Baltimore Aquarium, Maryland

With it being a cold day we went to the aquarium in Baltimore.  Owen loves the Berenstain Bears books and there is one where the bears go to the Aquarium.  After going through all the tanks Dr. Actual Factual takes them on a submarine tour of the ocean floor.  Owen saw the submarine docked next to the aquarium in Baltimore and was asking to go down to the sea.  I love seeing him relate his books to things that we are doing.  Going to the aquarium itself was even Owen's idea.  We weren't sure what to do and asked Owen not expecting much, but he was rather insistent to go to the aquarium.  Milton's favorite part was the elevator.  We like to get magnets of wherever we go and Owen has been particularly fond of the aquarium magnet.  He will get it off the fridge and show it to my mom every time she comes over for dinner.  When we were leaving for a lunch break Milton walked straight into a glass door.  They have the etchings on the higher parts of the windows so that birds don't run into the glass, but they need some a bit lower for toddlers!

New River Gorge, West Virginia

We visited the New River Gorge and bridge in West Virginia. It ended up being just a day trip because there was a winter storm coming that we didn't want to get stuck driving in. It was very cold and rainy, so being inside the car was much nicer than outside. We had a hotel room for the night that we stopped at for a couple hours to let the kids run around a bit before getting back in the car. The New River is considered among the oldest rivers on the continent. The name New River is a bit silly with it being so old! The river is in deep canyons and has a ton of whitewater rafting. It also has a lot of rock climbing areas that I knew of friends going back when I was working at Sportrock. Even though the government shut down all the visitor centers, we were still able to go out on the trail built to be able to see the bridge. I still counted those sights as visited on my NPS stamp checklist.

The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge 3,030 feet long over the New River Gorge. With an arch 1,700 feet long, the bridge was the world's longest single-span arch bridge for many years. It is now the fourth longest. The roadway of the New River Gorge Bridge is 876 feet above the New River that is currently the third highest in the United States. Construction began on the bridge in June 1974, and was completed on October 22, 1977. The final cost of construction was $37 million that was approximately $4 million over bid. Part of U.S. Route 19, its construction marked the completion of Corridor L of the Appalachian Development Highway System. The bridge is crossed by an average of 16,200 motor vehicles per day. In 2005, the structure gained nationwide attention when the US Mint issued the West Virginia state quarter with the bridge depicted on one side. In 2013, the bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Baltimore President Street Station, Maryland

On my quest for NPS Passport stamps, we ventured into Baltimore for the President Street Station stamp. As per the volunteer manning the desk, the Park Service no longer has anything to do with them. Even their stamp didn't go up to 2019! Now, to the station itself.  The President Street Station is a former train station and railroad terminal. Built in 1849 and opened in February 1850, the station saw the some of the earliest bloodshed of the American Civil War, and was an important rail link during the conflict. The station saw the passage of President Lincoln through Baltimore.  Milton wasn't a huge fan of listening to the volunteer guy talk about the station and was giving him quite the stink eye, as Milton does so well.  We went to lunch at a yummy pizza place.

January 2019

Owen's wonderful teacher Ms. Ouaefa has moved onto a better jog with the Montgomery County Schools.  We will sorely miss her, but Owen does love his other teacher Ms. Zsusanna.  Ms. Ouaefa was Owen's first teacher and she has been one of his favorite people since he was 2 years old.  A fun evening we had was going bowling on base with George, Cindy, Jack, Otto, Rory, my crew and my mom.  Just later that week George had a perfect game! The boys all had so much fun watching the pins get knocked down.  Having to wait their turn was tough. We went to dinner at Wendys afterward. The biggest event of January was we had a pretty good snow storm.  About 8 -10 inches that would pack down really great for ideal sledding.  We set up a pretty good track for the boys on the hill between Colton and my mom's house.  Avoiding the fence was tricky! Milton seemed undecided about the snow, but he did like watching the older boys play. Owen loves going to school and we play at the playground for a bit after school as many days as the weather permits.