Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Ewan and Sharon Visit - July 2016

Parry and Dodds Clan in DC
Ewan, Sharon, Lewis, and Madeline were on the East coast of the US visiting Disney and New York and came down to see us in Baltimore for a few days.

Ewan and Madeline Celebrating Their Win!
They arrived by train on the Wednesday and Keith was able to be home from his work trip in time to pick them up at Baltimore Penn Station.  We drove back to the house to get everyone set up in their rooms before heading out.  We walked along the path to the inner harbor where we rented paddle boats - Sharon skipped that one - with Ewan and Madeline on one boat and Keith and Lewis on the other.  We had a mini-race that team Madeline seemed to win!  The boats are exhausting to paddle, so it was definitely time for a beer after that so we walked across to the Cheesecake Factory and had a couple of beers while the kids chowed on a cheesecake each.  The next stop was at Looneys Pub on Canton Square for another round - and we decided to have dinner there where all of us ordered some type of taco dish.  It was then back to the house - where Shawna arrived at about 10pm as her flight was delayed coming in from Hartford.

Keith and Lewis
The next morning Keith needed to go to Virginia and Shawna had to work, so the guests spent several hours at the Science Museum.  Keith made it home by 7:30pm just in time to join everyone for a homemade pasta dinner - delicious!

Ewan, Madeline, Sharon and Lewis at the White House
Keith was able to skip work on the Friday.  We wanted to take the kids to a beach for a swim - and since the Inner Harbor has an "F" rating for swimming we needed to drive a bit!  We settled on Terrapin Beach Park just the other side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.  It was cool to drive over the bridge and we were early enough that we didn't have weekend traffic.  The park is a "hidden gem" - actually pretty nice with only two other groups there when we arrived.  By the time we left at 2pm, there were maybe six groups - but still pretty nice!  We all spent some time swimming - the water was never too deep and had a sandy bottom a couple of feet off shore.  We did see a couple of jellyfish but nothing that bothered us (though Madeline was not excited about the possibility of getting stung!).  It was time to eat on the way home so we drove into Annapolis to see that as it was just of the road on the way back to the house.  Lunch was just a quick sandwich off Market Space and then we headed down to the dock to see the harbor.  We were there three minutes before a 40 minute harbor cruise departed so we made a quick decision to jump on the boat tour.  We then grabbed an ice cream at Annapolis Ice Cream Company before driving home.  For dinner, we opted for a crab feast on the deck at Captain John's - including a game of cornhole at the end!

Lincoln Memorial
Vietnam Memorial
We definitely needed to show the kids some history so on Saturday we drove down to DC to power-tour the mall.  We couldn't all fit in the 4Runner so Keith, Ewan, and Lewis Ubered to the airport to pick up a rental car and met the girls in the Atrium of the Ronald Reagan building.  We walked to the White House, Vietnam, Lincoln, Korean, MLK, FDR, then World War II (while seeing the Washington).  It was a crazy-hot day: 100 degrees and super-humid.  We had lunch at Potbelly next to the Warner Theater and then decided to split up - Keith, Shawna, and the kids going to the Spy Museum and Ewan/Sharon over to the American History Museum.  However, the lines for both were almost an hour so we nixxed both and just walked over to the US Capitol.  Madeline decided she was quite unhappy about the heat - and we all seemed to agree with her!  So, we called it a day and headed back to the house for a desperately needed shower before heading out for dinner at La Tavola in Little Italy.  After dinner, we introduced the kids to Monopoly Deal which was a hit.  Madeline challenged Keith to a dance off (twerking included) and 'cuteness' won the day (aka Madeline).

Parry Clan at the Capitol
Sunday was a true day of Americana.  The first stop was Langermann's for brunch before walking over to Camden Yards to catch the Orioles vs Indians.  Ewan had got us super tickets - with the only downfall that they were not in the shade so it was a bit warm again!  Ewan sat next to a long-time Orioles fan so he was able to get the low-down on the nuances of the game.  We persevered in the heat and saw the Orioles win 5-3 with a walk-off home run at the bottom of the ninth.  We Ubered back to Fells Point where we had a couple of drinks at The Admirals Cup and then walked back to Canton - with Sharon, Shawna, and Lewis going to Safeway for food and Ewan, Keith, and Madeline stopping by another store for more beer.  Shawna and Sharon cooked fajitas for dinner and we played a final game of Monopoly Deal with Ewan taking the win.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!
Monday was the last day.  Keith and Shawna had to work while the Parry gang went into town to see the Aquarium and to do a last bit of shopping.  They returned to the house within a few minutes of Keith leaving for his business trip so they could say goodbye to him.  After packing and getting cleaned up, Shawna took them to the airport for their flight home.

Hottest Day but Awesome Game!
It was fantastic to see them all - and the kids in particular were a lot of fun!  We look forward to seeing them all next summer in England/Scotland when we plan to be there for Dick and Jean's 50th Anniversary.


