New at the Zoo

After three attempts, we finally made our first trip to the zoo this summer. Fortunately, Michelle was able to join us. When we arrived, Marina was anxious to see the tigers. On the way to their exhibit, we stopped to see the lions and zebras. Once we arrived at the tigers habitat, we saw two of them sleeping in a corner. We went inside to see if there were more we could look at. While there, we found a baby jaguar and its mother. It was so cute to see them together! From there, we saw the sea lions were very active. We went to the underwater viewing area and saw the sea lions swim past over and over again.

 
Michelle wanted to see the okapi, so we made sure we stopped by their enclosure before heading into the new Asian animals exhibit. It’s been open for nearly two months, but none of us had seen it yet. Marina was immediately drawn to the interactive activities. The centerpiece is the elephants. We saw all four of them – including two who are new to the Zoo! We saw some Gibbons monkeys swinging along their ropes and two sleeping black rhinos as well.

Our next stop was Bird World. The most surprising part of that building was when a mouse came scurrying across the path and nearly bumped into Michelle’s leg!  I was impressed that she didn’t freak out because I probably would have! Marina wanted to ride the carousel, so we headed that direction. She was fortunate to get  one of the two tigers to ride on. They are her favorite animals right now. After her ride, we went through the rest of the zoo fairly quickly. It was a hot day and we were all tired. Michelle wanted to see the kangaroos, so we paid a short visit to them before heading out.

On the way home, we stopped for some ice cream. It was a nice way to wrap up our day.

Return to the Renaissance

Marina had such a good time at the Renaissance Festival earlier this year that we decided to go one more time before it closes for the season. This time, Marina chose her Snow White costume (since they have several wishing wells around the festival). I decided to join her in costume and wore my Sleeping Beauty outfit. Last time we had car trouble on the way there. I'm happy to report no such issues today! (I think we were both a bit nervous about that!)

As we entered the Festival gate, we ran into Marina's friends Brianne and Nora with their parents. They had also dressed up for the occasion. We ended up spending much of the day with them. We started by interacting with some of the street performers and shopping. Marina had a goose placed on her lap to pet for a while. The girls went through the maze together and went down the dragon slide.

By that point, it was time to gather for the first jousting match of the day. Marina refused to sit down until she was sure we were in Sir William's section. Once that was established, we found a place to watch. She had so much fun booing Sir Roderick, the evil knight, and cheering for Sir William.

Once the joust was over, we were ready for lunch.We headed to the "food court" for our usual turkey leg. On the way, we found one of the wishing wells. Naturally, Marina needed to stop and make a wish. She spent quite a while making her wish, but she wouldn't share what it was, she was afraid it wouldn't come true! While we were buying our food, we lost Marina's friends. So we ate our lunch while looking around for them. Since we hadn't found them, we watched the endangered cats show. Marina was particularly drawn to a white tiger named Scooby.

We were walking around the Festival when Marina tripped over a tree root and fell down. She scraped up one knee and skinned both hands. I was trying to clean them with bottled water when a fireman walked by. He was kind enough to take us to the closest first aid station. When we arrived, we saw another little girl being treated for similar injuries. There was quite a bit of dirt embedded in her hands, so the fireman had to scrub a bit and then apply alcohol. I could tell it hurt her, but she was very brave. The fireman even took the time to wipe her tears. I guess we found the true heroes at the Festival!

Marina was still upset, but she cheered up when she got her face painted. Our favorite artist did not have a line, so she quickly got the design done. She always makes customizations for Marina. She looked quite magical! We caught the joust by combat, where, we again rooted for Marina's champion, Sir William. Once that was done, we arrived at the pavilion for the children's coronations. This time it was the King who knighted her. We spent a little time talking with Princess Elizabeth, Prince Edward, King Henry and the King of Ireland. She showed them all her injured hands.

With Marina's coronation completed, we headed for Princess Elizabeth's tea party. The princess even remembered us from our last visit to the Festival. We met up with Nora and Brianne again at the tea party, so the girls all sat together. Once again, the girls all seemed to have a great time in Elizabeth's company.

We had a snack with Brianne and Nora and the girls went through the maze again. It seemed to take them much longer this time, I think they were just taking their time. Once they were done, it was time for the final joust. The girls sat as close to the field as they could. Sir William was facing the treacherous Sir Roderick - so no question on who we were rooting for! The joust contained it's usual drama, but Sir William was the victor.

