Paddle paddle

Three aunts have kayaks they keep down there and we were hoping to take the littles up river for a ride.

That same day the Coast Guard decided to park at the restaurant across the river. I'm not up on maritime law...I thought we *might* get away with 1 big person and 1 little person in a kayak, but we'd probably merit a visit from them with 1 big and 2 littles in a kayak so I didn't risk it.

Instead we took them for little rides within our dock area. They really enjoyed. Shane most of all. Hopefully next time we're down Daddy will be with us so he can go for a ride upriver.

Jake took each little one for a short ride so I could take pictures.

If you click on the picture below to enlarge it, look from the end of the pier out to the right and slightly up to see the buoy. An osprey has a nest with at least one baby there. When we were out with Ann we went by it and the osprey started circling us. We saw a baby peek over the edge of the nest which was really cool.

After Jake gave all the littles a ride, he paddled out to see the nest. The osprey circled him too. It looked like she might swoop down on him a couple of times. He would have been a pretty big fish for her to carry so I guess he would have been ok.
After all that, Shane still wanted to ride in the kayak so I stood in the water and pushed him back and forth.
Ella is little but really strong. She got that kayak up on the beach by herself. I was impressed.

Swim Time

We started out with just 2 life vests because Hank is a little picky (ok, a lot picky) about what he'll wear. I was sure he wouldn't be willing to run around with one on. But with 3 littles who can't swim, in a tidal river, I needed something that would give me a few extra seconds to get to them all should something happen so I bought 2 vests, 1 for Ella and 1 for Shane.

Aunt Ann, Cassandra and Joe were also down for a visit and Aunt Ann knows how to drive Aunt Sally's little motor boat. She offered a ride, the kids thought it would be great, and Hank had to wear a life vest so we borrowed one from the stash at the big house.

I guess between that and the little play ones at the maritime museum, Hank decided they weren't half bad and wore the borrowed vest the rest of the time we were there. Of course it didn't hurt that the borrowed one was blue which happens to be his favorite color.

Little Miss making a sand cake. Yum!There are little minnow looking fish that come up in the waves and hang out in the shallow water. If you sit still, they'll nibble your toes. Shane didn't like the nibbling but he wanted to catch those fish and spent a lot of time trying. It was like Godzilla picking daisies. He would crash through the water with his bucket or push his bucket into the water really fast and scare the fish away. I guess he didn't understand why they weren't holding still for him.
At one point a big boat went by creating large waves. One bowled Shane over and he fell face first into the water. He couldn't get his big head up so he was bobbing head first until we picked him (within a second or two). I realized I hadn't shown them how to roll onto their backs and put their arms out to float should they fall overboard or lose their feet. Ella totally got it and could do it consistently. The boys....they weren't going for it.

Little swimmers. Ella would probably be able to swim in pool. She was on her tummy kicking her feet and paddling her hands.


Here fishy fishy!
Wahoo!

Munga Bunga! Kunga Bunga!

When Hank and Ella first put on their new suits to model them for us, they jumped into the living room shouting Munga Bunga, Dude! We started laughing and told them it's Cowa Bunga, Dude. So they started shouting Kunga Bunga, Dude! To this day, they still say one of those two phrases instead of cowa bunga. So funny

A couple of days before we got to BI, there was a storm with some high winds. The winds didn't bring Mary Poppins (oh how I wish!) but they did bring some beach toys like this boogie board.

Hank was yelling Kunga Bunga! while surfing on the beach. :)
I asked him if those were his legs or was he riding a chicken. "I'm a chicken rider! Yee haw!!" Oh my...
Ella didn't get the whole bend your knees thing. Do princess surf?
It took a bit of coaching but she finally got it.

Random shots

Mark passed his GI Joe stuff on to Hank. He may ask for it back after he sees what Ella did to the Jeep. It's a dolly tea party!

