It's always a busy weekend when Nana and Grandpa visit, and this past Labor Day weekend was no different. After an overnight stop at Shenandoah Crossing and several stops in Virginia on the way--including one at
Montpelier--they arrived on Thursday afternoon and immediately sat down to Cat's dinner of jerk chicken and grits. On Friday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and ventured to Mount Vernon for a late lunch at the
Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant, stopping along the way at
Arlington Cemetery to visit Ted Kennedy's grave. With all the activity that comes along with a visit from the grandparents, Nathan was already exhausted by the time we arrived at the cemetery, so he slept in the stroller the entire time. There was enough of a cool breeze that walking along the cemetery's pathways was comfortable, even in the sun. Finding the smoothest path as possible to keep Nathan asleep, we climbed the hill to the Kennedys' gravesites, enjoying the view of the city from the hilltop. The sun always seems to get brighter as fall sets in, and the light reflecting off the white marble around JFK's grave was almost blinding. The crowds weren't too bad, so we made our way around the three graves and headed on, opting against climbing farther up the hill to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
On the way out of Arlington Cemetery, we stopped by the
Women in Military Memorial outside the cemetery. The memorial building made for a nice air conditioned stop away from the increasing heat of the day, and it also has a great view across the Arlington bridge down to the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial was nearly deserted, so Cat and I received the full attention of a museum worker when Cat looked up her grandmother in the memorial's catalog of women in the military. Cat's grandmother, Opal, served in the Navy during World War II and is registered in the memorial's system. Cat was able to print out a certificate of information on her grandmother's military service along with a portrait of the memorial. On the way out of the memorial, we checked out the quilts on display, including one made by service members on the USNS Comfort, which was comprised of quilt squares representing the different medical specialties present on the ship. Another quilt was made by the members of a small town to honor those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. After leaving Arlington Cemetery, we drove the rest of the way south on the George Washington Parkway to Mount Vernon. By the time we arrived, the lunch crowds at the Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant had cleared out, so we were seated immediately. Nathan was well-behaved during lunch and tried a variety of foods, including some mushrooms, some peanut and chestnut soup, some Virginia ham, and plenty of goldfish crackers (not from the menu, of course).
With plenty of time for a power nap on the way home while we sat in rush hour traffic before the holiday weekend, Nathan was once again ready to go by the time we got home. As was the case every day during their visit, Nana and Grandpa were treated to a tour of the neighborhood, thanks to Nathan. Whenever the mood struck him, Nathan would pull a pair of shoes (mismatched or otherwise) out of the hall
shoe cabinet and bring them to whichever grandparent he deemed in need of a walking tour. Often, the goal of the walk was to take Spot, Nathan's new wooden toy dog handcrafted by Grandpa, out for a walk. At one point, Spot had taken so many walks that he lost a wheel and had to be repaired after a trip to Home Depot where Grandpa and I obtained sturdier axle materials. When not walking Spot, Nathan was sufficiently satisfied to traverse the stairs in the neighborhood repeatedly or push his Cozy Coupe up and down the sidewalk.
In contrast to Friday, Saturday was a day of rest and recovery. We spent the day around the house, with, of course, more walks around the neighborhood for Nathan, but also a chance for him to catch up on the sleep he missed from the previous day. At one point, he took Nana on such a long walk that the rest of us set out to find the two. We found them in the park at the end of the street, where Nathan had borrowed a basketball from two men on a neighboring court and was doing his best to score a lay up. After seeing Cat and I shoot (and mostly miss) baskets a few weeks ago, Nathan now runs around tirelessly on the basketball court, looking up and throwing the ball over his head as high as he can manage. He has a ways to go, but he could be a baller yet. Since the weather over the entire Labor Day weekend was wonderful, we rounded out the afternoon with a trip to the pool down the street. Though the sun had been deceptively warm for several days, it was clear after making first contact with the water that the cool nights had removed any lingering summer warmth from the pool. However, if the cool water bothered Nathan, he certainly didn't show it. Cat, on the other hand, was in no hurry to hop in, contented to sit by the kiddie pool and read as I watched over Nathan. Nana and Grandpa showed up at the pool after a while, bringing iced coffee drinks from
Carmen's.
On Sunday, we decided that a nice outing for the day would be to make a second attempt at finding a restaurant that Cat and I had previously tried to visit. The first attempted meal at
Jimmy Cantler's Riverside Inn in Annapolis was back in 2005, when Cat and I tried to find the place for my birthday dinner. Instead of finding the restaurant, which is tucked back in a residential area of Annapolis among the numerous coves and peninsulas of the Severn River, we ended up on a narrow bridge leading back into downtown Annapolis near the Naval Academy. This time, however, we were successful in finding the restaurant. True to the restaurant's
review in the Washington Post, the place was already getting busy at around 11:30 in the morning. By the time we left, a crowd had formed outside the restaurant and a line of about ten cars was waiting to get into the parking lot.
