Crane

We had the best gyros we’ve had in years last night. Danita was looking for non-chain restaurants with good reviews. She found a place that was a very easy walk from our hotel. (We didn’t even have to cross a street.) We both ordered gyros and were amply rewarded. They got all the basic elements of a gyro right, plus the lamb was plentiful, tender, and very flavorful. Why can’t we get good gyros in Columbia? I’ll never understand.

Unfolded Crane

It was a short ride to Columbus — 75 miles / 60 minutes. We started out at the botanical gardens. It was a perfect day for walking  around outside and the were beautiful. We eventually went inside, which was just as nice. They had a special origami exhibit that was all full of unfolded cranes and stuff. But I liked my real crane better. There’s more pictures at the bottom of the post. We got an ice cream from the cafe, then headed off to the history museum and village. They were having an old-time baseball exhibit. We ate lunch under the shade of a tree with the sounds of old-time baseball in the background.

Portable TV

The history museum was much more interesting than I expected. I enjoyed the exhibit on Lustron pre-fab houses, both for the house and for the 1950-era furnishings (including cowboy curtains and PJs with a pattern I found vaguely familiar from an early point in my life). Before Lustron went belly-up, they managed to make quite a few houses. About 2,000 still exist, which makes Lustron much more successful than Buckmaster Fuller’s Dymaxion house, which is displayed at the Henry Ford museum. There was also a 1950-something Chevrolet Bel Air pulling an Airstream trailer. Another highlight was an early portable TV from Philco.

Playground

The village was equally interesting and much more photogenic. They had a recreation of 1898 life, with the usual assortment of stores and such; as well as typical houses for lower class, middle class, and upper class families. The playground had toys that are out of style such as teeter-totters. Re-enactors stayed strictly in character. We heard a barbershop quartet and rode a 1903 Ford Model A. One of my favorites was the bicycle shop.

A Real Thank You

We are staying at lowly Holiday Inn Express Hotels. So far, they have been perfectly adequate. But today our hotel offered a service I have never received before. The manager came to our room. He offered us a letter thanking us for our business and offering personal details such as how many loyalty points we have earned so far. Then he gave us a chocolate bar with our name printed on it. We’ve stayed in much ritzier hotels from time to time, but we’ve never received anything like this before.

Crane

Unfolded Pegasus

Origami Frog

Barbershop Quartet

1903 Model A Ford

In 1972, I had a year of work under my belt, plus a second year of Co-Op work experience. This being a Federal Government job (at the Navy lab in Dahlgren, VA), I had earned 6 weeks of vacation. I took them and did an epic cross-country journey in my Datsun 2000. When I returned to work, there was an attractive young lady working in my section as a Co-Op. I was giving hints to one of my co-workers, but he was being dense. Finally, I asked him outright to introduce us.

Now that same young lady is traveling with me on my second, and her first, epic journey. This time, instead of driving to CA and back in 6 weeks, we are driving to Pipe Spring in two (plus a couple of days). So far, this journey has been even more fun than my first.

Barbara Fritchie Restaurant

Barbara Fritchie was born in Lancaster. She famously said “Shoot if you must, this old grey head, but spare your country’s flag.” — or so said John Greenleaf Whittier. Whether the incident is true or not, the poem is popular. Ammon E. Cramer liked it so much that when he opened his candy shop in Frederick in 1910, he called it “Barbara Fritchie Candies”. This business morphed and relocated and eventually became the Barbara Fritchie Restaurant. It is in my story because this is where we had the only restaurant breakfast we will have on this journey. The rest of our breakfasts will be included with our hotel room. This restaurant has everything. Besides the broken sign, it has lots of guys in pickup trucks hanging out and talking, plastic-topped tables, pies and cakes in the display case, a candy display near the register (complete with Necco Wafers – they’re just like I remember them), and of course very good diner breakfast options.

Sideling Hill

We decided to take a short detour from I-70 to avoid the better part of PA, with their eternal infernal road construction and took I-68. This Maryland Interstate is in very good condition. It features ear-popping mountains, the most famous of which is Sideling Hill. There used to be a small museum discussing how it is that the mountain goes up and the strata go down. The museum had placards filled with geological this and billion year old that. The museum was closed during the MD budget cuts. Recently it was re-opened. Unfortunately, the museum material had been donated to the Hancock Museum. The only thing at the stop was brochures, bathrooms, and bottled Coke. But it’s still a very cool place to stop and walk around. The parking court has a nice view of an amazing vista, making it the real Vista View Court (as opposed  to the street we used to live on).