At the table eating lunch at Aunt Sally's.
Watching some sort of sea turtle. We tried to feed him some wild strawberries but he wanted no part of them or us. Once he decided to head back to the water, he put his running shoes on. I thought turtles were supposed to be slow, but this guy hauled some booty.
Shane talking to the turtle. Hi! really loud. Maybe they have really sensitive ears and that's why he left. In any case, Shane was sure this little guy was his new best friend...the turtle may need some convincing though

Cypress Swamp

I forgot that we headed to Cypress Swamp before going home after the musuem. The turn off for it is north of the turn off for Broomes Island so we drive by the little brown sign with an arrow every time we go down. After we ate, we had renewed energy so I decided we'd check it out. Another very cool place and FREE!

It's very hands on with all sorts of interactive exhibits. They had a model of a dead tree with little doors cut into it. You open one door to see a chipmunks nest, another had a birds nest, a beehive, and so on. Pretty neat. They had an observation window out to the swamp and overlooking a bird/squirrel feeding platform. We didn't see any new birds but it was fun to watch them. They also had a beehive with one side of the enclosure being clear so you could see into it. That was pretty neat too.

Here are Shane and Ella pretending to be beavers and chew on the log.

They had a pretty pond out front which Shane promptly ran to (and if I read his mind correctly, he considered jumping in)


We had our bird book with us but my two loud children scared them away. They are cute though, aren't they. :)

They have a nifty boardwalk through the swamp so you can see the cypress trees up close and all sorts of other swampy things. We could have taken the stroller which would have made me feel better. The guide told us we couldn't because there were stairs but it turns out they were wide and not very steep so the big stroller would have been fine going down/up them.

There were no rails on the boardwalk so there are no pictures. Shane is nothing if not exhuberant and I swear I'm going to keel over one day from one his stunts. He was obliviously happy running, skipping and jumping along this boardwalk. I, however, envisioned him falling overboard and being sucked into the mud or dragged away by some huge swamp creature waiting in the background for just such an opportunity.

Hank held the map and made sure were were going in the right direction (using his survival compass, so cute!) and Ella just skipped along asking a million questions.

Back in the nature center we saw a steep, spiral staircase with a sign at the bottom about a guide and some ANIMALS. We get up there...it's a bunch of SNAKES! Can you see my skin crawling from there?? I figured I just carried a 30 pound ball of energy up those crazy stairs so we're staying to hear the guy's schpeil. He told us all about the snakes native to the area and showed us some other snakes he's collected and then tarantulas (aaack!!!). We ended our little time in Happyland with this very nice man handing us all a piece of snake skin. Mercy!! Ella and Shane tucked theirs in the pockets and Hank just about dropped over (with me). Down the steps we went and then we headed back to the house.

More Broomes Island

The next day we were off to the Calvert Maritime Museum. Two words- Super.Cool

Our adventure began when I realized I needed gas so I pulled off the highway and got gas. To get back on the highway I had to go North first and then do a U-turn to head south. In all that I missed the sign for the turn off and we were on our way over the bridge to St Mary's county. I can't complain though. It was a cool bridge, very high and a spectacular view. I was disappointed they don't have a place to pull off so you can check out the view without risking a car accident. The good thing I guess is that we had to turn around and head back over so I got to check the view again. :)

We had to pay to get in the museum but it was so worth the price. If I had thought to pack a lunch, we could have stayed all day.

This is the Drumpoint (I think) lighthouse. It wasn't open for tours when we were there so we didn't get to go in. We'll save lighthouse tours for a time when daddy can come so I have an extra set of hands and eyes for Shane.
Hank pretending to be a sailor
Shane climbing around one of the displays. Thankfully the museum was very hands on so there was very little he could damage.
Seeing if Jake's head would fit in the mouth of a prehistoric shark
They have a pool of skates and rays. The skates just skimmed along the bottom but the rays were very playful and friendly. They would come to the surface to look at us and even splash us with their little wings. They had eggs in an incubator so you could see the little baby moving around in the egg sac. The interpretor was very excited to tell us everything about the skates and rays found in the bay. I would love to go back with more Shane-help so I could actually listen to him and not worry about my little man grabbing the rays (which he tried to do!)
They also had a hands on discovery room. Here is Ella Bella Cinderalla touching the underside of a horsehoe crab. Hank wouldn't even consider it. Shane looked at it and reached his finger out...then changed his mind.

