The Flag House

The Girl Scouts took a trip to the Flag House in Baltimore.  If you go there, I recommend doing a tour or program because it was so neat!  We got to tour the Pickersgill's House where the ladies lived who actually sewed the flag that flew over Ft.McHenry and inspired Francis Scott Key to write his poem, The Defense of Fort McHenry, that later became the Star Spangled Banner. We got to see how these ladies lived and were able to afford to purchase the house themselves, quite an accomplishment for women in those times.  The house has many things that the Pickersgills actually owned like tea service and portraits.  We also got to see the room they most probably did the sewing in, which was the main bedroom.  The ladies would sew sections in the house and then take it all down the road to a brewery in the evenings to sew it together because of how large the flag was.
The girls also got a lesson on flags of Britain and the U.S., and in flag etiquette.  They learned how to properly fold and carry a flag as well.

Ourside the Flag House and the Star-Spangled Banner Museum is a large map of the US made of rock from each state in the shape of that state.  So the girls all stood on the state they were born in.

There is a lovely rose garden in the courtyard too.  It was a gorgeous day!

Camping Adventures

Memorial Day we had our second annual camping trip with great friends from Illinois.  This year we went back to the Hocking Hills area of southern Ohio, but we camped at the State Park.  Nicer bathrooms are always a plus!  It's so fun to be able to go camping with people that all enjoy each other's company!  And we are the only ones with kids (and that bring a dog in tow), but they all love our kids too!  And our kids love them!  They look forward to any opportunity to spend time with Mr. Will and Mrs. Robin, Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Sarah.  I don't think it would take much to just apply the southern "aunt" and "uncle" to these friends.
We hiked to the various caves around the state park, Old Man's Cave, Rock House, and Ash Cave.  Everyone else checked our Conkle's Hollow, but that one doesn't allow dogs so Tink and I relaxed behind for that one.  Tink did pretty good, considering her knees that can go out at any time.  She's quite the little rock climber.  And so are the girls of course.  They will climb any and every thing that we allow.  Thankfully there were six adults to grab them when they got too close to edges or tried to climb something that they shouldn't. 

Ladder golf and washers is always fun at the campsite.  Jason is quite hard to beat at washers though.  We must keep trying!  Will brought his ukulele and played for us all to sing to.  Ukelele just makes any song better!  Many a pop song was sung that usually would elicit groans (from me).

Did I mention the parns?  Best camp food evar!  The peanut butter nutella parn is always delicious, but this year I discovered the taco parn as well.  SO YUMMY!

Gwyn and Lyla braved the pool at the campground.  It was hot and sunny weather, but the water was WAY too cold for me.  They tried the slides and swam for a while though before Lyla's lips turned blue and they agreed they were indeed cold.

We camped for three nights, our longest campout yet.  But none of us were ready to leave.  It's hard to leave a fun place and harder to leave good friends.  But we have next year to look forward to.  And we are slowly but surely honing our camping skills and perfecting that list of things that need to be taken on a camping trip.  We tend to make-do though.  As long as we have something to put in a parn, and somewhere to sleep, everything else will work out.  :)

GS Camping at Elk Neck

The four Girl Scout troops we are in cahoots with went on a camping trip to Elk Neck State Park at the northern tip of the Chesapeake Bay.  This is a lovely park situated on a peninsula with a historic lighthouse on the point. We did a Ranger program that was really cool.  The girls got to play a game where they were birds on the Chesapeake and had to make choices or deal with consequences based on situations they might fly into.  We saw Zebra-striped Monarchs.  The program ended at the lighthouse, which the girls all got to go up into and see the Bay.

I was the "Fire Momma" at this campout.  Which is funny to me considering my fire skills.  But I had some talented teams of fire bugs to help me out, so it worked.
*This is where I will rat myself out.  I brought our propane stove, the big kind that are for cooking large pots on and a brand new tank of propane.  It was our intention to use this to cook the main meals because it's easier than the fire and bigger than a camp stove.  When I hooked it up however, I could not get any gas to come out of the tank!  We finally determined that I had been sold an empty tank.  I was super mad and frustrated, but at least we did have a camp stove and a fire, so we could still cook everything we had planned.  When I got home, before I took the tank back to complain thankfully, Jason hooked it up and it worked fine.  So much for Fire Momma.  Major fail on my part.  I blame it all on sickness, but that comes later in the story.

Everyone had jobs and the girls had a great time.  They prepared and cooked food, tended the fire, Gwyn taught the other girls the Superman blessing, they played.  They even had a talent show after dinner, which mostly consisted of giggling interspersed with songs from Frozen.

It did begin to rain at one point and we were all ordered to the cars.  (This is a funny point that will have to be told in person in respect to the concerned individual who was just trying to keep the girls safe in a possible thunderstorm)  We were allowed to return to the campsite after a while, so this just added to the funny anecdotes that always happen on camping trips.

In retrospect, the girls had a fun time on this camping trip.  I had bits of fun.  But I spent the trip mostly frustrated or just plain sick.  Come to find out I was coming down with the flu and had a fever for most of the trip.  I am super glad no one slept in my tent with me. (the girls all wanted to sleep in their friends' tents)  So I blame it all on the flu.  With a clearer fever-free head, I'm sure I could have gotten the propane tank to work.  That's the story I'm sticking with anyway.