Adventure: Baltimore (Hopkins)

Dad and I also just returned from a trip to Baltimore to take Tristin back to Hopkins. Baltimore was awesome! The weather was really nice for move in and the system for moving in stuff is pretty sweet too. We drove up and they put all of Tris's stuff in a big bin and then took him and the bin up to his room and dad and I drove off to park the car. The whole experience took less than two mins, it was great!! Then we got him settled, took some super cool footage of the suite and got a tour of Hopkins. It's like going to school in a big museum!

Also, while driving around Dad and I stumbled on Charm City Cakes, the bakery from Ace of Cakes on the food network. I was super psyched!!! So, of course I took a picture from a moving vehicle, because if you do it that way it isn't technically considered stalking. ;)

Then we went to a GIGANTIC Wal-Mart where you have to ride an escalator to the

second floor, and they have little escalator things to bring up your cart. It's s

uper neat!!

The next day we went to Fort McHenry where the Batimore citizens fought off the British and Francis Scott Key wrote the words for the National Anthem. I e

njoyed the whole experience. The day was clear and sunny and just warm enough to be nice. They had reenactors that shot off a cannon which was SWEET! The ranger there said in the revolutionary war they put 18lb cannonballs in there with 6 lbs of gunpowder. It was impressive to see the men in period dress actually setting up a cannon, just with no cannonball. The blast was impressive and we could even feel the aftershock reverberate off Baltimore across the harbor. I think my heart stop

ped beating for a whole minute! It was fun to see so much of our nation's history so well preserved.

That night we had dinner on the docks with Tristin and his friend Oona. I had crabcake stuffed shrimp and it was delicious! A lovely end to a peaceful first trip to Baltimore....now if only the driving part was as lovely, but that's another story.

Keep a weather eye...(especially on the road)

Adventure: Deep Clean

So, it's been awhile, but not a whole lot has happened. I was looking through some pics of this weekend and found the BEFORE picture to our garage cleaning efforts and thought it should go up. That way everyone can be super impressed when the DONE pic gets here!! On Sunday afternoon Torbin and I, with some interspersed help from dad, started the much needed cleaning on our garage. It's been that way for years with junk getting pushed in from both sides. Mom's got a pretty hefty pile that starts near the inside door, while dad has a nice stack of tools, chemicals and bike stuff getting pushed through the big outside door, and in the middle is storage stuff and old toys belonging to us kiddies. Overall it is a disaster, but Torbin and I worked for many hours and managed to clear a path all the way through and got over a dumpster's worth of trash! This is just the beginning but the end result with be awesome!

That's all for right now. Keep a weather eye...