Once the joust was over, Nora and Brianne headed home. But Marina and I stayed until the end - there's just too much fun stuff going on at the closing! Marina tried out some rides and we watched people hurling tomatoes at a hilarious jester. When we arrived at the courtyard  we said goodbye to Twig the fairy and saw Sir Roderick. Marina had no interest in talking to him!

It took a while, but we finally caught up with Sir William. We had a nice chat with him. He even said he remembered us from earlier this summer. Marina showed him her injured hands. He said, "You got hurt worse than I did!" As we left him, we promised to see him next year. The rest of the cast was singing around the gate, so we stopped to watched them before heading home.

Rainy Day and Monday

We had plans to spend today at the zoo with Michelle, but heavy rains this morning caused us to change our plans. Instead, we went to the Museum of Nature and Science. Apparently, many others had the same idea because it was much busier than we'd expected. But we still had a good time.

We started our day at the Egyptian mummy exhibit. Michelle impressed me with her knowledge of ancient Egypt. Marina was anxious to show Michelle the health exhibit, so that is where we headed next. The went through several of the exhibits including their heart rate, riding bicycles and mind power. Then they tried an experiment to see their cells. Michelle had done a similar experiment at school, so she helped Marina with it. Then they did an experiment with the sugar content in cereal.

After lunch, we went to the space exhibit which we tried out a few things, but it was really crowded. So we checked out the rocks and minerals. As usual, Marina was mostly interested in the precious stones. Once we went through there, we went through the Native American and dinosaur halls.

As we were leaving the Museum, the sun was shining in a beautiful blue sky. Despite the change in plans, we'd had a fun day.

Picnic

Today was my company picnic. Marina always looks forward to it - especially the water fountains she can play in at the park. She had a snack of watermelon before going to play in the water. She took a lot of interest in getting her hair wet this year. She came over to me to show me how wet she was. Eventually, she took a break to have lunch.

Throughout the day, Marina met up with many of the kids she has played with in years past. This year she also met up with the granddaughter of one of my coworkers. The two of them hit it off and hung out for most of the afternoon. Marina even took her food to eat in a sunny spot with her new friend. They seemed to be working on their tans. At the end of the picnic, Marina didn't want to go. She was having too much fun!

Fun on the Fourth

This year, I thought we’d try something different for the Fourth of July. We went to a local historic park for their “Old Fashioned July 4 Celebration.” We’d been there earlier this year, but it was nothing like what we experienced today. As we walked in we met Thomas Jefferson and Uncle Sam. Marina had her picture with each of them. Then we headed into the Civil War camp. It had tents set up just as Civil War soldiers would have had them. There were many men in blue Union uniforms demonstrating bayonet training and explaining how the soldiers lived. There was a flute player in uniform who let the kids beat the drum as she played. Marina loved that. She also got to meet Abraham Lincoln.

We had a chance to ride a stagecoach. Marina couldn’t wait to try that. It was a bit of a wait, but Marina was so excited during the ride. We stopped for lunch, hamburgers and hot dogs. After we ate, we attended an Abolitionist Rally. Marina was a bit bored through it, but she was patient. After the rally, we checked out the kids games area. There Marina panned for gold. Once she found some she got pretty excited about looking for more. We also saw a weaving presentation. Marina carded wool, spun it into thread and then used a machine to weave it. She really loved the weaving part. They had several craft stations where Marina made sand art and a pinwheel. 
 
At intermission of the orchestra music, there was a reading of the Declaration of Independence. People in the crowd were invited to read the articles. Marina wanted to participate, so she went and read a short paragraph. She wasn’t at all nervous and read very well considering the difficult words.
 
We went on another wagon ride and Marina panned for gold again before we headed out. She chatted with Abraham Lincoln for a while, showing him some of the crafts she made.  She hugged Uncle Sam just before we left.
 
We spent a little time at home before heading over to Aunt Ann’s for a barbecue. They had rented a bounce house, so Marina spent most of the time in there. It had a huge slide which she liked to bounce down. She came inside to eat a hamburger and some vegetables before heading out again. Near dusk Cameron brought out some ”poppers.” Due to the high fire danger, no fireworks were allowed. So the kids made a mess with the noisemakers and streamers. Then they all helped clean it up.

When we left, both Marina and I were tired. We’d done a lot to celebrate America’s birthday.