70th Annual Annapolis Rotary Crab Feast

Imagine 2500 people sitting at long tables in the concourse bit of the Navy Stadium, eating all you can eat crabs, corn, crab soup, and hot dogs, and pulled pork (for those sick of crabs). Beer, soda and water provided too. Lots and lots of fun!! Very well run by the local rotary club as a fund raiser.

Our kids ate about three crabs worth each. I felt like I was better at giving the baby a cleaned crab and then just pointing out the bits he could pick out - although he cracked open one crab with a hammer when we weren't watching and ate a mouth full of lungs and mysterious wiggly tubes.

American Houses - Brick Facade

Here is a type of a large house I passed by on a jog this morning. Brick facade, the two windows on the far RHS are a garage that is driven into sideways, although there is probably an attic/second story room above it. I think this is reasonably modern, not sure if it is typical, but I don't think you get them in Australia.

Things I like:
It looks like a storybook house
So much space!
Symmetrical
No huge garage to dominate the front facade.
They just have roof, rather than the muddled roof line of some modern Australian homes
The shutters on either side of the windows
This house, like most houses, will be insulated to within an inch of its life. Most houses round here get quite hot in summer, because the heat just can't escape. but they do stay warm in winter.
I assume there is a basement, I love basements!

Things I don't like:
The facade is a little obvious in this house, as it is approached from the side
It doesn't have a long drive way of mature oak trees (just me!!)
No garden attempts at all.
No side windows, so can't catch all breezes
No fences, so not good for letting kids play outdoors without supervision.

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, VA

Part of Wilderness Battlefield. Dense trees on left. You can still see trenches in the woods.

This park covers four separate sites - Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Wilderness and Chancellorsville. The battles weren't all at once, or even sequential.
Fredericksburg - December 11-13 1862 - Confederate victory. Union fighting uphill against dug in Confederate troops behind the town of Fredericksburg. Town of Fredericksburg shelled and looted by Union Army on their way through.

Chancellorsville - April 27- May 6 1863 - Big victory by outnumbered Confederate army. Celebrated 12 mile march to carry out surprise right flank attack. Unfortunately, Stonewall Jackson was shot by his own troops coming back from a night-time scout, and died of pneumonia on May 10 as a result of his wounds. Robert E Lee lost his best general, and history shows (according to the National Parks Brochure that i am sourcing from) he struggled after that.

After this, Lee went on offensive to Gettysburg. The union roughly sort of won this one, but the cost to both sides was such that no one really came out on top.

The Wilderness - May 5-6, 1864. A year later, the two sides met again, in a bit of land called the Wilderness - an area of land with a thick forest that had been logged and had lots of regrowth, undergrowth, etc, with small farm plots (cleared fields) scattered about. This one was a stalemate, with 30,000 killed, wounded or missing in two days.

Spotsylvania Court House - May 8-21, 1864 - stalemate. Lee dug in and held on until Grant abandoned the field. They were fighting over an important cross roads that controlled the most direct route to Richmond, VA (capital of the Southern states). Fighting here was considered most desperate in the whole war.

We only had a few hours, so we visited The Wilderness and Chancellorsville (both sort of briefly). We also visited the Old Salem Church, scene of the Battle of Salem Church, May 3-4, 1863. What was interesting about this church was the side door for black people, with an enclosed staircase leading to the right gallery, while the left gallery was for the women and children.
It was used as a place of refuge, then a battle, then a field hospital (surgeons treated both sides together here), so the congregation, which has moved into a larger building next door, had a lot to clean up when they returned after the Civil War was over.

Shenandoah National Park - South River Falls

This is a moderately strenuous (1.3 miles down, 1.3 miles back up) with a couple of add ons if you're interested in doing more than 2.6 miles. We weren't. So we only saw the top of the 83' falls, which wasn't 100% spectacular, but our party wasn't up to the extra 1.3 miles (and another couple of stories down) to get to the base of the falls. I have no regrets, thanks to this lovely creek that you walk beside for about 0.5 miles. It was everything a creek should be - meandering, singing, full of snags and rocks and interesting bits. This walk took us through a unique ecosystem called Appalachian Rich Cove Forest, only found in Shenandoah.

This is also Rattlesnake territory (big sign at start of walk) but we didn't see one (much to Mr nearly 6's disappointment). We had our plan all worked out too, if we saw one, we were backing away from it then zooming in with the camera and taking a photo (his idea).

Shenandoah National Park - Rose River Loop Trail

I think we reached an important milestone this walk. Mr nearly 6 got independent enough about hopping about on rocks on the creek that he fell in. This is when we'd dried out, put back on the wet socks and boots, and gone to try to get across again, with predictable results, but at least we tried. He is full of ideas for next time. I should note I was just lucky in this photo. It was meant to be a photo of father-son time, not of son falling in creek for second time.
Tip - walk down fire trail first for this walk, the walk up hill through the forest with a child on you back is much more enjoyable.

Farm Peaches - Williams Orchard

We have driven past this sign on the way to Shenandoah in the past, but not today. And we got a lovely drive in a country lane, and a very helpful farm worker who sold us peaches and answered all the baby's questions at the same time: why are the peaches in a box? where did they come from? how did you pick them? - the answer to this one was very solemn, from one equal to another - 'with my hands' in a lovely southernish accent.

The peaches are huge, I'd say as big as an orange, and juicy sweet, although they got a bit bruised in all the travelling and handling. Loving the farm gate food, and gradually getting more confident about buying it.

Washington DC Zoo

Went to the Smithsonian run zoo in Washington DC. Saw a panda bear for the first time!

Also saw two orangutans climbing up a big pole onto the "O Line, where they can move from one enclosure to another, or just hang out up high. They have a loooong arm reach, and look very casual when they climb. Very happy to have met the Librarian!

Zoo is smallish, built on a slope like Taronga, Sydney. Worth going early in the morning in summer, before animals disappear into the shade.