Jimmy Cantler's is the classic casual Maryland seafood restaurant that Cat and I had been looking for, with paper-covered tabletops, mallets to open the steamed crabs, and plenty of paper towels to clean up the tremendous mess afterwards. The cheap beer served cold in cans with a plastic cup rounded out the environment. After getting our tray full of steamed crabs and corn on the cob, we listened to a detailed tutorial by the waitress--including guidance on how to deal with the "
mustard" and a warning that the gills are not edible--and started to dig in. The crabs were generously doused in Old Bay and were a lot of work to open, but were still delicious. Nathan had a little bit of crab, but spent most of his time with the hush puppies and corn on the cob. At first, he treated the corn cob like a popsicle, sticking the whole end of the corn cob in his mouth, but he quickly got the hang of it, turn the corn cob sideways and making short work of it. The rest of us toiled at opening the stubborn crabs to retrieve our morsels of meat, all while trying to snap pictures of Nathan chomping on the corn cob without covering our cameras with butter and Old Bay. After almost two hours of work, we were left with an empty tray and a bucket full of crab detritus. Nana and Grandpa headed home the next day, so our unique meal at Jimmy Cantler's rounded out the weekend quite nicely.
My new toy arrived recently: a Canon Digital Rebel XTi. As Nathan's velocity increases, the old point and shoot digital camera with the annoying delay when taking pictures had become intolerable. The new camera is lightning fast, perfect for catching Nathan zipping around the house or running around outside. The speed makes it easy to take tons of pictures; in less than three weeks, I've already taken over 350 pictures. Taking pictures is fun again.
After riding a few more miles past Seneca Creek, we turned around and headed back, stopping at a picnic area we had passed at the mouth of Seneca Creek. Though there were a number of school-age kids paddling kayaks in the creek, the picnic area was deserted, so Nathan and I had the place to ourselves. We found a shaded table and opened up the Goldfish, cheese sticks, and peaches that I had brought along. While I was resting from the ride, Nathan took some time to romp around the big grassy area down by the river, stopping to check out the fire pits in the picnic area and pick up walnuts. He's very much into climbing hills and running back down now, so he spent some time climbing back up the embankment leading back to the towpath. After sufficiently exploring the area, he took a seat at the picnic table and snacked with me. Before long, though, he was climbing from the ground to the picnic table seat and onto the table itself, stopping occasionally for a bite of peach. After finishing our snacks, we walked over to check out the group of huge turkey vultures perched in a tree by the mouth of Seneca Creek, then climbed back on the bike for the ride downriver to the car. I should also note that in future visits to the picnic area, I will not attempt to pedal the bike back up the embankment to the towpath. Disaster was narrowly averted when I leapt off the bike in a panic as I felt the front wheel lift off the ground as the bike tipped backwards on the steep slope. Next time, I will definitely be pushing the bike back uphill.
It's always a busy weekend when Nana and Grandpa visit, and this past Labor Day weekend was no different. After an overnight stop at Shenandoah Crossing and several stops in Virginia on the way--including one at Montpelier--they arrived on Thursday afternoon and immediately sat down to Cat's dinner of jerk chicken and grits. On Friday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and ventured to Mount Vernon for a late lunch at the Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant, stopping along the way at Arlington Cemetery to visit Ted Kennedy's grave. With all the activity that comes along with a visit from the grandparents, Nathan was already exhausted by the time we arrived at the cemetery, so he slept in the stroller the entire time. There was enough of a cool breeze that walking along the cemetery's pathways was comfortable, even in the sun. Finding the smoothest path as possible to keep Nathan asleep, we climbed the hill to the Kennedys' gravesites, enjoying the view of the city from the hilltop. The sun always seems to get brighter as fall sets in, and the light reflecting off the white marble around JFK's grave was almost blinding. The crowds weren't too bad, so we made our way around the three graves and headed on, opting against climbing farther up the hill to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
On the way out of Arlington Cemetery, we stopped by the Women in Military Memorial outside the cemetery. The memorial building made for a nice air conditioned stop away from the increasing heat of the day, and it also has a great view across the Arlington bridge down to the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial was nearly deserted, so Cat and I received the full attention of a museum worker when Cat looked up her grandmother in the memorial's catalog of women in the military. Cat's grandmother, Opal, served in the Navy during World War II and is registered in the memorial's system. Cat was able to print out a certificate of information on her grandmother's military service along with a portrait of the memorial. On the way out of the memorial, we checked out the quilts on display, including one made by service members on the USNS Comfort, which was comprised of quilt squares representing the different medical specialties present on the ship. Another quilt was made by the members of a small town to honor those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. After leaving Arlington Cemetery, we drove the rest of the way south on the George Washington Parkway to Mount Vernon. By the time we arrived, the lunch crowds at the Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant had cleared out, so we were seated immediately. Nathan was well-behaved during lunch and tried a variety of foods, including some mushrooms, some peanut and chestnut soup, some Virginia ham, and plenty of goldfish crackers (not from the menu, of course).
