Calvert Cliffs, Flora, and Fauna

The boys and I took the last day of Dad Camp to go to Calvert Cliffs to look for fossilized sharks' teeth and to play in the Bay waters. It's not that long a drive; we went last fall and found a handful of teeth, dug in the sand, and played with driftwood. This year, we went to a different beach that didn't cost as much to park. It was a 1.8 mile hike to the beach through woods which gave us some opportunities to see various denizens of the area. We saw a Great Blue heron chasing a snowy egret out of his area of the marsh. We saw lots of trees that had been cut down by beavers. We searched for salamanders, but didn't find any. There were lots of turtles and fish in the pond, though.

Searching for salamanders.

Jungle Cassius searching for something.

At the beach, we found a good spot in the shade, and proceeded to not really look for sharks' teeth.

My camera-shy son.

Maceo spent some time looking with a strainer, but then he joined Cassius in playing in the water.

Practicing back flips.

Instead, at the end of the time at the beach, we did find one tooth, and it is a different one than the ones we had found at the other beach. On the walk back to the car (1.8 miles, did I mention that?), we came across a small snake crossing the path with a skink in its mouth! Right in front of us, the skink wriggled away and scampered into the leaves, and the snake took off in the opposite direction. I had never seen such a thing!

Camping in the Shenandoahs

(Click the hyperlink to access the blog and see the video!)

This week, the boys are not going to camp. Instead, they are spending the days with me! So, early Monday, we left to go to the Shenandoah National Park to camp overnight. We got out there before it was time to get our camping spot, so instead, we went to a swimming hole I know about. The boys and I loved it. While the water was quite cold, it was a warm day, and there were basically no people there. We arrived to find some college aged kids, but they left within minutes of our arrival, and a family came just before we left. So we had the spot to ourselves! The most amazing thing was the number of butterflies! There were more than we could count, flying, landing, drinking, and sunning themselves.

After spending a few hours and eating our lunch, we headed to our campsite. It was the first time any of us had camped here, and once we got our insect repellent on, we were ready to go!

Quenching thirsts after putting up one easily set up tent. Ahhhhhhh!

We staked the tent, and then went for a hike, searching for Overall Run Falls. However, it was a long downhill hike, and someone (Cassius) got too tired, so we called it off. 

They are down there in the gloaming, somewhere.

The campsite was great, and to our delight, there was a herd of deer just wandering around us until the sun went down!

There's something back there!

Biggest and friendliest squirrels I've ever seen!

Woo hoo! A climbing rock!

At bedtime, we told each other scary stories, though some were scarier ("Who has my golden leg?!?!?") and some went on and on and didn't really have a point (Once again, Cassius).

In the morning, we packed up the tent and all our stuff (The boys are getting better at helping each time!), and we headed off to Garrett State Park in Western Maryland to explore a rock maze. It was a long drive, but worth it! 

"Daddy, is this the rock maze?"
"Do you see any rocks?"

There are giant boulders strewn about with natural avenues and alleyways between them for exploring and climbing. 

Main Street?

Maceo looking back on his innocent childhood years.

If you know the boys, it might not surprise you
that Cassius was the more adventurous climber.

Leader and second leader.

Simon and Garfunkel, the early years.

From there, it was a long drive back to DC. However, the boys were great in the car, and when Cassius was sleeping and we got a break from singer Vance Joy, I was able to introduce Maceo to Harry Chapin's song "30,000 Pounds of Bananas", a song that had always been a good one for road trips when I was a boy. He seems to like songs that have strong narratives, and that one has a truck crash to boot, so it's been on repeat since that day.

Cassius turns 6!

Saturday, I had hoped to go to the museums with the boys. However, they weren't as into it as I was, so I had them do chores with me around the house. I have completed some display shelves for their rooms, and I asked them to pick the stain they wanted to use on it. Once they had chosen, we got to the staining!

Cassius chose Light Pecan.

Maceo went with a much darker stain.

Focus. FOCUS!

Not technically sitting down on the job.

There was a little whining, but they both finished the work themselves!

On Sunday, Cassius turned a year older and celebrated his time around the sun at the PG Pool. Lots of our best friends came out, and Cassius had a wonderful time. Mostly, he spent his day at the foosball table, though he did do some swimming at the end. He ate his pizza, ate some cake, and opened some presents!

Photobombed by Grandpa.