Sunday, July 10, 2016

Jordan Visit - July 2016

Keith, Jordan and Shawna at the Lincoln Memorial
We decided that we wanted to spent more time with our godchildren, nieces and nephews so when each of them turn 12, we would invite them to spend a weekend with us.  Our first trial with this experiment was to have our goddaughter, Jordan, visit us in Baltimore.  The timing was great since we were moving soon to Scottsdale thus we could also use the weekend to hit up some spots we wanted to see before we left the area.  Even better is that Jordan did quite a bit of research and had planned the whole weekend for us, even restaurants!

Johnny Rad's for Dinner - A Jordan Pick
Keith flew in from his work travel to Baltimore, arriving on the Friday evening at the same time as Jordan around 6pm so he could meet her at her gate.  They took an Uber back to the house where Shawna was waiting for them.  After a quick tour of the house, we walked to Johnny Rads where we had dinner.  Jordan had seen this place on the Food Network and decided it looked cool - and cool it was.  It has a funky decor inside and it's known for pizza.  We tried the risotto balls for an appetizer which were quite tasty - who could go wrong with fried risotto stuffed with mozzarella!  We then shared the A-1 Meat pizza which was loaded with yummy prosciutto.  As we were deciding on dessert, Jordan mentioned she had never been to a Cold Stone - luck would have it that there was one across the street from our house so we walked there after dinner and had ice cream for dessert.  We then returned home and watched Eddie the Eagle - which was a very cute movie.

World War II Memorial
Bob Dole

Saturday was a long but very fun day.  We woke up around 7, had breakfast and then drove to DC to see all the major sites in one day - just as a good American would!  We parked the car near where we would have dinner later that day and then took a cab to our first site - the Lincoln Memorial.  We walked the entire mall, taking selfies at every major monument including the Vietnam, Korean, World War II, Martin Luther King, FDR, and Jefferson Memorials.  All of this before noon!  At the WWII memorial, we ran into Bob Dole who was hanging out and taking pictures with tourists - so we took one with him as well - very cool!  We walked over to L'Enfant Plaza to grab lunch with the mindset that each person could have their pick of lunch at the food court - unfortunately, almost every place was closed so we ate at the only one that was open, California Tortilla.

Washington Monument
Admiring Eleanor Roosevelt at FDR Memorial
Following lunch, we went to the Holocaust Museum where we had pre-purchased our tickets.  It took us about 90 minutes to go through all of the exhibits - quite sobering but well done.  Jordan really wanted to visit this museum as she had done a paper on Anne Frank when she was younger.  We then walked over to the Washington Monument - unfortunately there were no tickets left to go to the top.   We popped over to the Air and Space Museum where we did a 'fly by' (no pun intended) viewing of the airplanes that are hung in the main lobby area.  After this, we walked over to the Capitol.  At this point, Jordan was pooped from all of the walking (as was Shawna) so we took a cab to the last stop - the White House where Jordan asked one of the guards if he was carrying a gun - his reply "of course, ma'am".

The Capitol
White House
After this long day, we were ready to relax with a drink (or two) and dinner.  So we took a cab to Masa 14 (another restaurant that Jordan had picked out) and had a drink at the rooftop before we had dinner downstairs in the main part of the restaurant.  Dinner was very good - we shared a bunch of small plates including charred edamame, roasted shishito peppers, tuna sashimi, calamari, miso salmon, steamed pork belly buns, citrus hibachi roll, and yucca fries.  For dessert, we tried the freeze dried ice cream that Jordan had purchased at the Air and Space museum - it was gross.  Since we could not have this as the last taste in our mouth, we shared the nutella tart which was very good.  We then drove home, showered (we were quite smelly from all of the walking), and watched Sixteen Candles (Jordan had never seen it).

Masa 14
On Sunday, we slept in a bit and then had breakfast before we headed out to explore the harbor.  We walked to the National Aquarium and spent about 2 hours there.  Jordan had said she wanted to try crab cakes so for lunch we sat outside at Phillips Seafood and we shared the crab cakes, steamed crabs and Alaskan king crab legs - yummo!  Following lunch, we rented the dragon boats and peddled around the harbor for about 30 minutes - Keith did most, if not all, of the pedaling!  And because we had not had enough food at this point, we stopped at Cheesecake Factory to get some cheesecake for dessert - cookie dough and turtle cheesecake.  At this point, it was time to head back and clean up before Jordan and Keith flew out.  We cleaned up and took care of a few personal items and then Shawna drove Jordan and Keith to the airport where Jordan flew back to Dallas and Keith flew to Phoenix for work.


Crabby Lunch at Phillips
All in all, we had a great time as did Jordan as she was asking if she could return to Camp Keith and Shawna next year in Scottsdale!  We really enjoyed spending time with her - the experiment was a success!  In case anyone is wondering why Jordan's face is scratched up in the photos, on the morning that she flew out to visit us, she fell on the driveway at her house chasing her dog.  Of course, we were worried all weekend if anyone would be looking at the two of us wondering if we did this to her!  Thankfully no one stopped us but a woman at the airport did question Jordan if she was OK and if she needed any help.

Dragon Boats