With plenty of time for a power nap on the way home while we sat in rush hour traffic before the holiday weekend, Nathan was once again ready to go by the time we got home. As was the case every day during their visit, Nana and Grandpa were treated to a tour of the neighborhood, thanks to Nathan. Whenever the mood struck him, Nathan would pull a pair of shoes (mismatched or otherwise) out of the hall shoe cabinet and bring them to whichever grandparent he deemed in need of a walking tour. Often, the goal of the walk was to take Spot, Nathan's new wooden toy dog handcrafted by Grandpa, out for a walk. At one point, Spot had taken so many walks that he lost a wheel and had to be repaired after a trip to Home Depot where Grandpa and I obtained sturdier axle materials. When not walking Spot, Nathan was sufficiently satisfied to traverse the stairs in the neighborhood repeatedly or push his Cozy Coupe up and down the sidewalk.
In contrast to Friday, Saturday was a day of rest and recovery. We spent the day around the house, with, of course, more walks around the neighborhood for Nathan, but also a chance for him to catch up on the sleep he missed from the previous day. At one point, he took Nana on such a long walk that the rest of us set out to find the two. We found them in the park at the end of the street, where Nathan had borrowed a basketball from two men on a neighboring court and was doing his best to score a lay up. After seeing Cat and I shoot (and mostly miss) baskets a few weeks ago, Nathan now runs around tirelessly on the basketball court, looking up and throwing the ball over his head as high as he can manage. He has a ways to go, but he could be a baller yet. Since the weather over the entire Labor Day weekend was wonderful, we rounded out the afternoon with a trip to the pool down the street. Though the sun had been deceptively warm for several days, it was clear after making first contact with the water that the cool nights had removed any lingering summer warmth from the pool. However, if the cool water bothered Nathan, he certainly didn't show it. Cat, on the other hand, was in no hurry to hop in, contented to sit by the kiddie pool and read as I watched over Nathan. Nana and Grandpa showed up at the pool after a while, bringing iced coffee drinks from Carmen's.
On Sunday, we decided that a nice outing for the day would be to make a second attempt at finding a restaurant that Cat and I had previously tried to visit. The first attempted meal at Jimmy Cantler's Riverside Inn in Annapolis was back in 2005, when Cat and I tried to find the place for my birthday dinner. Instead of finding the restaurant, which is tucked back in a residential area of Annapolis among the numerous coves and peninsulas of the Severn River, we ended up on a narrow bridge leading back into downtown Annapolis near the Naval Academy. This time, however, we were successful in finding the restaurant. True to the restaurant's review in the Washington Post, the place was already getting busy at around 11:30 in the morning. By the time we left, a crowd had formed outside the restaurant and a line of about ten cars was waiting to get into the parking lot.
Jimmy Cantler's is the classic casual Maryland seafood restaurant that Cat and I had been looking for, with paper-covered tabletops, mallets to open the steamed crabs, and plenty of paper towels to clean up the tremendous mess afterwards. The cheap beer served cold in cans with a plastic cup rounded out the environment. After getting our tray full of steamed crabs and corn on the cob, we listened to a detailed tutorial by the waitress--including guidance on how to deal with the "mustard" and a warning that the gills are not edible--and started to dig in. The crabs were generously doused in Old Bay and were a lot of work to open, but were still delicious. Nathan had a little bit of crab, but spent most of his time with the hush puppies and corn on the cob. At first, he treated the corn cob like a popsicle, sticking the whole end of the corn cob in his mouth, but he quickly got the hang of it, turn the corn cob sideways and making short work of it. The rest of us toiled at opening the stubborn crabs to retrieve our morsels of meat, all while trying to snap pictures of Nathan chomping on the corn cob without covering our cameras with butter and Old Bay. After almost two hours of work, we were left with an empty tray and a bucket full of crab detritus. Nana and Grandpa headed home the next day, so our unique meal at Jimmy Cantler's rounded out the weekend quite nicely.
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