Good morning Baltimore!!

Tripp and I spent just shy of a week visiting his sisster, Quincey, her husband, Blake, and their adorable daughter, Emmaline during the last week of May. They moved to Ft. Meade outside of Baltimore last year and we had yet to visit them. We were excited to spend time with them and explore some nearby sights.

We arrived late on Thursday evening. Blake picked us up from the airport and we headed to bed when we arrived at their house.

The next morning, we headed to Gettysburg, PA. Tripp was so excited since this is somewhere he has wanted to visit since he was a child. We walked through the museum, watched a film giving us the highlights of the battle of Gettysburg and then we got in the car for the driving tour. At each stop, a CD told us the history of the location. We were able to get out an explore several of the stops as well. Here are a few pictures of what we saw.

 Once we got back to Quincey and Blake's, we gave Emmaline her belated birthday gift. I think she liked it!!

Saturday we drove into Baltimore to take a stroll through the city. We saw variuos restaurants, the inner harbor, boats, and such. Walking in the heat left us hungry so we headed to G & M's restaurant that was recommended to us for their crab cakes. The crab cakes were FABULOUS!!

Beautiful!

Delicious!

                                             







After lunch we headed to the pool for a bit. Emmaline could not decide if she wanted to be in the pool or out of the pool!!

 

Sunday we drove to Annapolis, MD. We parked at the Naval Academy, had a picnic lunch on the water on the Academy's campus, and then walked through the city. The city was so cute! It was full of shops and restaurants. We stopped for dessert at an amazing ice cream and chocolate shop. While eating outside of the shop, we encountered a local dog that Emmaline loved. But the dog was more interested in hoping that Blake's ice cream would spill onto the ground!

That evening some of Blake and Quincey's friends cam over for a Memorial Day barbecue. We enjoyed ribs, veggies, salad, corn, and dessert.

Monday we spent the day playing and relaxing. That evening, Tripp and I watched Emmaline so that Blake and Quincey could enjoy a child-free dinner.

Tuesday Tripp and I took the commuter train into Washington D.C. for the day. It was a fun, busy day! We saw the Newseum, U.S. Capitol, White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial and more. So fun!

Wednesday, we headed back to Houston. We had a great visit!!!

Greek Fest

Back in May, Tripp and I went to a nearby Greek Festial with some friends of ours. Of course we enjoyed listening to Greek music, watching the Greek dancers, eating delicious Greek food, and touring the beautiful church.

What was slightly different about this festival was that there was a gyro eating contest at the festival. We figured it would be a handful of normal folks just having fun eating as many gros as possible. Well, we were wrong! What we witnessed was a true Major League Eating food eating competition. We watched big name professional eaters such as Joey Chestnut and Pat Bertoletti. It was interesting to watch a real food eating contest. I have no idea how they consumed that much meat!!! Joey Chestnut won by eating 21 and 1/2 gyros in 10 minutes. Crazy!!



It was a fun afternoon!

Going to the Zoo, how about you??

Tripp and I finally went to the Houston a few weeks ago for his company picnic. For the picnic, the company he works for rented a large pavillion at the zoo where we were served a lunch of hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad, and more. After lunch, we had a chance to check out the zoo. We fought through the crowds and were able to see most of the animals at the zoo.

After the zoo, we stopped for a snoball at Mam's House of Ice. It is the closest thing to a New Orleans style snoball that I have had outside of New Orleans. It was worth the wait!

Parade of Cars....

art cars that is!! Since Tripp and I have lived in Houston, we have heard about this Art Car Parade that takes place each May. We have never made it out to see so this year, we marked our calendars early and made sure that it was in our plans. Tripp and I invited out friend Jill and her two little kiddos to join us (her husband was out of town for work so he could not come). We picked up our favorite parade going food--Popeyes and headed to the parade. We found a spot, ate lunch, and waited for the parade to begin. I have seen my fair share of parades being from New Orleans, but I have never seen a parade like this one. It was full of crazy cars, bikes, scooters, and people dressed to corrdinate with the theme of their mode of transportation. I got a few pictures of just some of the cars. It was a fun day!!

This was one of my favorites!!

The flags just kept coming from one bike!!

Easter Weekend

We spent Easter this year in New Orleans. We spent Friday relaxing, having lunch with my parents, getting a haircut from Claire, and having a crawfish boil that evening. Tripp and Darr helped my dad boil crawfish. Once the crawfish were soaking, we had a mini birthday celebration for Tripp, Darr, my dad, and Claire. We enjoyed crawfish, potatoes, and corn for dinner and ended the meal with cake for the birthdays.

"This is awesome!!"

Saturday morning, we woke up before the sun and drove to Grand Isle, Louisiana to go fishing for the day. We staked out a spot on a large pier in the Gulf. After a few lessons from my dad, Tripp, and Darr, our poles were in the water. Most of us were not lucky, but my dad, Tripp, and my mom pulled a few in!

Claire caught one crab in the crab nets.

One of Tripp's several catches

Mom caught some too!

Look what Dad caught...a stingray!

Once we had our fill of fishing, we found a nice spot for a picnic lunch and then headed back to Metairie. Once back home, we showered rested, and then began preparing dinner. We all worked on shucking oysters for fried oyster po-boys and raw oysters on the half shell.

Shucking oysters

Sunday morning, we went to church and then headed downtown for brunch at the Ruby Slipper. Brunch was delicious!! Once back home, we packed up and left for the drive back to Houston. It was a fun weekend!!

Mississippi Fun

Tripp and I went to Mississippi for a long weekend just before Easter to visit his grandmothers and to see his mom. Ms. Kat picked us up from the airport and we made a stop at the Jackson Museum of Natural Science. We knew that the weather was looking bad, but had no idea that a tornado was close by. After being in the musuem for a bit, all the visitors were shuffled into a few large rooms away from windows and exterior doors while we were under a tornado warning. We were put into rooms full of unhappy preschool to elementary aged children on field trips from school. After a 45 minute delay, we were back in the museum. We saw lots of natural science-y things like snakes, fish, bees, birds, buterflies, etc.

Tripp trying to walk like a caterpillar

Have you ever seen a snake with 2 heads??

After lunch, we had a small belated birthday celebration for Tripp and Mama Hazel. We enjoyed yummy chocolate cake and fresh strawberries!

After eating, Tripp geared up to clean Mama Hazel's gutters. He was a sight!!!

Following the gutter work, we went to dinner with Ms. Kat and Mama Hazel at Two Rivers. The food was fantastic and the company even better!






The next morning, Tripp finished more work on the roof, we ate lunch, and then drove to Philadelphia to visit Grandma. Tripp's brother, Collie, was at Grandma's as well. We visited for a bit and then went out for snoballs and to make a stop at the famous Williams Brother Store. We left with peanuts and a new pair of shoes for me. We spent the rest of the weekend playing board games, eating, boiling peanuts, visiting the lake, and spending time together.

It was a fun weekend!