A day in Richmond

Right now it is 5:00 and we are back at the hotel. Chris took the boys to swim in the hotel pool and burn off some of their energy. We spent all day at the Virginia Science Museum. I was pleasantly surpised to see that our Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences pass got us in for free! In addition to all of the displays, we also saw an IMAX movie about the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. I even stayed awake for all of it, which is a real accomplishment for me!

For lunch, we had two poor choices: eat at the museum, which had overpriced food, not kid friendly, or eat at McDonald's, which was right next door. We chose poorly - McDonalds. We figured it would be fast (no), cheap (yes) and a treat for our kids (who never get to go.) A half hour after ordering, we finally had our food and were sitting down to eat. The boys all ordered plain cheeseburgers, which accounts for about 10 minutes of the wait. The other 20 is sheer ineptitude. I opened up my walnut/apple/yogurt, just as Alexander practically spit out his cheeseburger. You guessed it - it wasn't plain!! I got a new one, sat back down, only to discover that they forgot the caramel for the boys' apple dippers (leave it to McD's to make the healthy unhealty). When I got back from THAT trek to the counter, I found Alexander frowning while looking at his apples that were all over the floor. His explanation was that they "exploded" when he opened them. He ended up with one apple and plenty of caramel.

Otherwise, though, it was a nice day. I highly recommend the museum, especially for later elementary kids. Jonathan got a little bored until we found the trains - the museum is built in the old train depot and there are some old trains out in the yard.

When the boys are done swimming, we are returning to the Richmond Braves, courtesy of the family we met here at the hotel. Hopefully their son will have a good pitching night. Tomorrow we are leaving around 6:30 for home. I'm hoping to make it in just under 12 hours. As long as we get home for the opening ceremony of the Olympics, I'll be happy.

On our way home...

We left Allentown this morning to begin our trip home. Our first stop was Mount Vernon. Surprisingly, we made it in 3 1/2 hours, with no pit stops. Boy, are those DVD players a miracle.

Mount Vernon was hot, but wonderful. Chris and I were last there 3 years ago on a teacher's tour. Since then, a new education building has been completed and all work on Mount Vernon itself has been finished. Benjamin was most impressed when he touched the orginial banister on the way upstairs. The guide rattled off many of the famous people who have touched it, including, of course, the Washingtons, as well as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Abigail Adams, Patrick Henry, and James Monroe. Pretty impressive.

The education wing had two interesting videos, one that included cannon fire that "shook" your seats and "snow." We didn't spend too much time at the exhibits, because by that time the boys were, of course, starving.

After a picnic meal at one of the many parks in the area, we drove through some very heavy traffic and arrived at our hotel in Richmond, which has free internet. YEA!!! While I was checking in and asking for directions to the ballpark, I met the father of a Richmond Braves' pitcher. We went to the game (AAA farm team of Richmond, playing the Durham Bulls.) It was incredibly hot, and the $9 I spent on slushees was the best money I spent all night. By the 7th inning, the boys were a bit bored, so Benjamin and Alexander asked if they could move to where they thought the foul balls would go. We let them, and lo and behold a few minutes later Alexander was the proud owner of a baseball!!!

On the way out, we bumped into the father again, who had his son sign the ball for us. He pitches tomorrow night, and is going to get us free tickets. During the day, we plan to swim at the hotel and visit the Richmond Science Center, which got rave reviews from others at the game. It's supposed to be hot again, so an air conditioned building sounds good to me, especially if we're going to another ball game.

The boys fell asleep around 11PM, so we are hoping they sleep until at least 7:30 tomorrow morning. Wishful thinking? We'll let you know!

Allentown

Enough blogs, already, huh? Chris and Craig are at the mall, so I had them drop me off at Paneras so I could get some computer time. I've posted some more pictures - we've finally organized all of them. We created 3 slide shows of about 200 pictures each to show the highlights of our trip.