By lunch time, we were at the Salt Fork Park in Ohio. Ohio’s largest state park is a lake with surrounding land. Budget cuts are evident in the grass growing through the asphalt roads, and not many people were at the nature center where we stopped for lunch. But the park is free, the picnic table was in the shade of a tree, the weather was beautiful, and the lake view was very nice. After lunch, we played 18 holes of mini-golf. By 3:30, we were in our hotel in Cambridge, Ohio. This was our longest drive. Hopefully, those roads we ended up taking through PA will be the worst roads we encounter.

The adventure today was a visit to the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge. They are set up for classroom instruction (including chairs reserved for teachers and chaperones). But the exhibits catch enough interest that the kids are constantly in danger of learning something. Everybody had a good time. We’ll finish up with some swimming, reading, packing, and maybe a video. The flight back leaves at 8:15 tomorrow morning. We’ll be having breakfast on the secure side of the airport.

There’s no pics, so here’s some vignettes.

I usually go to Men’s club Monday mornings, where bagels are available for breakfast while we solve the problems of the world. Danita held breakfast until I had left for Men’s club and served Eggo waffles with ice cream. She told the kids, “Don’t tell Grandpop”. (Actually, I hatched the plan.) By dinner time Elizabeth couldn’t stand it any longer, and told me. Danita and I had fun with that. It was a nice way to offer a special treat, while offering a reason for doing it only once. A side effect was that Elizabeth became very alert to my location during breakfast. For example, when I took the recycles out Thursday morning, she asked Danita if I would be gone long.

This morning, I took the kids and a frisbee to “Snowden Lake” (our joke name for the storm water management pond). It has a large grassy area that’s shaded in the mornings. The kids were doing an extraordinarily good job of throwing, until somebody got a little too rambunctious and threw the green frisbee into the brush. How does one find a green frisbee in the green brush? I don’t know, because that’s when my alarm went off, warning me I had exactly 5 minutes to log into Southwest and get my boarding pass. (If you want 3 seats in a row on Southwest, you need a boarding pass with a low number.) I sounded the klaxon and had the kids running to the house. I was taking up the rear, to pick up shoes that literally fell of Bryon’s feet. I got logged in a minute before show time. Oh, well, it was a free frisbee, swag from some Columbia event.

There are some things I forgot about having kids around. For example, they are very good at turning lights on. Turning them off seems to be much more difficult. They are perfectly willing to leave them on until the bulbs burn out.

Monday afternoon, when we were filling time we thought was filled, I offered the kids the opportunity to solve a puzzle on my tablet. Since then, I get at least two requests a day for more screen time to work on the puzzle. I’m an anxious traveler and like to arrive at the airport early. We’ll have lots of time to kill at the airport tomorrow morning. I’m saving the interest for then.

Joke from Bryon: “Grandpop, what’s the difference between eggs in the store and elephants in the jungle”?

Me: “I don’t know”.

Bryon: “Nanna, I hope you don’t send Grandpop out for eggs.” (Actually, she did. I did not come home with elephants.)

The adventures didn’t do as well today. We went to a recycled tire playground in Patapsco Park. The spider eating a butterfly and then encasing it in silk was way cool. The rest of the trip was a dud. An invitation to swim usually is greeted with great enthusiasm and a prompt change into swim clothes. Today neither child was interested. The movie, “Pete’s Dragon” was successful, even if Granddad was grumpy about the increased cost of theater tickets. Much of the day was spent on silliness, including this video — the second video I ever made and the first I successfully posted on the web.

We also made secret messages for Nanna. Here’s how to make your own secret messages. Buy pens with Frixion ink. Buy one set for each child. While Nanna is cooking, have the kids “sneak” Nanna’s hair dryer downstairs. After the message is complete, use the hair dryer to make the ink invisible. Let the children proudly present Nanna with blank sheets of paper and ask her to put them in the freezer. When Nanna serves ice cream after dinner, she will find the papers and be amazed to see the secret message revealed.

There are pics today.