COOKIE CKE!

Cassius deemed these the best presents of the day.

Leo explaining some of his many choices in stickers on the card he made.

Maceo & Camp Letts!

Maceo & his camp gear

It was our friends, the Pikes, who reached out to us in the dead of winter suggesting a trial-run sleepaway camp experience at Camp Letts for their son, Dean, and Maceo.  Turns out, this was a camp that Nick had gone to when he was younger, too.  Maceo wanted everything to do with the idea so we said yes, paid for it, and waited the, oh, four to five months for the camp session to actually start.  Which it did.  From Sunday to Tuesday, Maceo spent 3 days and 2 nights in an unairconditioned cabin in Maryland, full of 12 eight year old boys.

Maceo showed no signs of nervousness, only pure excitement.  The only person showing signs of hesitation - oh, alright, downright jealousy and grumpiness - was good ol' Cassius, peeved once again that he is not older.  Maceo, Cassius, and I arrived at Camp Letts on Sunday right when Maceo's friend Dean arrived and the two hugged upon exiting our cars. (Adorable!)  They ran quickly through their stations - health forms, add-on activities, lice check - were given the all clear and we were instructed to bring their bags to their bunks and help get them set up and to, with kinder words, leave our kids to get on with the business of being at camp.  So, that's what we did.

 The two camp counselors for their group, one from Scotland, the other from Poland, seemed relieved to have 12 eight year olds on their hands after having just come from three weeks with the 16-year old boys.  

A few shenanigans were had while the parents made the beds:

And I left a very calm, cool (but excited) Maceo behind for three days and two nights of banana boating, swimming, canoeing, junk food eating, shenanigans-having, s'mores roasting, insufficient sleeping, not-writing-any-pre-stamped-letters-home-to-any-relatives good times!

Evidence of Maceo's calm, cool, collectedness

"When are they going to leave?" - Maceo
"Just smile one more time and they are sure to get out of here after that!" - Dean

Independence Day

The boys and I had quite the lively day. It began with breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts because, why not? From there, we went to see the annual and traditional Takoma Park Fourth of July parade, a typical small town parade with atypical politics. We parked at Mami's and Maurice's and walked up to see if our friends the Greenbergs were home as their house is right on this year's parade route. Sadly, they were out of town, so we commandeered their porch. Maceo and Cassius wandered between the porch and the street, watching the participants and running down to get various handouts like candy, fans, candy, bead necklaces, and candy.

Cassius refused to be in this photo, so he insisted on hiding in the back.

After I snapped this selfie, Cash insisted I delete it.

 After the parade, we went to some neighbors'/friends of Mom's to have lunch. Maceo enjoyed all sorts of different foods including deviled eggs, enchiladas, black bean and corn salad, and rugelach. Cassius enjoyed some chips. And they both liked their ice cream.

The Foodies of the family enjoy their degustation.

Luckily, there were some kids there to play with, after an initial bout of timidity.

From Takoma Park, we came home and had some quiet time before we began to prepare dinner for Grandpa and Grandma Sue and Aunt Mary. Cassius made the Raspberry Lemonade Bars, Maceo made the pulled chicken barbeque, and I made the roast corn, watermelon and blueberry salad, and the baked beans.

Carefully flattening the crust.

Pre-dinner hootenanny. Emphasis on the "hoot."

The chef explains some of the finer technical points to his recipes to Aunt Mary

Here Cassius explains to Grandpa how he earns patches with each meal he cooks.

Maceo is way into a series of books called Amulet, and he explained the story to Grandpa.

Here, Cassius refused to not be in the front. 

 After dinner, we walked them back through the light rain to the corner and said good bye.

I have no idea what Grandpa and Maceo were talking about, bit it might have been the
three deer in the field across the street.

East Coast Quick Trip Part 3!

Beware! This post will have lots of videos. Apparently, those don't show up on the email post, but I hope you can click on the link and go to the blog and see the videos. If not, please let me know, and I'll try to figure out the issue!

We left Philadelphia Saturday (I believe in the last post, I originally said we spent Thursday night at the Abrams', but it was really Friday night!) and drove a few hours to Long Beach Island. We'd spent several days there two years ago, and it had been great. I had hoped to spend more time there, but Darren and Janice had been hosting friends from California who left Saturday morning, and the boys started camp on Monday, so that left us about a day to visit.