Shane was willing to touch the top side though...much less scary looking for sure!

They had hamster balls with star fish in them so you could see how their little suckers attach to the surface. They had a little boat for the kids complete with sailor hats and life vests. I wanted to buy them some little hats but they didn't have them in the gift shop and I couldn't find them in any of the little shops we visited later. It's just as well I suppose...3 fewer toys to pick up!
The highlight for the kids (and me) was the otters, Bubbles and Squeak. So playful and fun to watch! They interacted with the kids through the glass, swimming right up to us and swimming by with their tummies on the glass. We spent a long time running back and forth between the two observation windows watching them play.

This lighthouse was inside the discovery room. It had stairs inside so they could climb up and flip the switch to turn on the light. Shane peeking...

Shane in the lightkeepers house for story time
Hank inviting me in for tea and stories
Ella and Hank peeking
They also had a fossil dig area. They could dig through the sand and find all sorts of shells and fossils and they got to keep one fossil. They could then take their fossil to a table with charts to identify what kind it was, record the info on a slip of paper and tape the fossil to the paper. The littles were a little young for that part but they definitely enjoyed digging!

We decided to walk from there down the the boardwalk area to find food. When were out with Shane it's easiest to just find a place that serves burgers or grilled chicken. We didn't find a "burger joint" type place and I didn't have the energy to handle the littles in a sit down restaurant by myself so we headed back to the truck and went to Burger King and headed home!

Another 2 thumbs up adventure!

Broomes Island Adventure

I'm way behind in posting so hold on to your hat...
I took the kids to Broomes Island last week to spend some time relaxing on the beach....which is crazy because there's just no relaxing when you have Shane with you. The kids were all pretty good considering we were in new surroundings and our schedule was off. We stayed at Aunt Sally's house because it's one story. The big house has really steep stairs which make me a nervous wreck with Shane, but Aunt Sally's is closer to the water so we had to barricade the two front doors so if he escaped I would have a couple of extra seconds to catch him.

The first couple of days it was too cold to swim so I had to find things for them to do. Aunt Sue gave us some great ideas so off we went! I have to add that nothing is in order...I'm on the laptop using the "scratch pad" instead of a real mouse so WYSIWYG. :)

We went to Jefferson Patterson Park which is not far from the house. We saw a bald eagle which was really cool. We played at 2 different beaches and decided we liked the first beach (below) better.

Sitting at one of the overlooks enjoying the incredible view..well, I was enjoying the view; they were sitting there only because I told them to. ;)

The area was originally inhabited by indians (I forget which ones) and they have a little village set up that you can walk through. Pretty cool.

Hank inside one of the huts
Ella and Hank in front of a deer skin where it looks like they skinned the deer and had a fire pit and oyster shucking area
Shane with his surival whistle. I honestly wonder about myself sometimes. What knucklehead buys 3 kids whistles?? They were pretty cool though...they had a whistle on one end, a compass on the other, that end screwed off and there was a watertight compartment for matches and a reflecting mirror in the cap. Everything you need to be found...of course as loud as Ella and Shane are, they need only to yell and the whole world will know right where they are!
This wall surrounded the village. They used this kind of single file entrance because it could be protected by only one guard. Pretty smart.

Standing on a split rail fence with their sticks. Everywhere we go, they gravitate to sticks and tote them around the entire time...unless of course they hand them to me for safekeeping while they explore.

The beach was nice. They have stone breakers to help with the erosion problem and they created a nice little lagoon-type area. Shane jumped right in and got his shorts wet so he spent the rest of the day in his diaper.

IIRC this is the site of the servant's quarters for the first family that settled the farm.

This was a really cool park and it's great because it's FREE...my kind of price. The visitor's center has a video about the area and the man that established it as farm for experimenting with crops and cattle. They also have a great hands on discovery room filled with colonial era activities. We just finished that time period in homeschool so Hank and Jake knew quite a bit about the games, etc. All in all....two thumbs up!