Player Piano

We wrapped up our visit to Lancaster today. The payer piano was a big surprise, and at $1 the best entertainment bargain of the trip. We stopped at the Amish Village to learn about the most famous religious group of the county. On the way home, we visited the Oregon Ridge Nature Center in Hunt Valley. It is conveniently located on the route home, with bathrooms, picnic tables, and plenty to explore. A video and a visit to the pool finished up the day.

Amish Village

There are pics today. We went to Lancaster, PA. We started by riding the Strausburg RR. It has the only place in the US where two steam-powered passenger trains pass each other. It’s as much fun as ever. They haven’t changed their spiel one bit. There is a new entertainment farm near the picnic stop that is very developed. Other than that, it’s the same as ever. Then we went across the street to visit the PA Railroad Museum. It has a much-improved children’s area and is otherwise unchanged. The Red Caboose Hotel is fine. Our caboose is clean and in good shape.

Here’s several pics with a special activity. Cut them out and make your own flip-book!

The key to a good week with the grand kids, at least so far, has been flexibility.

• Unfortunately, Danita broke her foot. It turns out she can hobble around pretty well, but it still eliminated any activity that requires a lot of walking.
• Unfortunately, Elizabeth got an ear ache. Jul was still here, took E to the doctor, and got the meds. But it imposes serious limits on the amount of underwater time at the pool.
• We planned to have Pete, Rebecca, and their girls for dinner Sunday. The girls would stay overnight and be picked up Monday afternoon. That would make it an easy time for us, since all we would have to do to keep everybody happy is offer food occasionally. Unfortunately, at the last minute, they discovered the girls had lice. Plus, it was rainy in the afternoon and evening, and the pool was closed.

At Ft. McHenry

That required us to do some major last-minute adjusting. I pulled out two emergency activities — a computer puzzle and a Spirograph. The kids solved the computer puzzle much more quickly than I though they would. They made it to level 10 in just a few hours. At that point, the puzzle got to abstract for them. It turns out the Reeds already have a Spirograph, but it was enough to get us through Sunday — with the help of Amazon Prime and the movie “Free Willy”. The movie is an oldie (1993) but a goodie (both kids were entranced for the entire movie). And it is free with Amazon Prime.

Bryon and Nanna at the pool

Today, we visited Ft. McHenry. It was a beautiful day — warm, sunny, and not humid. We got there just in time for the flag raising. Unfortunately, the memory card in my camera was not properly seated, and I didn’t get those pics. But you can see them doing a Junior Ranger project in one of the rooms of the fort. The harbor was spectacularly beautiful. After the fort, there was some pool time.

Try to pretend you’re having a good time, please

After dinner, we’ll be packing. We’re driving up to Lancaster, PA tomorrow. We’re staying overnight at the Red Caboose Hotel. When our kids were young, this property was the best idea ever. But the original owner started slacking off on some maintenance as he got older. Now it’s under new ownership, and we have high hopes.

Here’s some pics from the wedding. It was low light, and most were taken f rom across the room, so they’re a little out of focus.

Tony – Father of the Bride speach

Cara Chaprnka

Brady and Maribeth – first dance

BFF Club

Bryon and Elizabeth at the wedding arch

It’s just pictures today.

Penguin Feeding

A Pokemon I’ve never seen before

The difference between an antler and a horn

Look!

In Africa

Chimpanzee forest

Ride a turtle

Otter pond

Jump like …[/caption]

… a frog

What’s that?

There are no pics this week. This should be a quick note. It was a pretty standard week. As you know, Danita had excellent news from her doctor. She’s recovering nicely. The last couple of days she’s been walking over to the pool. (But she doesn’t swim. She just bounces around for a while to enjoy the water.

This week *I* missed the curb. I was on a 40-mile ride Wednesday. I saw a nice patch of shade in a grassy area and decided to take one last drink break before lunch. I drove off onto the grass. All of a sudden I felt a bump and immediately went down on my right side. I got up and started investigation what happened. Finally I found a small curb. I had to find it by feel, because it was so small and so overgrown that it was impossible to see. My right shoulder was a little bruised, and the chain had popped off. The chain was easily fixed. My shoulder felt better in a couple of days.

We finally got to Baldwin Station restaurant. We went without a reservation on Wednesday. We left early to make sure we got a table. It turned out that it was Prime Rib night. We both had the special. It was excellent.

We finished up the week with a community party Friday and Circle this evening. We’re looking forward to the Reeds coming Friday.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.