Darren sent us the wrong address, but across the street from the wrong house was a young man selling lemonade. So Maceo and Cassius got a cup each.

Capitalism is alive and well in NJ.

We got there at about 2, and we found a bonanza awaited us! The previous visitors had rented bikes for a week, so we got to use them for free. We biked on down the way to get some ice cream and some shrimp, oysters, and steamed clams. My good eater tried the steamed clams, liked them, and ate another! 

Maceo is getting good at casually riding one handed.

Evan is a little older than Mace, but he was very good at
engaging with them and playing.

After that snack, we went to the main attraction! However, while the air was warm and the weather lovely, it had been windy and cold the previous days, and therefore the water was a balmy 65 or so! Cassius did some boogie boarding, but that was the extent of our entering the water.

DON'T LET THE ICE COLD WATER TOUCH YOU!

That night, after a lovely meal of haddock (Maceo ate three pieces!), steak, ribs, salad, and fruit (Cassius likes strawberries, like I didn't already know that), the boys slept together in their own room, and I watched the beautiful sunset from the roof.

The next day, we went to the beach for a little morning visit and did some digging. Then, we biked to the water slide park! The previous visitors had left their passes for us, so we got that for free, too! Last time we went, both boys were a bit trepidatious about the whole endeavor, though Cassius will fight you on that now. And this time, they were, too. They insisted on first doing the little kids' slides. We made our way from there over to the lazy river ride, and then finally went to the slides. Cassius did the rides tandem with me first, over Maceo's protestations that he wanted to ride with me. And then they were off! In the end, they did every slide all by themselves, and it was hard to get them to leave! 

In the following video, you'll see action shots from the cold ocean and the beach; Cassius riding the tandem slide with me; Maceo and Evan racing down the new fast slide; Cassius, Evan, Darren, and Maceo racing down the slide; and finally, Cassius and Evan racing. I love the slow motion yell Maceo makes in the fourth clip and the little yip Cassius makes in the final clip.

But leave we did, off to lunch. Maceo ordered fried chicken (!), a first, and Cassius broke from his vacation meals to have pizza. We left the island soon after and made our way home to DC. This whole time, they've been playing a traveling game from my youth where each kid counts the animals on his side of the car for money (cows are 1 cent, horses, pigs, goats, sheep are 5 cents, and wild animals are 25 cents!). Maceo ended the trip with 4.11 and Cassius, who naps more, ended with 2.28!

That evening, Maceo suggested we do a Glow and Grow. "What's that?" I asked. "It's when you say one thing you liked and one thing you want to be better." Maceo suggested a different camping site at Douthat State Park next time that had fewer gnats and people. Cassius suggested a second day at the water park (Both good suggestions!) And they both said the whole trip was the Glow, which made me very happy.

East Coast Quick Trip Pt. 2

After camping, the boys and I embarked on our next trip: Philadelphia and Long Beach Island, NJ.


We stayed Friday night with our friends the Abrams. They have three kids: Oliver is going into 9th grade, Evan is going into 7th grade, and Josie is going into 4th grade. However, they all are very nice with Maceo and Cassius. Cassius was especially interested in Evan. For example, he asked Evan to ride in our car back from the pool to the house. And Evan seemed to like the attention. Upon arrival, for lunch, Stefan made smashburgers, which Maceo really liked. Cassius ate peanut butter on bread. We went to their swimming pool and had a great time, though the swim test to use the big slide and the diving board was too stringent for the boys to try. They also enjoyed wrestling in the muddy mulch near the jungle gym during adult swim. For dinner, Maceo tried a traditional Philly Italian sub. He didn't really like it. Cassius had peanut butter on bread.

The kids took over the lunch table.

500 is the rage at our house, but luckily
it's a universal game and all kids know it.

 In the morning, Maceo and Cassius watched Oliver and Evan play Fortnite, a video game that is super popular. We walked down to the street to play at the local park.

Swinging Party at the playground down the street.

The plan had been to leave pretty early to go to the beach. Stefan and Liz were planning on taking their kids to summer camp in New Jersey. However, the summer camp had been inundated with water after recent storms and was closed, so the kids were all hanging out. And that meant that Cassius and Maceo wanted to hang out with them. So we didn't leave until 12 or so!

Which left time for one more smashburger. Cassius had apples and bananas with peanut butter and watermelon and bread.