Benajmin and Alexander are still at camp, while Jonathan enjoys his time as an only child. Right now he is at Bible School at my parents' church. Craig came over yesterday, as did my friend Tom. We hung out in the afternoon and played a little four square. Then Tom left and the three of us played two games of Ticket To Ride. Chris and Craig stayed up until 1:30 playing a Settlers Card game, too.

Today we walked the mall and then played Ticket to Ride again. We're playing Settlers tonight, and will probably play something else tomorrow morning before Craig goes home. Keeping busy keeps my mind off Alexander, whom I hope is having a great time at camp!!!

Serengetti Park

We took a day to go to Serengetti Park, a combination safari ride (on a bus) and amusement park. We started with the ride, and got off at a stop to feed the animals. Benjamin had his hands full!
The Shiller family - Matthias, Inid, Elias, and Joel
Alexander made a new friend, who liked to chew at the strings of his pants.
The giraffes came right up to the bus, as you can see. One even stuck his head in the bus as the guide fed it some greens.

On top of a ride, I took this picture of the park. This is about half of it. The big boys' favorite ride is the one in the middle.

Ottersberg pictures

Ottersberg is where we spent a week and a half. We stayed with Hermann and Judy, Chris' dad's cousins. Right next to them live Inid and Matthias and their two children, Joel and Elias. The boys probably liked their time in Ottersberg the best; it was relaxing, and there was plenty of room to play and run around.
The family owns huge greenhouses, and produce 20% of Germany's Heather (as seen in this picture.) On our first day, Elias, who is 4, took me on a tour of the greenhouses and told me (in German, of course) how all of the machines work. When I got the English tour later, I realized that he was right - he knows how everything works.
Jonathan thought this was cool - it moves down the rows, watering the plants.
Besided the greenhouses, they have beautiful plants and flowers all around their house.

Here Benjamin is teaching Joel how to blow dandelion seeds. I'm not sure if they appreciated all of the seeds flying around...
We went to two big parties to watch Germany play in the semi-finals and finals of the European world cup. We all got into the spirit with face paint and Germany clothing.

The boys with Frank, Hermann and Judy's son-in-law, who owns the greenhouses behind him. They grow plants for cemetaries.

Some local TV reporters came to the party, and I think we were on TV. Notice here he is interviewing Kiersten, while hiding the beer bottle behind him so the camera can't see it.

Munich pictures

This is Dachau, a concentration camp. It was a work camp, not an extermination camp, but it was a powerful visit.

Artwork; never again

While the Seabreeze group went to Dachau, I took the kids to the Munich zoo. They spent as much time at the playgrounds as they did looking at the animals (which was fine with me because I could sit!) This is the coolest slide the boys saw all trip. You climb up inside, then go down the slide!!
They loved this one...notice it is flush to the ground so you can't get dragged under it while going around.

While walking around, we looked up and saw this monkey above us. They fed it granola bars as Benjamin proclaimed it was the highlight of his trip.
Downtown Munich, the famous glockenspiel.
This is one of my favorite pictures. As you can see, Jonathan made friends with many of his "teenagers."
Benjamin and I saw a ballet here in the Munich opera house. We were sitting on the top tier. It's quite a grand house, and we loved the ballet.
After visiting Dachau, the group went to the BMW plant. How's that for a unique building?

As usual, Alexander shows remnants of his ice cream.

State College

Chris and I are in State College, visiting Jeff. He took us on a tour of the campus. It's gigantic. We even got our picture taken by the famous Nitany Lion. We took him out to dinner at BigBowlNoodle House, which is appropriately named. Yes, our food came in big bowls. We the walked a little more, up to the famous creamery for huge ice cream cones. (I'm seeing a pattern here.) I had "death by chocolate," but should have gotten my money back since I'm still alive. 

Penn State is very impressive, and Jeff really likes it here. He walks everywhere. Right now he is taking intensive German, so he and Chris talked German for awhile. Now we have to get on the road so we're home before midnight. It was a fun visit, though, worth the three hour drive.