's dates.  When I flipped the tall ship calendar to November, I saw that the HMS Bounty was featured and it broke my heart.  I met her in 2008 at the San Francisco Festival of Sail, and she was quite the lady.  #justsaying

From the HMS Bounty Facebook page:
A Relief fund has been set up by both HMS Bounty Organization and a couple of our former beloved crew members. We are working with the former crew members as well as initiating another way of donating to help raise as much money as possible for our 14 surviving crew as well as the families of Claudene Christian AND Captain Robin Walbridge. Please find it in your hearts to help out. You can donate via paypal at HMSBounty2012@yahoo.com or by going to our website and clicking on the online store where you will see a button to donate via paypal. We thank everyone for the support and prayers!

9/11 - Dolphin wants to swim swim swim

We came in to work thinking we had one meeting, but that one meeting turned into four and we have yet to leave the building!  Dolphin was getting restless, so I let him swim in my calendar.  Or is he trying to play chicken with the tall ship?  (Her name is Mir; she’s from Poland.)

6/21 - Yoshi learns a wheelie important lesson

This was written on somebody’s bike wheel (upside down!): “Each one teach one.” What will you teach me today?

Another one of those ice cream ads, this time with banana boats. (Lots of banana commentary today, for some reason.)

10/07 - Cannon says, "A pumpkin in a tree? How can that be?"

Cannon is upside down.  Wait a minute…  It’s the pirate ship that’s upside down!  What kind of a music festival is this, anyway?

The pumpkin in a tree said, “Hold your fire!”  He didn’t want to be kaboomed.

More fun with pirate band-aids:  Here's how to gift wrap treasure for your favorite pirate, courtesy of Lil' Gal.

8/22 - Captain sails the sniffly seas

Captain and I are sad that you guys have the sniffles today.  We thought this tissue box looked like a ship, so Captain sailed it around my desk. Hugs to you all…

Captain says, "All hands on deck!" He’s pretending to sail the ship in my calendar to a tropical island, in search of treasure and fine cuisine. Let’s hope I have smooth sailing on the trip home tonight…  the treasure there will be no delays due to BART protests!

Sidebar:  There is way too much Monday in this Monday for my liking.  Thanks to Mike for sending me Tuesday  from his earlier time zone!

8/02 - Merm finds water and froggy friends

Merm and I took a moment on the way in to admire the fountain and shiny silver orbs in the lobby of my new work building. She wanted to go for a swim, but we didn’t want to be late (or get in trouble!)

This is a nice little park in the middle of the city with tall redwood trees and a nice splashing fountain for Merm.

This is a nice little sign about an old ship that used to be right in this spot where a tall building is now.